On the one-year anniversary of the chaotic and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban is in control of the struggling nation and critics are blasting President Biden’s handling of the withdrawal in a new report.
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are touting findings of the report, which alleges that about 800 American citizens were left behind, a number the Biden administration disputes, along with thousands of Afghans who had helped the U.S. and were therefore in danger.
Also, 13 U.S. service members were killed in the withdrawal, and about $7 billion in equipment was left behind.
“There was a complete lack and a failure to plan,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-TX, the ranking Republican on the committee, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “There was no plan, and there was no plan executed.”
Afghanistan is facing a food crisis as well crackdown from the Taliban, which has limited education for girls.
The White House prepared a memo to circulate defending the withdrawal and attacking the Republican report, according to Axios. The memo says the GOP report is “riddled with inaccurate characterizations, cherry-picked information, and false claims.”
“When President Biden took office, he was faced with a choice: ramp up the war and put even more American troops at risk, or finally end the United States’ longest war after two decades of American presidents sending U.S. troops to fight and die in Afghanistan and $2 trillion spent,” the memo said. “The president refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago – and we fundamentally disagree with those who advocated for miring the United States’ fighting men and women in an indefinite war with no exit strategy.”
The memo also argues that former President Donald Trump had significantly weakened the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
“Our top intelligence professionals assessed – and recent history had shown – that we’d ultimately need to send more American troops into harm’s way just to keep the stalemate in a 20-year war from degrading,” the memo said. “The president rejected the impossible notion that a so-called low-grade effort could have maintained a stalemate. There’s nothing low-grade, low-risk, or low-cost about any war – and there were no signs that even more time, funds, or even more importantly Americans at risk in Afghanistan, would have yielded different results.”
On his Twitter account, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote, “One year ago, Kabul fell to the Taliban on @JoeBiden’s watch. He knew the Taliban could swiftly take #Afghanistan & the risks of stranding Americans in a botched withdrawal. Biden failed to prepare & lied to us & the world. 13 U.S. troops were lost. We won’t forget them.”
Scott introduced a resolution last year to create a bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Afghanistan, but the resolution has not passed.
“The American people demand accountability,” Scott added.
The call for further investigation and “accountability” were echoed in both the Senate and the House. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., referenced the report Monday, pointing to the “hundreds of Americans abandoned” and “billions of dollars in military equipment lost” as well as the “13 American service members tragically murdered.”
“It’s been exactly one year since Biden’s failed Afghanistan withdrawal,” Rep. McCarthy said. “Republicans demand answers – and we will get them.”
Attorneys general from Alaska and 22 other states filed an amicus brief in a federal appeals court urging judges to uphold a ruling from earlier this year that struck down the mask mandate for interstate travel.
The CDC now recommends passengers in such places as airports and airplanes wear masks, but the mandate is no longer in effect. Still, the Biden Administration has asked the circuit court to intervene.
Four months ago, Florida U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle sided with the Health Freedom Defense Fund and two Florida residents. They claimed the restriction the Biden Administration announced Jan. 29, 2021, as part of its COVID-19 guidelines exceeded federal authority.
Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the states’ attorneys general say in their newest 37-page filing that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pursued “expansive” measures in its handling of the pandemic. Officials from the states also remind the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that federal judges set several other CDC guidelines aside.
The states “share an interest in protecting their sovereign authority to enact quarantine measures of their choosing to combat the spread of disease in the manner best adapted to their distinctive local conditions – authority historically reserved to the states, as CDC’s own regulations reflect even today,” the brief states.
“It’s astonishing that Biden continues to fight to force mask passengers,” Moody said. “We are once again pushing back, in court, against his unlawful federal overreach.”
The states also claim the mask mandate is unlawful because it goes beyond the CDC’s ability to enforce sanitation measures. They also claim the federal government failed to review what steps states were taking or determine if those measures were sufficient.
With Florida in the lead, other attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia signed on to the brief.
The national and international media has been busy writing about Alaska politics, and mostly about Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor and would-be congresswoman. The New Yorker Magazine has a story coming out on Monday that runs 13,000 words, much of them about Palin’s celebrity run. Clearly Palin still sells newspapers, and reporters have been sent from around the globe to cover her race against Nick Begich III, the Republican Party candidate, and Mary Peltola, the Democrat.
