Easter traditions around the world often feature eggs as symbols of resurrection and renewal. Our backyard chickens are perfectly aligned with Holy Week, as the lengthening of daylight boosts egg production just in time for Easter celebrations. Fresh eggs are a delicious addition to our holiday meals and also serve as reminders of new beginnings.
Deviled eggs will undoubtedly be on many menus this weekend.
This simple dish has graced dining tables for centuries. Food historians trace its name back to 18th-century England. Despite the name’s mischievous implication, the term actually refers to its flavor profile. Deviled foods were traditionally seasoned with bold ingredients like mustard and peppers to elevate humble dishes like eggs and organ meats.
One delicious way to liven up your deviled eggs is to add wild-caught seafood from your freezer. Shrimp, crab, and smoked salmon are excellent complements and a fantastic way to use your catch. This addition adds a regional flair, elevating the dish and making it a standout at any occasion.
The recipe below does not use mayonnaise or mustard, but it preserves the traditional savoriness of deviled eggs with cayenne and black pepper. This mixture also includes lemon juice, olive oil, and dill, which add a burst of spring freshness to your palate, perfectly complementing the toppings. The suggested garnishes serve as a starting point for inspiration; however, if you prefer not to use seafood, you can simply add bacon and a gherkin or any other topping of your choice.
Alaskan-Caught Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
12 eggs, hard boiled
1 teaspoon dried dill
½ teaspoon of sea salt
½ teaspoon of black pepper
¼ teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
½ cup sour cream
Garnishment: Suggested Options
Smoked salmon, capers
Shrimp (broiled, sauteed, or grilled), red peppers very finely diced, chives finely sliced
Crab, dill, and red peppers very finely diced
Crispy Bacon, gherkin sliced partway through to make a fan
Servings: 24 appetizers
Preparation:
Gather your garnishment materials and prepare them as needed for topping, such as peeling and cooking shrimp, removing cooked crab flesh from shells, slicing smoked salmon into bite-sized pieces, or preparing bacon. Next, cut or slice any fresh peppers, herbs, or gherkins for garnish. Set aside and chill if necessary while you make the deviled eggs.
Note: Because the garnish calls for a small, bite-sized quantity of protein on each piece, you’ll only need about 4 ounces for all 24 appetizers. If using shrimp, you will require 24 pieces. If you use bacon, 6 to 7 slices will be enough for 24 finished deviled eggs.
Next, prepare the deviled eggs by slicing the hard-boiled eggs in half and separating the egg yolks into a medium-sized bowl. Set the whites aside to be filled later.
Mix the egg yolks together using a fork to break them apart. Add the seasonings: dill, sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Then, add the olive oil and lemon juice and incorporate together with the other ingredients. Last but not least, stir in the sour cream until it becomes smooth.
Place the mixture in the egg whites that were set aside. Finally, add the finishing touches. Garnish the deviled eggs with smoked salmon, crab, shrimp, bacon, or another topping of your choice.
Enjoy!
Brenda Josephson is a Haines resident. She holds degrees in Culinary Arts and Food Business Leadership from the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York. She enjoys spending time fishing, foraging, and savoring Alaska’s abundance of natural and wild foods with her family.
This article is the first installment of a two-part series.
Picture this: Alaska’s state budget is a moose-sized piñata, stuffed to the antlers with $12.2 billion in 2025, up from a leaner $6.3 billion back in 2005, a 93 percent leap that makes inflation look like it’s trudging through knee-deep snow. Yet, here come the politicians, puffing out their chests like sled dogs at the Iditarod, insisting the only way to keep this party going is to slap you with taxes or swipe a chunk of your Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD).
Spoiler alert: that’s a snow job bigger than a Fairbanks blizzard. The real scoop? Alaska’s budget is a circus of supersized spending that is plump with some waste, duplication, and a lot of inefficiencies. Trim that fat, and we could fund your PFD and throw in a complimentary moose nugget souvenir.
The Budget Boom: A Comedy of Errors, Minus the Punchline
Let’s start with the numbers because nothing says “fun” like a deep dive into fiscal quicksand.
