Former congressional candidate Al Gross issued a statement to his supporters on Tuesday morning, with an explanation as to why he has quit the race to replace the late Congressman Don Young: “It’s too hard to run as a nonpartisan.”
“I am a lifelong Alaskan with a passion for this state and its people. I know that polarizing partisanship is not how solutions are achieved. It takes leadership and work. Unfortunately, Alaska and America are stuck right now, and Monica and I have decided it is just too hard to run as a nonpartisan candidate in this race. I still believe that when people with differing opinions listen to each other and work together, problems get solved. Maybe we can reach that place sometime in the future. I hope we do,” Gross wrote.
Gross talked in generalities about what is needed in the U.S. Capitol: fixing inflation, ending partisan gridlock, and engaging in less grandstanding. He outlined points important to him, including bringing government spending under control and expanding Alaska’s role in defense. But wants to expand free health care to all, preserve abortion rights of Roe v. Wade, and legalize pot.
Gross appeared to be campaigning hard and was in third place behind Sarah Palin and Nick Begich right up until the moment he pulled the plug on Monday afternoon, when his campaign first leaked news to a left-leaning blogger that he was pulling out of the race.
By evening, he had posted a short and carefully worded statement of withdrawal from the race for Congress. He gave no explanation.
Gross had earlier agreed to caucus with the Democrats in Congress, but that was not enough for the Alaska Democratic Party, which took to social media to call him a “proven loser,” who could not even win a seat on his local Petersburg hospital board and who had lost to Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2020.
By the time he filed his mid-May campaign finance report with the Federal Elections Commission, he had raised over half a million dollars in funds, much of it from social media, where he said he was taking on the “quitter” Sarah Palin.
Palin issued a statement in response to the news encouraging all of his supporters to take a look at her candidacy”
“Nothing should surprise voters in this unconventional election. In many aspects, new voting systems are confusing at best, and not conducive to growing voter turnout. However, let’s not let that dampen enthusiasm to get government on the right track.
“Al Gross was the top democrat vote-getter. His quitting the race leads to much speculation as to motive, but I’ll leave the speculating to others. My mission is to continue connecting with all Alaskans on the issues most important to our families and businesses, along with strengthening relationships our State needs in order to get nationwide Congressional support for Alaska’s interests.
“I welcome the new addition to the top four, and am excited to continue campaigning on resource development, lower fuel costs, affordable groceries, ensuring individual rights… all to create a brighter future for all Alaskans.
“Now that Al Gross supporters lost their candidate, I hope they will take a look at where I stand on the issues, and how I will never stop fighting for the greatest state in the Union,” she said.
Must Read Alaska has a query on file with the Division of Elections to learn what the process is for deciding if Sweeney can slide into the fourth slot on the special election ballot.
Meanwhile, the group promoting Tara Sweeney for Congress was on Monday afternoon busy asking the Division of Elections to put Sweeney on the fourth spot on the ballot.
The news began with startled text messages around Alaska Monday afternoon. With less than a week to go before candidates can drop their efforts to win election to the highest offices in the land, a massive shakeup throttled the race for the state’s lone seat in the United States Congress.
Al Gross, the son of a former state attorney general and the Democratic Party’s standard bearer for the United States Senate race in 2020, suddenly and suspiciously dropped his bid to succeed the late Congressman Don Young.
Earlier this month Gross had fetched the most votes from Alaskans on the center to left side of the political spectrum during the first ever jungle primary system.
An Al Gross ad that ran four days before he pulled out of the race.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin topped the rankings, followed by first-time candidate Nick Begich, who combined nearly half of all eligible votes. Gross and former state legislator Mary Peltola rounded out what was shaping up to be the four options in August for the special general election.
Gross entered the race with the highest name recognition of any non-conservative candidate. Coupled with the scar tissue of a recent bout at the ballot box, Gross had activated his network throughout all corners of the state, as evidenced by the cropping up of his campaign signs throughout liberal Alaskan bastions.
Those campaign signs are now headed for the crawl space. In a prepared statement Monday afternoon, Gross all but encouraged his supporters to go for either Mary Peltola or Tara Sweeney. Both are prominent Alaska Native women.