Here are some of the stories from the past few days:
The Guardian: a British newspaper, was in Alaska reporting on the congressional race.
“Alaska election tests weight of Sarah Palin’s celebrity – and Trump’s sway,” the reporter writes at this link.
“More than a decade ago, she ascended to international fame as a vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 election, with her self-described ‘rightwinging, bitter-clinging’ persona. Since then, she has starred in several reality TV specials and in The Masked Singer, dressed as a fuzzy pink bear,” the writer said.
“But on Tuesday she is seeking elected office again, running for an open congressional seat with dozens of candidates. Voters across the 49th state will have to rank her against the tech millionaire Nick Begich III, a Republican, and the former state legislator Mary Peltola, a Democrat. The world’s best-known Alaskan politician faces an uncertain political future.
“’Palin gets people excited … She’s charismatic,’ said Zelda Marie Gober, 67. ‘Do I want her in my politics? Not really.’
“The election will not only test the weight of Palin’s celebrity, but also that of Donald Trump – in a remote state that fiercely values independent thought.”
The Telegraph, another British news outlet that sent in a parachute journalist, wrote:
“The 58-year-old has revived her famed slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill”, along with her populist appeal, as she champions energy independence with a late bid to represent her native Alaska in Congress.
“But in her hometown of Wasilla, where locals still simply refer to her as “Sarah”, many have soured on Ms Palin’s political ambitions.
“De Koranda, 62, said she was an early backer of Ms Palin, but, like many Alaskans, felt betrayed when she unexpectedly quit as the state’s governor 16 months early.”
“Coming soon after she and John McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008, the move saw her popularity nosedive amid speculation she was ditching Alaska for commercial gain.
“’That was the point of no return,’ said Ms Koranda, who described the ‘polarising’ effect Ms Palin still has in Wasilla.
Koranda said, “People here either love her or they wouldn’t touch her with a 10ft pole.”
NPR reports on what Trump’s endorsement means for Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin this week.
“But under Alaska’s system, Palin must face a second round of voting that includes the top four finishers from the first round. One of the top four in the June vote has dropped out, but Palin is still battling two second-round rivals on Tuesday, including another Republican. He is Nick Begich III, the grandson of the last person to hold this seat before Young. His grandfather was a Democrat who was lost in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness in 1972; his uncle Mark, also a Democrat, was a one-term U.S. senator.
“The third candidate this Tuesday is Mary Peltola, a former state legislator who is a daughter of a Yup’ik Eskimo. A Democrat who has emerged as a factor in her own right, she could even win a plurality of first-place votes on Tuesday. But that would not be the end of the story, because a first-place plurality is not enough.” The story is at this link.
USA Today writes: “In Alaska primary, Murkowski and Palin show the deepening fissures in the Republican Party. The two candidates for two different offices – Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former Gov. Sarah Palin – represent a growing divide in the GOP.” The story is at this link.
NewsMax writes: “Just 48 hours before Alaskans hold a special election, no Republican who spoke to Newsmax was willing to predict whether Sarah Palin would emerge triumphant in the race for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat — the first contest to be held under the state’s new “ranked choice voting” law.
“It’s anybody’s call,” a former GOP statewide official told us on Saturday.
The writer goes on to say Palin won the primary with 30% of the vote. It was actually 27%, still an impressive finish in a field of 48 candidates that included Santa Claus and some sitting legislators.
For all the people who were fired, laid off, forced to work at home or part time, or who were punished or bullied for wearing or not wearing a mask, or not getting a Covid vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some new guidelines for you.
According to the CDC:
Those exposed to Covid-19 no longer need to quarantine.
Unvaccinated people may follow the same guidance as vaccinated people
Students can stay in class even after being exposed to Covid-19
There is no need to screen people who do not have Covid-19 symptoms.
Since 2020, the United States went from a nationwide lockdown, when commercial air traffic came to nearly a halt, to everyone being required to wear masks indoors, to forced vaccinations on huge segments of the population to this: Don’t pick on people who don’t wear masks and don’t want to get an experimental shot, and quit forcing people to take Covid tests.
The complete set of K-12 school guidelines, issued just five days before students return to school in Alaska, can be seen here.