In 2005, Alaska had a workforce of approximately 16,740 people. Fast forward to 2025, the workforce has shrunk 13 percent to 14,564, per the Office of Management and Budget, yet total spending has nearly doubled. Inflation clocked in at a measly 63 percent in comparison, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, what’s driving this runaway dogsled? It’s not population (still hovering around 730,000) or economic boom times.
The answer is that we are not swimming in gold. It’s spending gone wilder than a bear in a berry patch.
Take the approximate cost per state employee (pay, retirement, and benefits combined): estimated at $62,700 in 2005, now a 78 percent spike to an estimated $111,600 in 2025, according to OpenTheBooks and the Alaska Department of Administration workforce profile. That’s like trading your snowmachine for a private jet and still complaining about the gas bill.
Why the hike? Health insurance costs are up, but so are salaries and pensions, even as productivity lags. Administrative overhead eats up 15 percent or more of budgets across agencies. Think of it as paying for a deluxe igloo when a tent would do.
A huge budget cost-driver is excessive vacant employee positions across state government to the tune of 17 percent, which has gone on for over 20 years. Private sector vacancy rates range between 3 percent and 10 percent, depending on the industry. Below 5 percent suggests full staffing and is an ideal vacancy rate. Above 10 percent could signal an unhealthy system or workplace. The vacancy factor is a good read on an organization’s overall health and can be essential to long-range planning accounting for attrition and growth. At an approximate average of 17 percent for state agencies, it makes one wonder what the issue is. Some explain that such a high vacancy rate is due to low wages and poor benefits and the government jobs just are not attractive enough.
House Bill 180 was supposed to be a watchdog for stale, vacant positions, filed during the Alaska Legislature in 2021-2022 by former Rep. Ben Carpenter. The bill aimed at amending Alaska Statute Sec. 39.25.156 and suggested a process to eliminate vacant positions. HB 180 proposed that on “June 30 of each year, the Director of Personnel would eliminate a vacant position in the classified or partially exempt service that had been unfilled for the immediately preceding 364-day period.”
Here is the fine print: HB 180 would have ensured that only unused positions were targeted, protecting those in active recruitment less than 364 days old. Like many good ideas in the Juneau, once it is put into the meat grinder of committee hearings, it failed to pass. Since then, the vacancy factor has remained sky-high, and there is no statutory accountability mechanism directing departments to return those unfilled positions. Do they now get a pass on their excessive vacant positions if they are advertised? What about if they are temporarily occupied for even one day? Is this done to keep the money in their budgets to be applied elsewhere?
Alaska needs a statute that explicitly details what to do if money is approved for a vacant position that is not filled in a certain amount of time. The funds should have limited flexibility to be used by a department to pay overtime and should be returned to the general fund after 364 days to be reappropriated only by the legislature, as Carpenter proposed. I am not suggesting that departments present inaccurate or deceptive budgets, but a more efficient way to ensure accountability for every public dollar spent would be to restrict the executive branch from discretionary funding flexibility with mechanisms like this. When there is a cost overrun due to an unforeseen situation, department managers can use the established supplementary budget process, return to the legislature, request from the appropriating body, and ask for more funds. We shouldn’t be able to do both because it drives this insatiable appetite for more money and renews the calls for needing more of your PFD or proposed taxes.
Education: Funded like Oil Barrons, Results Resemble Moose Droppings
Then there’s education, where spending crept from $12,926 per pupil in 2005 to an estimated $21,676 in 2024, a 67 percent jump, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances with estimated inflationary adjustments and known BSA increases. Sounds reasonable, right? Except fourth-grade reading proficiency slid from 29 percent to 27 percent, per the National Center for Education Statistics, and public schools now burn through all this cash with no expectation of improved outcomes. Compare that to Alaska’s homeschool programs, thriving on $5,364 per kid, with parents reporting better outcomes. Many public school districts skim up to 50 percent of those homeschool funds for their “admin costs.” It’s like hiring a chef who eats half your groceries before cooking.
Why do we permit this to happen? If equal competition were allowed in our learning system, teachers could provide more personalized educational opportunities in K-12.