Sweeney, the highest ranking Alaska Native to hold office in the federal government, was an undersecretary for the Department of Interior under President Donald Trump. Sweeney finished 5th in the rankings during the special primary election, though at a considerable distance from Peltola. The assumption in Gross’ statement is, by withdrawing from the race, Sweeney will automatically be elevated to the next spot, and therefore eligible for the special election in August.
If it’s true that Gross has allowed Sweeney to ascend to fourth place, Monday’s announcement likely harkens to one of the great political maneuvers in the past decade. Sweeney, a registered Republican, is the proverbial darling of resource development organizations throughout Alaska. Her empassioned advocacy on behalf of the North Slope and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation put her distinctly at odds with the crunchy environmentalism that defined Gross’ campaigns. One of the few things either camp had in common were relationships to opponents of the Pebble Mine project in western Alaska.
Those opponents share something else in common: an affection and devotion to the current senior senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski, an incumbent since 2002 when she was appointed by her father, the outgoing U.S. senator and incoming Gov. Frank Murkowski, has made no secret of her opposition to the large gold and copper deposit. Some of Murkowski’s most vigorous supporters have pointed to Murkowski’s staunch resistance to the project as proof of her independent bona fides. Those same supporters are some of Sweeney’s greatest surrogates.
What was made abundantly clear this week is that, though the news is about the congressional race, the story is how these events are colluding to assist in the race for the United States Senate.
The parallels to the circumstances that kept Murkowski in office and conspiring to install Sweeney are eerie. In 2010, after she lost the Republican Primary to Joe Miller, Murkowski launched a write-in campaign. With support from centrist Republicans, Democrats, and a huge turnout of the Alaska Native vote terrified of a Miller senatorial career, Murkowski won the first write-in for Senate since Strom Thurmond in 1948.
That victory untethered Murkowski from the Republican party, and to a new ad hoc coalition that composed eccentric bedfellows. Byron Mallott, a future lieutenant governor (before resigning under sexual harrassment allegations) was her write-in campaigning co-chair, as was former Republican state legislator Andrew Halcro.
By the time she faced re-election again in 2016, Murkowski had laid the groundwork to crowd out a primary challenge, assisted by the massive war chest her coalition had helped swell. However, Miller returned as a Libertarian to fetch the second highest vote count in the state. That same election saw the upset of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton for President, and the beginning of a collision course with the Alaskan senior Senator.
Despite working on the landmark Tax Reform of 2017 which, among other achievements, opened up ANWR to oil and gas exploration, Murkowski waged an open war on the former President Donald Trump. Those skirmishes included denouncing the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and ultimately voting to impeach President Trump in 2021. These, combined with other bouts, brought the mercurial American President into the Alaskan orbit, and with a targeted vengeance for Murkowski.
Murkowski’s supporters and powerful proxies anticipated a hard fought primary in 2022, her next scheduled election. In 2020, a ballot initiative narrowly passed the Alaskan public into law.
Characterized as a reform to make elections more accessible for independents, the initiative, written by lawyers openly allied with Murkowski, have the effect of gutting the traditional party primary, and coupling it with the ranked choice general election. During the 2020 debates, the initiative, opposed by both Republican and Democratic party officials, was seen as an obvious ploy by Murkowski to protect her from a repeat of her defeat in 2010.
This year, Murkowski faces Kelly Tshibaka. A Harvard Law School graduate and former Inspector General and state commissioner, Tshibaka represents Murkowski’s most formidable opponent to date. Tshibaka also has the seal of approval from President Trump, and much of the Republican Party faithful. Despite that, Murkowski is looking to the benefits of the new election law to assist her, relying on the coalition of centrists, soft liberals, Alaska Native allies, and trade association Republicans to carry her.
A massive distortion that could affect this would be the turnout in any other race, drawing in voters who would likely also be skeptical of retaining the sitting senator. Enter Sarah Palin.
The former governor and vice presidential candidate and no fan of Murkowski herself, Palin stormed into the top of the polls after entering the race on the very last eligible day. It was Palin’s support from the sidelines in 2010 that heavily tilted against Murkowski. Over a decade later, it is clear that a Congressional race with huge enthusiasm from the populist right has the chance to swamp into the Senate race, and give Tshibaka the edge she needs.