The CDC says “Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the Covid-19 Community Level.”
While not defining what the terms are for “flexible non-punitive policies and practices” the CDC is also unclear as to whether it’s really saying “don’t pick on people who wear masks” or “don’t pick on people who don’t wear masks.”
The CDC says, “Wearing a well-fitting mask or respirator consistently and correctly reduces the risk of spreading the virus that causes Covid-19.” It still recommends forced indoor masking “at a high Covid-19 Community Level” and “in healthcare settings, including school nurses’ offices, regardless of the current Covid-19 Community Level.”
And the CDC left the door open for local districts to enact forced masking at school during some activities, “to protect students with immunocompromising conditions or other conditions that increase their risk for getting very sick with Covid-19 in accordance with applicable federal, state, or local laws and policies.”
The information seems contradictory at best: Don’t bully people who wear masks, and force masks on students if your community is going through a Covid surge.
The CDC said, in announcing its new guidelines, that “COVID-19 continues to circulate globally, however, with so many tools available to us for reducing COVID-19 severity, there is significantly less risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic.
“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools—like vaccination, boosters, and treatments—to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” said Greta Massetti, PhD, MPH, MMWR author. “We also have a better understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus, like wearing high-quality masks, testing, and improved ventilation. This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”
The CDC insists that vaccination is an important way to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. “Protection provided by the current vaccine against symptomatic infection and transmission is less than that against severe disease and diminishes over time, especially against the currently circulating variants. For this reason, it is important to stay up to date, especially as new vaccines become available,” the agency says.
The CDC recommends that instead of quarantining if you are exposed to Covid, you should wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on Day 5.
The agency recommends you isolate for five days if you have Covid, or if you are sick and suspect you have Covid. But if your results are negative, there is no need to isolate.
Regardless of when you end isolation, avoid being around people who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 until at least day 11.
You should wear a high-quality mask through day 10.
The CDC says that if you have moderate illness (if you experience shortness of breath or had difficulty breathing) or severe illness you need to isolate through day 10.
Those who get severely ill or have a weakened immune system should consult a doctor before ending isolation.
One consequence of the new ranked choice voting system in Alaska is that voters will probably not know for at least 15 days who will be the winner of the congressional race. That’s because, by law, the absentee ballots and overseas ballots have 15 days to get back to the Division of Elections.
And it’s because ranked choice voting seizes up the system until those mailed-in ballots are in.
In a normal election, it would usually be obvious who is ahead and whether the votes yet to be counted would be enough to change the outcome. As the overseas votes trickle in, they add to the totals and the ratios between candidates become evermore clear.
But with the misnomered “instant runoff” of the ranked choice voting system, there’s a built in delay because of the second and third round of counting. There’s nothing instant about it.
After the first round of counting is done on Election Night, Aug. 16, Alaskans will probably not be able to know who is eliminated in the first round of counting among the three candidates: Mary Peltola-D, Nick Begich-R, or Sarah Palin-R. They’ll only have a sense of the outcome if the result on Election Night is overwhelmingly for one of the candidates, and if one of the candidates lags far, far behind. That is unlikely in the three-way election for the temporary seat in Congress, where Peltola, Begich, and Palin could all get a fairly equal number of votes.
After all the votes are in two weeks later, the candidate who comes in third will see his or her votes eliminated and, if voters have chosen someone in second place for that candidate, those second place votes will then move up. That process won’t happen for 15 days, when all the first place votes are all counted.
Ranked choice voting is, ultimately, a way of allowing people who vote for a losing candidate to have another chance at voting. Critics say this allows some voters to vote more than once, while voters who pick the winning candidate only get to vote once.
That has 14th Amendment problems of unequal protection for voters, but Alaskans have to cope with the lopsided voting system they approved with Ballot Measure 2 in 2020.
On Tuesday night, some of the 23,884 absentee ballots that were mailed to voters will still be in the wild, not yet received by Division of Elections. Absentee ballots, historically, have leaned Republican in Alaska.
The first-choice results will be reported Tuesday night. That will be the totals of ballots the Division will have, but election workers will need to go through all the absentee ballots one by one to make sure people did not vote twice — one with an absentee, and one in person. The process is tedious and even if completed quickly, the second round of counting cannot take place until the Division can determine which candidate gets eliminated first.