Imagine if that $21,676 followed a student. An elementary teacher, for example, could build a customized classroom for 18 children with a budget of $390,000. Teachers could lease space in our many vacant and under-capacity schools for a reasonable cost ($25,000), pay themselves an executive salary ($150,000), hire a well-qualified teacher’s aide ($75,000), Insurance ($50,000), and still have nearly $90,000 for supplies, field trips, extracurricular activities, et cetera. And no union dues or administrative overhead. Just academic accountability directly to parents. Perform, or they leave and find a new teacher. You don’t have to dismantle the public system to do this. That is a choice for parents to make. Parents can choose if they want their money to be used in the available public system or the higher-performing academic system of their choosing. If the public system is underperforming, the parents can leave. This is an excellent incentive to focus on results and learning outcomes, not just checking the box and arguing for weeks on end every year about adjusting one part of the student funding formula, the BSA.
What about public safety? How does this affect Medicaid? Then there’s the million-dollar question: why do lawmakers want more of your PFD?
We’ll dive into that in the next and final installment.
Terrence Shanigan is a lifelong Alaskan of Sugpiaq descent from Bristol Bay. He is also the co-founder of Mission Critical, is a combat veteran, an honored husband and a dedicated father.
The Trump administration is taking more steps to reverse onerous Biden-era public lands rules that limited oil and gas development across millions of federally managed acres in the West and Alaska.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is updating its planning framework with a new offshore planning area, called the High Arctic, off the north coast of Alaska, bringing the total number of Outer Continental Shelf planning areas to 27.
On Friday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the launch of a public engagement process to develop the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, the beginning of a multi-year effort to shape the future of offshore energy development in the United States.
Boundaries for several existing planning areas are being revised to align with BOEM’s updated jurisdiction. Details on these updates will be outlined in an upcoming Federal Register notice and will be available on BOEM’s website.
The OCS is a major contributor to US energy production. As of April 1, BOEM manages 2,227 active oil and gas leases, covering approximately 12.1 million acres.
Of these, 469 leases are currently producing oil and gas. In fiscal year 2024, OCS leases generated approximately $7 billion in revenue for the federal government and state partners, supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs and accounting for 14% of US oil production and 2% of natural gas output.
BOEM’s most recent resource assessment estimates that the Outer Continental Shelf holds a mean of 68.79 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 229.03 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas.
Once finalized, the 11th National OCS Program will replace the current 2024–2029 leasing program, which includes three planned lease sales in the Gulf of America. BOEM is continuing to prepare for those sales while beginning work on the new program.
The action follows President Donald Trump’s issuance of Executive Order 14154, titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which outlines a federal policy to maximize energy production from domestic resources, including federal lands and waters.
In addition to the new “High Arctic” area being established, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget posted notices this week indicating that two rules finalized last year by the Bureau of Land Management, are under formal review and are targeted for potential “rescission.”
One of the rules under scrutiny was finalized in June 2024 and applied to the roughly 245 million acres of land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. It mandated that conservation and landscape health as “co-equal” to other uses, such as drilling and mining, shifting federal land management priorities. Trump intends to reverse that public lands rule.
The second Biden rule pertains to Alaska. It limited oil and gas development within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the 23-million-acre region on Alaska’s North Slope that was originally set aside for oil and gas for national security.
The Interior Department said the move to rescind both rules is part of a broader push to expand domestic energy production in alignment with Trump’s Executive Order 14153, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” signed on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, which aims to boost the state’s natural resource industry by reversing Biden-era lockdowns and restrictions that limited oil and gas extraction, among other activities. His order included:
Reinstating Oil and Gas Leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Rescinding Biden Administration cancellation of leases in ANWR’s 1002 Area Coastal Plain and directing the Secretary of the Interior to initiate additional leasing and issue permits for exploration and development.
Removing Restrictions in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A): Reversing Biden limits on drilling in the NPR-A and reinstating a Trump 1-era management plan that opened approximately 80% of the 23-million-acre reserve to leasing.
Prioritizing the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project: Supporting expediting permitting for the Alaska LNG Project, including pipeline and export infrastructure, to enhance energy production and export capabilities.
Revoking Offshore Drilling Bans: Overturning Biden’s moratorium on new offshore oil and gas drilling in areas like the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean, aiming to open these regions for exploration.