The only way this dynamic would change is if traditional Murkowski voters had a candidate they could support financially and at the ballot box.
Unfortunately, that candidate was Sweeney, who despite record levels of fundraising, came up short in the primary. Barring a massive change, Sweeney appeared to be blocked from August, and with that likely the general elections as well.
Sweeney’s parallels with Murkowski run deep. The political consultants who have orbited the D.C. circles of the Senator are around the Sweeney Camp. It goes even deeper, with Sweeney and her husband at various points either working for Murkowski or being supported by the Senator for federal posts. Sweeney is the Murkowski camp’s candidate, and it was crucial for her to have another shot at populating the Congressional ballot.
It will likely never be known what is the true story behind Gross’ sudden departure. Perhaps his public statement can be taken at face value, and the Bear Doctor who was an idol of the Lincoln Project sincerely wants to clear the path for two prominent Alaska Native Women. But the facts on the ground point to different circumstances. Something was suddenly — over the weekend — very persuasive to Gross and in politics that usually means an opposition research file.
What happens next seems clear: The Senate race will have a proxy war open up in the Congressional race, as camp Sweeney and camp Murkowski can now overtly join forces for a D.C. centric ticket that appeals to centrist voters. With less than 6,000 votes that went her way in the primary, however, Sweeney has her work cut out for her.
The Republican territory in the conservative bastions have already been split between the Palin and Begich camps. And Peltola, the farther-left Alaska Native candidate, performed the best with the least amount of financial backing. The resources that will now be brought to bear to raise Sweeney up will be on another level.
All the events Monday affirmed the concerns of opponents of the new electoral system brought by Ballot Measure 2, thanks to “Alaskans for Better Elections.”
By having more candidates and variables through the jungle primary and ranked choice general, the options for political operatives to engage in legalized gamesmanship — or worse — has never been higher. Voters know less today about who is asking to represent them in Congress than at any time in the state’s history.
It is hard to say that Alaska now has better elections.Â
Ballot Measure 2 was supposed to make elections less dirty. It does not seem to have done that. Al Gross is pulling out of the race for Congress due to personal reasons, and he is throwing his support to two Native women candidates.
Gross, the third top-vote getter in the special primary election, will drop his name from the regular primary election ballot and throw his support to Mary Peltola, a Democrat, and Tara Sweeney, the Republican who was formerly in fifth place. It’s the hope of the Sweeney campaign that she will be able to move into fourth place.
Others appearing on the Aug. 16 ballot are Sarah Palin and Nick Begich.
Gross had received 12.65% of the vote by Friday’s count by the Division of Elections. Here’s where the leaders were as of Friday:
Palin: 41,302, 27.59%
Begich: 28,859, 19.27%
Gross: 18,936, 12.65%
Peltola: 14,133, 9.44%
Sweeney: 8,671, 5.79%
With Gross leaving the race, that makes three Republicans and one Democrat on the Aug. 16 special general election ballot, which will be decided by ranked choice voting.
The reasons for Gross’ sudden departure are unclear. Word is that former staffers from his 2020 campaign against Sen. Dan Sullivan have turned on him and are providing material that could be used for blackmail. Politicos say that political operative, lawyer, and author of Ballot Measure 2 Scott Kendall, who is part of the team supporting Sweeney, is behind the entire operation. Kendall has threatened a lawsuit over this crossed-through statement unless it is retracted and an apology is issued. In the interest of the solvency of Must Read Alaska, an apology is issued and the statement is retracted.
Gross had returned from a trip to Asia after the death of Congressman Don Young, and quickly joined a crowded field of 47 other candidates who hoped to replace Young.
He filed as an nonpartisan candidate and pledged to caucus with the Democrats. But his fall from grace may be a combination of the dislike of him by the the Alaska Democratic Party, and an opposition research file on his personal life by some other campaign group.
Gross, who is a surgeon by day, ran for Senate against Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2020. He had been savaged by the Alaska Democratic Party after losing to Sullivan; the party endorsed Chris Constant and Mary Peltola.