The ranked-choice results will be released between Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, and election certification is scheduled for Sept. 2. If there are court challenges or a candidate asks for a recount — and that has happened many times in Alaska — that could delay the swearing in of the temporary congressional representative. Alaska has never used the ranked choice system, and a recount of this type of system must be done by the same machines that counted it the first time. There is no practical way to recount ranked choice results by hand.
The front of the ballot is easier. It’s a pick-one primary for governor, U.S. senator, and 59 state House and Senate seats. Those results should be known fairly quickly on Election Night or on Wednesday, for some rural areas.
Occasionally in Alaska, races are close and the final results are delayed until more absentee ballots arrive. In 2006, the tie vote between Bryce Edgemon and Carl Moses had to be broken with a coin toss, which is how Edgmon came to serve in the House of Representatives.
Closing in on Election Day: As much as 23% of the vote has already been cast for Alaska’s primary, which ends Aug. 16. Here’s the analysis that gets us to that conclusion:
In Alaska’s 2020 primary for U.S. House, 130,317 total votes were cast. It was a presidential election year, which means the turnout was higher than in 2018, when 110,636 voters cast ballots in the U.S. House primary.
So far this year there have been about 23,000 early and absentee votes received by the Division of Elections (including online voting, fax, etc). That’s less than 4% of the registered voters in Alaska who have voted so far. (The Division of Elections says there are 598,083 Alaskans registered to vote. )
But if only 110,000 vote this year, as they did in 2018 (non-presidential year) then the 23,000 who have voted represent perhaps 21% of the expected total vote.
A reminder about where Alaska primary votes go: Two years ago during the Alaska primary, the Republican candidates received 47,482 votes combined. The Democrat candidates received 30,107 votes.
Kenai Classic: Lots of political leaders will be heading to the Kenai River after the primary/special general election on Tuesday. The Kenai Classic takes place Aug. 17, 18, and 19. The Classic is an educational, invitational fishing event that raises funds and educates policymakers and business leaders about Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s habitat-restoration and access projects, fisheries education, research and management. The event has raised $18 million during the past 25 years for fisheries conservation. If you want to find the big-name politicians, many of them will attend the banquet at least (it is sold out). For Alaska’s political class, it’s a must-attend event.
Zoom-bombing apology: A handful of the 19 congressional candidates took part in a get-out-the-Native-vote Zoom meeting when someone photo-bombed Sarah Palin with a line drawing that depicted a penis and vagina. It took up nearly the entire screen. Someone could be heard yelling obscenities at her during the video-conference. She was not amused.
The Native Peoples Action Community Fund issued a statement following the incident:
“The U.S. House Candidate Forum was a virtual event co-hosted by Native Peoples Action Community Fund (NPACF) and Get Out the Native Vote on August 11, 2022. … NPACF has a zero tolerance policy for unwanted, disrespectful and racist behavior and we apologize for any harm caused in the space we hosted. We do not condone any of the words or behaviors exhibited by the zoom bombers. We are modifying our internal protocols and procedures for hosting with hopes that this will never happen again. We are issuing apologies to all the candidates and we are issuing this apology to the public. We sincerely thank each candidate who participated for their role in upholding a respectful environment, for their insightful contributions to the forum, and for engaging with our organization and the voters of Alaska.”
2000 Mules: Rep. Ron Gillham of Kenai is taking it easy on the campaign trail, so much so that he even has time for a movie. Anyone who wants to see “2000 Mules” can stop in at the Kenai New Life Church starting at 5 pm on Aug. 15, where there will be a free showing of the election movie by Dinesh D’Souza, a film that shows evidence of coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That’s at 209 Princess Street, Kenai.
Nick Begich in Kenai.
Keeping up with Nick Begich: The busy congressional candidate from Eagle River voted and then had a meet-and-greet on Thursday in Wasilla with 50 people, flew to Ketchikan on Friday to meet with 60 people and do media interviews, and on Sunday will meet with voters in Kodiak at the Kodiak Island Brewery, 2-4:30 pm. He’s also meeting with the Filipino-American Association, with the mayor, and some more media.