Streamlining Permitting: Directing federal agencies to rescind or revise regulations inconsistent with resource development, expediting project approvals.
Voters in Palmer will head to the polls next month for a special election to decide whether to recall Mayor Steve Carrington, following accusations of official misconduct related to his handling of a contract termination for former City Manager Stephen Jellie.
Early voting in the recall election starts May 5 and continues through May 19 at the City of Palmer Council Chambers, 231 W. Evergreen Ave, Palmer. Hours for early voting are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.
The recall effort centers on Mayor Carrington’s decision to engage outside legal counsel to draft a modification — or “overlay” — to Jellie’s contract without prior authorization from the Palmer City Council. Critics, including City Attorney Sarah Heath, argue this action violated Palmer Code Section 3.4, which states the mayor is empowered to execute official documents only with council authorization.
According to the ballot statement supporting the recall, Carrington’s unauthorized action resulted in the city entering into an amended agreement that allegedly harmed Palmer’s interests. The modified contract included a $75,000 severance package, a non-disclosure agreement, and legal immunity for Jellie against any known or unknown potential liabilities tied to his tenure.
“This abuse of executive power by Mayor Steve Carrington constitutes unlawful behavior by a public officer in relation to the duties of his office, willful in character,” the recall ballot statement reads.
In response, Carrington issued his own statement that appears on the ballot, which defends his actions and criticizes the conduct of the city attorney and certain council members. He says that on Oct. 8, 2024, City Attorney Heath planned to publicly read an accusatory email against Jellie at a council meeting. Carrington says he advised against this course, suggesting instead a closed session to address the matter.
Heath proceeded with the public disclosure, according to Carrington, resulting in a “highly emotional” meeting with over two dozen audience members — many of them city employees — calling for Jellie’s termination. Carrington alleges that Heath encouraged these individuals to claim whistleblower protection, despite legal ambiguity about their eligibility for such status.
Amid the fallout, council members Carolina Graver and Victoria Hudson called for an emergency session on Oct. 9 to discuss Jellie’s contract. Carrington says that, in response to the unfolding legal uncertainties and without confidence in the city attorney’s guidance, he contacted an outside attorney to draft a termination agreement. The resulting $75,000 severance, Carrington notes, was consistent with the terms of Jellie’s previously approved contract, and the final agreement was used with unanimous council approval.
Palmer residents will get to weigh both sides as they cast their votes in the recall election. If the recall is successful, Carrington will be removed from office immediately, and the City Council will determine his successor. If the recall fails, he will remain in his position.
It disputes many of the “truths” that the federal government pushed during the Covid pandemic, which started in 2020.
At the top of the page, a quote starts the pointed discussion:
“‘The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2’ publication — which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak theory — was prompted by Dr. [Anthony] Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally.”
A lab-related incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of Covid-19, the page says, adding: “Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability.”
This aligns with recent CIA, FBI, and Department of Energy assessments, though these agencies have qualified their statements with “low confidence” label due to limited direct evidence.
The new White House Covid page references the proximity of the Wuhan lab to the Huanan Seafood Market, where early cases were detected, and reports of lab researchers falling ill with Covid-like symptoms in late 2019. It also mentions US-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, which may have increased the virus’s transmissibility or pathogenicity.
The website attributes responsibility to the Chinese government for lack of transparency and potential cover-up efforts, including destroyed samples and restricted access to data.The White House calls for accountability and measures to prevent future lab-related outbreaks.
The new page acknowledges that no definitive evidence confirms the lab-leak hypothesis and that a natural zoonotic spillover remains plausible as well.
The White House page says that EcoHealth, under the leadership of Dr. Peter Daszak, used US taxpayer dollars to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research. After the Select Subcommittee released evidence of EcoHealth violating the terms of its National Institutes of Health grant, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) started suspending all funding to EcoHealth.
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into EcoHealth’s pandemic-era activities.
The White House calls out the National Institutes of Health for funding and overseeing potentially dangerous research and says NIH fostered an environment that promoted evading federal record keeping laws — as seen through the actions of Dr. David Morens and “FOIA Lady” Marge Moore.
The page also shows a copy of the pardon given by former President Joe Biden to Dr. Fauci.