Gross had just been endorsed by IBEW 1547 on Friday, and had started raising money through an aggressive social media-based campaign to beat Sarah Palin over the weekend. He was also at a brewery over the weekend, taking pictures and posting them on social media. It appears that his campaign melted down quickly after that.
Whether Sweeney can actually be slipped into the top four is unclear. Ballot Measure 2 says that the fifth candidate can only be put in the final four if the withdrawal of one of the four happens within 64 days; it may be that Kendall thinks he found the loophole in the law that he wrote and that voters approved in 2020.
The Department of Law will be reviewing the matter on Tuesday, MRAK has learned.
The Division of Elections will be conducting the final count of ballots in the special primary election on Tuesday, June 21, and plans to certify the election on June 25. What is now uncertain is what may happen if there are lawsuits over the ability of Sweeney to join the final four that will appear on the Aug. 16 ballot.
Anchorage Assemblyman Chris Constant was not an invited speaker at the 2022 Juneteenth event at the Delaney Park Strip on Saturday. But that didn’t stop him: He grabbed the microphone and, to a crowd of celebrants marking the end of slavery in America, went through a checklist of things that “white men” who are “privileged” can to do make up for the inequities of America.
The organizers, according to numerous sources, were uncomfortable with what were characterized to Must Read Alaska as inappropriate remarks for the occasion, remarks that appeared to be directed at Mayor Dave Bronson.
Indeed, Constant spoke after Bronson had welcomed the crowd of hundreds who were enjoying food booths, music, and family time in recognition of the anniversary of General Order No. 3 by Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas, the last enslaved people in the continental United States. (Slavery persisted among the Tlingit Indians in Alaska until the early 1900s.) It was generally a joyful occasion marred only by the one speaker — Constant — who had to focus on racism, rather than emancipation.
It’s not the first time Constant has made a group uncomfortable. In 2020, an Anchorage rabbi testified that a planned drug rehab/homeless center at the Golden Lion Hotel was not compatible with the nearby Jewish Center preschool program. Assembly member Constant then brought up Nazi Germany and asked the rabbi to comment on whether the homeless were like the Jews under the Nazis, who should be rounded up and put behind a fence. Members of the Jewish community expressed dismay at his pointed remarks toward the rabbi, and in a subsequent week, Constant apologized.
The international swimming federation announced a new rule that says transgender women who have gone through male puberty may not compete in elite women’s swimming competitions.
FINA’s rule was finalized Sunday. It is in response to the increasing number of men competing as women in swimming competitions, a trend that has led legislatures around the country and even local school districts such as the Mat-Su Borough School District in Alaska to establish rules, guidelines, and laws protecting female athletes from physically advantaged males who have gone through chemical or surgical transformations to present themselves and compete as females.
FINA began reworking its rules in response to the International Olympic Committee, which issued a new “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” in November, encouraging all international federations to develop eligibility criteria for the women’s competition category “that reflect the specificities of their particular sports but that include to the maximum extent possible athletes who, without regard to their sex or sex-linked traits, identify as women.”
The vote by FINA effectively bans transgenders from competing in women’s categories unless they began medical treatments to suppress production of testosterone before puberty, or by age 12, whichever happens later. The rules are at this link.
The FINA delegates heard from two Olympic swimming champions, Summer Sanders and Kate Campbell, who advocated for fairness for women. Their testimony can be seen at this link.
“Historically, Aquatics sport has been separated into men’s and women’s competition categories. The separation reflects the sport’s commitment to: (1) ensuring equal opportunity for both male and female athletes to participate and succeed in the sport, including through the equal representation in its programs and competitions of athletes of both biological sexes; (2) ensuring competitive fairness and physical safety within its competition categories; and (3) developing the sport and promoting its popular appeal and commercial value. Because of the performance gap that emerges at puberty between biological males as a group and biological females as a group, separate sex competition is necessary for the attainment of these objectives. Without eligibility standards based on biological sex or sex-linked traits, we are very unlikely to see biological females in finals, on podiums, or in championship positions; and in sports and events involving collisions and projectiles, biological female athletes would be at greater risk of injury,” FINA explained in its new rule.