On Monday, Jim and Faye Palin are throwing a huge party for Nick Begich out in Wasilla, with a co-host list of over 100. They are the former in-laws of Sarah Palin, clearly not impressed with her.
Mary Peltola is in Juneau: Peltola, running for Congress, voted on Friday in Anchorage. Then she went to Juneau for a fundraiser that had over 100 co-hosts. It was held at the home of Ken Alper and Jill Ramiel. On Saturday, she’ll still be in Juneau for a meet-and-greet at the Pioneer Pavilion at Savikko Park, Sandy Beach. She has a lot of voters in Juneau.
Tara Sweeney write-in: Sweeney, on the last day allowed, filed as a formal write-in candidate for the special general election for Congress. She said she gave it a lot of thought, but her main focus is going to be on making the final four for the general election in November.
Sarah Palin leaving the regional voting office in Wasilla.
Sarah Palin sighting: Palin voted on Thursday in the Valley. An anecdotal sampling of voters is showing that Palin voters are voting for her and not ranking anyone else on the three-person special general election ballot. As Palin marked her ballot on the video she posted, she, too, only voted for herself and did not rank either Nick Begich or Mary Peltola. There was no “rank the red” on her ballot.
Mailbag of Hate:
Lisa Murkowski talks Project Veritas: Murkowski had a grand opening for her campaign headquarters in Juneau, during which she talked about the Project Veritas undercover investigation of her campaign, when her staff members admitted they’d been part of tricking Alaskans into voting for Ballot Measure 2. Murkowski blamed the sting on a 50-year-old volunteer who had worn a camera while volunteering in Murkowski’s Anchorage campaign office.
“She sits with the volunteers for three weeks,” Murkowski told the Juneau Empire. “She’s just being the perfect volunteer. All the while she has a camera in her clothing and she’s talking to all these people trying to find some connection, some conspiracy.”
Kelly Tshibaka gathering.
Out and about with Kelly Tshibaka: Just under 10,000 attendees were on the tele-rally Thursday with former President Donald Trump and Tshibaka, who is running for Senate against Murkowski. Tshibaka spoke to a group, Alaskans for Medical Freedom and Liberty, was at a gathering in Wasilla, and another in Eagle River at the Lions Club.
Shoshana Gungurstein visited Fairbanks.
Shoshana Gungurstein road trip: The Senate candidate from Juneau who just moved to Alaska has traveled from Anchorage to Fairbanks and met with small groups, waved signs, and shot videos for social media in the Golden Heart City.
Bill Walker and Heidi Drygas lit drop: The gubernatorial campaign will be trolling for votes in the neighborhoods around Anchorage with “lit drop” activities, which means taking brochures to the doorways of homes in East Anchorage, starting at 10 am Saturday.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy: He was in Kotzebue earlier this week, then in Anchorage to toast Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and sign some bills. A fundraiser for Mike Dunleavy and Nancy Dahlstrom is planned for Aug. 19 in Kenai, at the end of the Kenai Classic.
Spotted in Seldovia: Rep. Sarah Vance, touring the Jakolof Bay dock, which needs to be replaced as a matter of public safety.
Endorsements: Ken McCarty won the prize endorsement of John Sturgeon as he runs for Senate for Eagle River. McCarty also received an A+ from the National Rifle Association. Tara Sweeney got the endorsement of Rex Rock Sr. and Crawford Patkotak for her congressional bid. Dan Fagan, radio show host and columnist at Must Read Alaska, said Friday, “If Trump is your guy, then Palin should be your gal.”
A Florida judge has unsealed the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence in Palm Beach. Along with the warrant is a list of documents removed from the Trump home when it was raided by the FBI on Monday. About 40 armed agents with military-style weapons took over the Mar-A-Lago residence for 9.5 hours in search of classified documents that the Department of Justice believes Trump took with him when he left office.
The agents listed four top secret documents, three secret documents, three confidential documents, “miscellaneous secret documents,” and a handwritten note, among items removed from the property. The FBI also took documents that referred to the pardon of Roger Stone, who was pardoned by Trump, and other files related to France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Other boxes had numbers assigned to them, but with no information about the contents.
On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he personally approved the raid. All week, the media and its allies have insisted that people not call it a raid.