Further, the page says that the six-foot distancing rule was made up out of thin air, and the masking mandates had no basis in science.
“Prolonged lockdowns caused immeasurable harm to not only the American economy, but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative effect on younger citizens. Rather than prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable populations, federal and state government policies forced millions of Americans to forgo crucial elements of a healthy and financially sound life,” the White House page says.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is once again positioning herself as the leader of the Trump opposition, aligning with Senate Democrats in urging President Donald Trump to reverse course on a March 27 executive order that strips collective bargaining rights from thousands of federal workers.
The Trump Administration has also stopped collecting federal workers’ union dues through what was a voluntary payroll deduction at agencies, a move to align the government with the Janus decision that gives workers choices. His executive order cited the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act in exempting agencies from federal labor law for reasons of national security. The order also applies to agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission, both of which have limited but real national security roles.
In a joint letter signed by Murkowski, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the group called on the president to reconsider his executive order, which is titled “Exclusions from Federal Labor Management Relations Programs.” The order ends collective bargaining rights at several federal agencies, a move the senators say undermines both workforce stability and government efficiency.
“The presence of collective bargaining rights has created a more stable and productive workforce and has allowed the federal government to better meet the needs of our constituents,” the senators wrote. “Further, sudden changes to labor-management relations are disruptive to the work of the federal workforce and will result in the loss of valuable federal workers with knowledge and skills critical to completing their respective agency’s missions.”
The letter writers said collective bargaining has historically played a role in improving recruitment, retention, and productivity across federal agencies. The senators argue that the executive order contradicts the president’s own stated goal of streamlining federal operations.
“We share your goal of streamlining federal operations and enhancing government efficiency, but believe that the March 27th EO impedes, rather than advances, efforts to make the federal government more efficient,” the senators said. “Therefore, we respectfully request that you reconsider your executive order and restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights.”
Murkowski’s decision to side with Democrats and moderate Republicans like Collins on this issue continues a pattern that has drawn ire from conservative allies of former President Trump. Her anti-Trump approach to legislation has frequently put her at odds with the party’s positions. But the Alaska Republican Party cannot “delist” her as a Republican, since only she has that right.
The Trump Administration has defended the order as a necessary step to increase agility and accountability.
Earlier this week, she blasted Trump over his immigration policy.
Must Read Alaska newsletter readers participating in a reader survey said they want business owner Bernadette Wilson to run for governor of Alaska.
Must Read Alaska ran three polls over three weeks. In the first survey, several leading names were posed as possible candidates for governor, including four Republicans and Mary Peltola as the Democrat. That survey showed Bernadette Wilson with an overwhelming lead over others, such as Commissioner Adam Crum, Attorney General Treg Taylor, and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
The second survey posed for different Republicans and Mary Peltola as the Democrat. In this survey, Shelley Hughes, senator for Palmer and some of the Mat-Su Valley, smoked the competition, which included Peter Micciche, Natasha Von Imhof, and Edna DeVries.
For the third survey, we took the top four Republicans from the first two weeks and kept Peltola as the Democrat. In this one, it tightened between the leaders, with Wilson edging out Hughes by a couple of points.
The emergence of two conservative women may show that super-voting conservatives in Alaska want a governor who represents their values. With Wilson as the top vote-getter, we may be seeing an electorate is hungry for business leaders like Congressman Nick Begich and President Donald Trump.
Hughes and Wilson are friends, and neither has announced their intention to run for governor, although they have both been considering it. So have the other names offered in the two preliminary polls.
Not included in either poll were names like Click Bishop or Forrest Dunbar, both of whom have been mentioned as possible candidates. It’s unclear whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski will try for it, as her father did before her.
The poll is not scientific. The newsletter goes out to 33,000 Alaskans, and in the final poll, more than 800 of them took the survey. The readers of the newsletter are typically conservative and are super-voters and political activists. There are a reliable number of Democrat operatives who also read the newsletter, as they graze for political intelligence.
Must Read Alaska publishes a newsletter three times a week and runs the “Question of the Week” every Monday and Wednesday, with results published every Friday. Subscribe at this link.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy wanted a smidgen of accountability in the state’s education spending. He didn’t get it from the House and Senate Democrats, who did the bidding of education industry unions and stripped all accountability from the education spending bill, House Bill 69.