Transitioning before puberty creates serious health and ethical challenges. Side effects from medications include infertility, and a higher risk for heart disease or diabetes later in life. Blood clots are a risk for those who start estrogen. Individuals who attempt to switch gender identities are saddled with a lifetime of medications, often paid for by taxpayers, to maintain the physical characteristics they are seeking.
Some children begin puberty as young as eight years old. For all children, an ethical question is raised about whether a child is qualified to determine a new gender identity for themselves, an identity that has lifetime implications.
“The Science Group [of FINA] reported that biological sex is a key determinant of athletic performance, with males outperforming females in sports (including Aquatics sports) that are primarily determined by neuromuscular, cardiovascular, and respiratory function, and anthropometrics including body and limb size. The extent of the male/female performance gap varies by sport and competition, but the gap universally emerges starting from the onset of puberty. The group reported that there are sex-linked biological differences in Aquatics, especially among elite athletes, that are largely the result of the substantially higher levels of testosterone to which males are exposed from puberty onwards. Prior to puberty, testosterone levels are similar in females and males. During puberty, however, testes-derived testosterone concentrations increase 20-fold in males, while testosterone concentrations remain low in females so that post-pubescent males have circulating testosterone concentrations at least 15 times higher than post-pubescent females (15-20 nmol/L in adult males versus c.1 nmol/L in typical females of any age). High testosterone levels generate not only anatomical divergence in the reproductive system but also measurably different body types/compositions between sexes,” the new rule explains.
University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who tied with transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas for fifth place in an April NCAA 200-freestyle championship, applauded the decision to restrict Thomas and other transgender swimmers.
At the NCAA championships, Gaines (pictured above with transgender swimmer Thomas) was told by the NCAA that the fifth place trophy would be given to Thomas, and hers would be mailed to her later, even though there was a tie.
Earlier this year, Thomas, who had competed as a male at the collegiate level just two years before, took the top trophy at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in the 500-yard. According to USA Swimming’s rule, no transgender athlete can compete in a women’s category prior to showing that his concentration of testosterone in serum has been less than 5 nmol/L continuously for 36 months prior to the competition. There is no rule that protects females from males who transition after male puberty has conferred physical advantages on them.
In the Alaska Legislature SB 140 by Sen. Shelley Hughes would have protected girls’ athletics; introduced last year, it failed to make progress through the Senate and was ultimately tabled, as liberal senators outmaneuvered Hughes on her attempts to protect female athletics from being overtaken by transgenders in Alaska.
In school districts in Alaska, the policies vary by community. While the Mat-Su School District has put biological sideboards on some sports, the Anchorage School District allows boys to compete in girls’ divisions if they choose. A young boy is now signed up to compete in a track and field competition in one of the Anchorage middle schools, and transgenders have competed against girls in other communities in Alaska.
In 2020, a 29-year-old transgender Alaskan, born male but with the help of drugs living as a woman, was the first transgender athlete to compete in the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Atlanta.
Megan Youngren qualified for the women’s marathon trials by placing 40th in Sacramento at the California International Marathon, and then competed in the Olympic marathon trial in 2021. Younger had started taking female hormones just two years earlier, and brought with him all the lung capacity, musculature, bone density, and lean mass of a fully mature male who was suppressing testosterone in order to compete with women.
The Alaska primary election is 57 days away, not a lot of time for unknown candidates to get their names known for voters who will face a dizzying array of candidates.
Case in point: At the Democrats’ Bartlett Club in Anchorage, they’ll host “Bob Walker” as their special guest on June 23, only the photo is of former Gov. Bill Walker, still working on that name ID with the Democrats, who are endorsing Les Gara for governor but still give former Gov. Walker, who they endorsed in 2014, a forum.
For the June 11 special primary election (Alaska’s only congressional seat), the vote counting continues Tuesday for the final tally, which will not change the ultimate final four appearing on the special general election ballot on Aug. 16: Sarah Palin, Nick Begich, Al Gross, Mary Peltola.
Endorsements: Nick Begich has received the endorsement of yet another legislator: Sen. Rob Myers of North Pole. That makes over 60 Alaska elected officials endorsing him.