Can the Alaska Legislature appropriate funds it doesn’t have for future fiscal years? No.
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the legislature cannot dedicate future revenues for future budgetary cycles and make those budget decisions for future lawmakers. The Alaska Legislature can, as it has in the past, set aside funds from the current budgetary cycle to be spent in future years for Alaska’s school districts.
In Dunleavy v. Alaska Legislative Council, the Alaska Supreme Court reversed a Superior Court decision and agreed with the Attorney General that the practice of appropriating future-year revenues—referred to as “forward funding”—is unconstitutional.
The case centers on a bill the legislature passed in 2018 that sought to appropriate funds for education from revenues over the next two consecutive fiscal years, fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2020. The bill sought to authorize, more than a year in advance, the spending of future revenues to pay for education in 2020.
In 2019, Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally ruled that the Legislature could fund education for years into the future, if it chose, even if the revenues were not yet in the state treasury.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy had argued that the forward funding is not constitutional. The Department of Law said that it violated the state constitution’s prohibition against dedicated funds. The constitutional also specifies an annual state budget.
Schally, a far-left judge, said at the time that Dunleavy had violated his constitutional obligation to “faithfully execute the laws” of Alaska.
Schally was wrong, said the Supreme Court.
“The Alaska Supreme Court is upholding the Alaska Constitution with this opinion,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. “The ruling says the legislature is always okay to spend money they have in this year or future years. What’s not okay is to spend money they don’t yet have, because that takes away the funding prerogative from future legislatures.”
In an opinion by Alaska Supreme Court Justice Peter J. Maassen, the court wrote that the drafters of the Alaska Constitution “envisioned an annual budget that comprehensively addresses the State’s current needs and the resources currently available to meet those needs.” The court concluded that forward funding “undercuts an important aspect of the constitutional design: protecting the State’s flexibility in the future to respond to then-present needs with then-present resources.”
It explained that “allowing this form of forward funding for education a year in advance would open the door for forward funding in other contexts and more years in advance, weakening the annual budgeting process intended by the Constitution’s framers.”
The Court acknowledged the importance of providing school districts with advanced notice of their annual budget, but the Court emphasized that “there are avenues that do not raise constitutional concerns.
For example, as was the practice from 2010 to 2014, the legislature may appropriate public education funds from the upcoming fiscal year to cover expenditures in the subsequent fiscal year. Unlike the forward funding practice at issue here, this would ensure that education funds were set aside well in advance of distribution —giving school districts time to plan their budgets —without appropriating funds from future budgetary cycles.”
Project Veritas Action has published a third undercover video inside Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign offices that shows a staff member admitting that the “dark money” messaging was a cover that was used to promote Ballot Measure 2, when in actuality the primary purpose of the ballot measure was to help Murkowski in 2022.
Josiah Nash, the Murkowski campaign interior coordinator, was recorded saying it would be “bad” for “Lisa if the other campaigns start highlighting it [dark money messaging].”
Nash said, “We messaged for ‘dirty money’ and we knew that that was something that specifically resonated with Alaska. And we could say, yeah, this goes in with voting reform and so, if people accepted that enough then the vote can pass.”
Nash said that voters just don’t pay attention to such details.
“Most people, you know, aren’t into politics as probably as much as we are, and so they don’t look for this stuff. Where it would be an issue is if the MAGA people and Kelly Tshibaka started [highlighting this] as a major part of their campaign.”
Emma Ashlock, campaign coordinator, was caught also featured in these new recordings discussing a Political Action Committee “which is kind of an outside funding source” that supports Senator Murkowski.
Ballot Measure 2 was passed by voters in 2020. It created some transparency for campaign funding, but not for funding of ballot initiatives such as Ballot Measure 2. It also redesigned the voting structure in Alaska, removing the ability of Republicans to have their own primary ballot. Instead, all candidates are on one “jungle primary” ballot. In the general election, the list of candidates is whittled to four, and voters rank them in what’s known as “ranked choice voting.” Such a system of jungle primary and ranked choice general has not been tried in any other state and is being tried for the first time in the special election to fill the empty congressional seat. On Tuesday, Aug. 16, voters will rank three finalists: Nick Begich, Sarah Palin, and Mary Peltola.