Kelly Tshibaka and friends at Midnight Sun Festival in Fairbanks.
Spotted in Fairbanks: Kelly Tshibaka for Senate was at the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Festival. The Republican candidate is on the trail for the U.S. Senate seat against Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Earl Lackey of Alaska Raceway Park and Nick Begich for Congress.
Spotted in Palmer-Butte: Nick Begich at the Alaska Raceway, above, shaking hands, admiring cars, and even getting to wave the flag to start the race. He is running for Congress in the final four for the Aug. 16 special primary election.
Democrat for Lt. Gov. Jessica Cook, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski at the Juneteenth celebration in Anchorage. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Democrat state senate candidate Janice Park at the Juneteenth celebration in Anchorage.
Spotted on the Anchorage Delaney Park Strip: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, posing for pics with Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate Jessica Cook and Democrat state Senate candidate Janice Park, running for state Senate Seat F against Republican James Kaufman.
The event was the Juneteenth celebration, also attended by Mayor Dave Bronson, who welcomed the crowd and opened the festival, which marks the end of slavery in America.
Les Gara and a group of young people at Juneteenth.
Also spotted at Juneteenth in Anchorage was Les Gara for governor. Former Gov. Bill Walker was in Fairbanks over the weekend.
Fundraisers: Sen. Click Bishop had a fundraiser on Thursday with a diverse collection of bipartisan support, including former labor boss Vince Beltrami, and former Senate Rules Chairman John Coghill.
The negatives: Al Gross for Congress is raising money nationally by bashing Sarah Palin on Twitter. He is in the right neighborhood, looking for the anti-Palin money coming through the Twitterverse, which is truly hostile to Palin. Gross is in third place, behind Nick Begich and pack-leader Palin for the congressional special general election on Aug. 16.
Not spotted: Sarah Palin has kept a very low profile, with no social media posts since June 14 for Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, except for the national news service she is using for her constantly updated Facebook feed filled with stories from the national scene.
Media coverage: A New York federal court of appeals on June 16 rejected Sarah Palin’s petition for seeking a new defamation trial against The New York Times. Story at this link.
With more than 3,366 ballots received by the Anchorage Municipal Clerk as of Friday, the election for the 12th member of the Anchorage Assembly will end Tuesday, June 21. About 36,000 ballot envelopes were mailed to voters living in North Anchorage on May 31.
The turnout at the latest count was 9.35%.
Anchorage voters approved creating the 12th seat for Anchorage during last year’s municipal election. However, before it could be populated with an Assembly member, the Assembly undertook redistricting, redrawing the political boundaries for Anchorage, so the Assembly Leftist majority could diminish the power of the growing Eagle River conservative vote.
The new downtown seat will create more power for the already powerful Leftist majority, adding strength to the ability to override a mayor’s veto.
The election underway is only for those living in Assembly District 1, which is currently represented by Assemblyman Chris Constant. The new seat will give Constant more power, too, and creates an even number of members for the Assembly, which could be a problem in the future if there is a tie vote. Right now, the problem is theoretical, since the Assembly is heavily dominated by Leftists who typically vote in lock step with each other.
The candidates running for the 12th seat include Robin Phillips, Stephanie Taylor, Daniel Volland, Tasha Hotch, Rob Forbes, and Cliff Baker.
The Democrats on the Assembly have been pushing Volland for this seat. Wherever a Les Gara for governor sign or a Zack Fields for House sign is posted, you’ll find a Volland sign alongside it. In fact, Volland has the endorsement of a number of hardline Democrats, including Reps. Andy Josphson, Zack Fields, Harriet Drummond, and Sens. Tom Begich and Elvi Gray-Jackson.
Hardline left politicos line up for Volland for Assembly.
But Tasha Hotch, who has run for school board in the past, has been making a push for her candidacy, with a promise of cleared roads within 24 hours. She is endorsed by Anchorage Democrats, who have also endorsed Volland.
Tasha Hotch promises to clear the snow, if she has to do it herself.
As for actually clearing roads, candidate Stephanie Taylor was spotted pushing a broken-down truck out of the road in the district, while sporting a pack of campaign cards in her back pocket. Stephanie is fresh from a winter campaign against Forrest Dunbar, who serves East Anchorage. Redistricting gave Taylor the opportunity to run again in her new district. After pushing the truck, she continued door-to-door, and then went to cast her own ballot at a secure drop box in the district.
Stephanie Taylor pushes a truck out of the road in the North Anchorage district.
Candidate Rob Forbes is a business developer who trends Libertarian who says he won’t vote in a bloc with anyone, but will represent his district. He lives in the South Addition neighborhood.
Candidate Cliff Baker is a land surveyor and wilderness first responder.
Candidate Phillips is employed by the Ted Stevens Foundation and has been active in politics her whole life. Her late mother Gail Phillips was House Speaker.
Because Monday is a federal holiday, U.S. Postal Service is closed for business. Voters may vote at City Hall or drop their ballot envelope at a secure dropbox by 8 pm on June 21.
There will be a celebration of the life of Lee Jean Ruble is planned for June 25 at the Main Event Grill, 1041 East 76th Avenue in Anchorage, behind Mr. Prime Beef. Hot rods will be welcomed, weather permitting.
Ruble was born June. 28, 1950 and died Nov. 14, 2021. His obituary ran in January:
On Nov. 14, 2021, we lost a loving husband a dear friend, co-worker and successful entrepreneur. Lee was born in Carmel, Calif., and attended local schools prior to moving to Fairbanks, Alaska, with his family in 1959. He attended school in Fairbanks before moving back to California with his family. In his younger years he worked as a mechanic starting out at Weser Volkswagen in Monterey, Calif. He later became a crane operator working starting in Southern California before working on some of the largest cranes worldwide. Lee later returned to Fairbanks, where he worked a gold mine running a dragline and a D8 Caterpillar.
After his days of mining Lee moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and started his own crane company. He later sold the crane company and started a piledriving business, working throughout Alaska before retiring to spend more time on his sailboat and building his hot rods.
Lee’s absolute total passion was the love and devotion to his wife Peggy. They spent many days apart because of work, so when they were together it was a fire to behold.
Lee was a devoted hot rod builder and always present in the hot rod community helping others with their projects. He especially enjoyed showing his ’57 Corvette retro mod at the local car shows.
Lee was an avid pilot with both helicopter and fixed wing aircraft, and he especially enjoyed flying his T-28.
Lee was an avid motorcycle enthusiast, having owned an Indian motorcycle as well as a BMW that he used to take on long trips with his wife.
Lee was the captain of their 53′ sailboat. Both Lee and Peggy thoroughly enjoyed their boat, sailing throughout Central and North America the Caribbean and the waters of both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
There was never a challenge or an adventure that Lee was not willing to take on and complete.
Lee passed knowing he was/is loved. He will be sorely missed by his family and many friends, especially his hot rod buddies.
Lee is survived by Peggy, his wife of 33 years; sister, Donna; his brother; and mother. Lee was preceded in death by brother, Roy; and father, Don.
Ballot Measure 2, which created ranked choice voting in Alaska, was sold to voters as a way to keep something called “dark money” out of Alaska politics.
Instead, it was Outside dark money that convinced voters to approve a voting scheme unlike anywhere in the world.
Alaskans are now stuck with a dystopian election system that no one seems to be able to clearly explain — not even the small group of Democrat-leaning activists who tricked voters into passing it, a group that which has anointed itself as the official “explainer,” helping bewildered voters understand jungle primaries and ranked choice voting general elections.
Alaskans for Better Elections, as the group is called, is the activist organization that created the system Alaskans voted for, 50.55% in favor and 49.45% against, in 2020. It’s now the group explaining the system to those same voters, many of whom are mystified about what they have done in passing this initiative.
ABE is doing the explaining through outreach to “influencers,” through civic organizations such as Rotary, and “opinion leaders,” but mainly through left-leaning entities.
It has had little success reaching conservative voters, and its faint attempts have not been enthusiastically received by the hard Right. After all, given a choice to rank Gov. Mike Dunleavy against Bill Walker and Les Gara, many conservatives will just fill in the name by Dunleavy and then walk away from the dilemma choice between Walker and Gara. This is called bullet voting, or single-shot voting, which is when, in an election where a voters are entitled to vote for more than one candidate, instead only votes for one.
A voter might do this either because it is easier than evaluating all the candidates, or as a form of tactical voting. This tactic can be used to maximize the chance that the voter’s favourite candidate will be elected, while increasing the risk that other favored candidates will lose. A group of voters using this tactic consistently has a better chance for one favorite candidate to be elected, according to an explanation in Wikipedia.
Outside money totaling $7 million was spent to persuade Alaskans to give Ranked Choice Voting a go. Alaskans were told that the scheme gives people “more choice.” The ballot initiative was 25 pages long, but what voters saw on the ballot itself was a thin summary.
Alaskans for Better Elections, which birthed Ballot Measure 2, is led by former Rep. Jason Grenn, who himself admits that people should not cast a vote for anyone they don’t wish to see in office.
Yet in other messaging, the group says that if voters don’t rank second and third place choices, their ballots may lose their power if their first-choice candidate does not advance.
Some analysts say that those in favor of Chris Kurka for governor are bullet-voters, who will only vote for Kurka and then walk away, finding the other choices too distasteful.
The Alaskans for Better Elections group has published a train-the-trainer guide for civic leaders and other influencers that all but admits in the lower right corner there will be questions the trained individuals cannot answer:
Alaskans for Better Elections, after winning Ballot Measure 2, became the standing 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission it is to keep the system from being axed by legislators, something which the Legislature is entitled to do two years after an initiative passes. It’s funded by Outside money.
The organization is steered by hardcore leftists.
On the steering committee for Alaskans for Better Elections:
Barbara ‘Wáahlaal Gidáak Blake – Nonpartisan, hardline leftist Alaska Native who is on the Juneau Assembly; a former Bill Walker staffer.
Sheldon Fisher – Republican, former Gov. Bill Walker’s commissioner of Revenue and commissioner of Administration.
Penny Gage – Undeclared party, National Congress of American Indians.
Jan Hardy – Nonpartisan, self-described labor activist in Anchorage, signer of Recall Dunleavy petition.
Katherine Jernstrom – Undeclared party, co-founder of The Boardroom, where nonprofits are housed, and where leftist campaign office of Ship Creek Group is located.
Karl Kassel – Undeclared party, former mayor of Fairbanks North Star Borough, and tightly knit with Walker World, signer of the Recall Dunleavy petition.
Ben Kellie – CEO & founder of The Launch Company, and signer of the Recall Dunleavy petition.
Cordelia Kellie – Special assistant for rural affairs for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Albert Kookesh – Democrat, former Democrat state senator, Native elder.
Lesil McGuire – former Republican state senator and representative.
Mike Navarre – Democrat, former mayor of Kenai.
La Quen Náay Liz Medicine Crow – Sealaska employee, First Alaskans Institute, political activist.
Pamela Parker – Democrat, Soldotna Chamber of Commerce, signer of the Recall Dunleavy petition.
Pat Race – Democrat activist, blogger, Juneau podcaster, signer of Recall Dunleavy and active with the Recall Dunleavy group.
Greg Razo – Democrat activist and signer of the Recall Dunleavy petition.
Derek Reed – Democrat, former president of Anchorage Democrats, and signer of the Recall Dunleavy petition.
Kimberly Waller – Democrat, Director, Diversity and Inclusion at The Foraker Group, mainly funded by the Rasmuson Foundation.
Fully 15 of the 17 members of the steering committee are demonstrably left-leaning, with only two registered Republicans on the entire committee, one of whom was a high-ranking official in the Democrat-endorsed Gov. Bill Walker administration.
Forty-one percent of the Alaskans for Better Elections steering committee signed the petition to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
What works “better” for the Alaskans for Better Elections steering committee is to ensure Democrat voters are educated on how to vote, and to ensure Republican voters are confused and discouraged from voting altogether.
What will work best for Republicans is to vote with gusto on Aug. 16 and in November, and elect members to the Legislature who will take care of the Democrat-favoring Ballot Measure 2.