On Thursday Dunleavy vetoed HB 69, as he had repeatedly warned the Legislature that he would do. The Democrat-led House and Senate have scheduled a joint meeting for Tuesday at 1 pm or 2 pm to try to override the veto.
There were two reasons for the veto, Dunleavy told reporters at a Thursday press availability. One is that the revenue situation has deteriorated a lot since he first offered his proposed budget back in December. The price of oil is significantly lower, under $70 a barrel. Alaska Department of Revenue’s Fall 2024 forecast, released in December, projected an annual average Alaska North Slope crude oil price of $73.86 per barrel for the fiscal year 2025.
“And the second reason for the veto is that there is no policy in the bill,” Dunleavy said.
“For years, I’ve been clear: I support increased education funding, but it must be tied to meaningful reforms that improve student outcomes and give families more choice,” Dunleavy said. “This bill spends money at a level the state doesn’t have and offers no plan to improve how that money helps our students. I agree with leadership of the Senate Finance Committee who voted against this bill on the floor: We can increase funding for our schools, but HB69’s funding increase is not realistic at this time.”
Dunleavy said he will now introduce a new education bill that includes a $560 Base Student Allocation increase, additional targeted funding and policy reforms.
The total cost of his proposed new legislation is comparable to a $700 BSA increase, he said. The bill will include:
Charter School Reforms: Year-round application windows, faster appeal timelines, streamlined renewals, and protections against unjustified closures—all to make it easier to open and maintain high-quality charter schools.
Reading Incentive Grants: $21.9 million in performance-based funding to reward reading proficiency and growth for students in grades K–6.
Correspondence Program Fix: A $13.6 million adjustment to ensure equitable funding for public correspondence students, while preserving flexibility and parental control.
School Choice Protections: Transparency and accountability in open enrollment, ensuring families have access to the public school that best meets their child’s needs.
There is more than a month remaining in the regular legislative session, Dunleavy pointed out, plenty of time for the Legislature to work with him to get the policies in place that he is prioritizing. Most legislators will be gone from Juneau on Thursday afternoon, as they head home for the Easter weekend.
Sen. Scott Kawasaki of Fairbanks wrote on X that a “veto override is warranted.” But it’s unclear if there are the 40 votes available to get it done.
Watch Dunleavy’s press conference and see how he answers the reporters’ questions at this link.
With the Alaska Democratic Party in a malaise, former Rep. Mary Peltola is being promoted as the headliner at a special event the party is planning for Juneau on April 24.
It’s called the “White King Dinner,” which likely does not refer to the prized salmon, (not a specialty of the Crystal Saloon, which is the venue), and does mean “white privilege,” but more likely refers to the coveted chess piece on a chess board.
The dinner is all about manipulating the political chess board in 2026.
The Democrats are bringing in some national pollsters to help them reset their party, whose many legislative and other leaders will be in Juneau that week, and to come up with a strategy to take back seats and keep existing ones. They’ve just got to get all the chess pieces in the right place on the board.
“The event will also feature Celinda Lake from Lake Research Partners and Sathvik Kaliyur from New Way Forward. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Alaska Democratic Party,” the invitation says, calling the White King Dinner “an evening of dinner, drinks, and conversation about how we’re going to win in 2026.”
The Democrats are out of money nationwide. In Alaska, donations have ground to a halt, if you set aside the contributions from the Democratic National Committee, according to filings at the Federal Election Commission. The Alaska Democratic Party only received $22,116.75 in individual contributions during the first two months of the year, a small amount for a party that has in the past had a big checkbook and a lot of donors.
Considering that the Alaska Democratic Party had fewer than 20 unique donors in the first two months is showing that the rage machine isn’t translating to party support
At the national level, vulnerable House Republicans raised an average of $994,000 with average cash on hand of $1.2 million. On the Democratic side, vulnerable House Democrats raised an average of just $506,000 with average cash on hand of $642,000, according to James Downs of the National Journal.
Congressman Nick Begich, who has been put on the target list by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, raised the most money in the first quarter of a non-election year than any previous congressional representative for Alaska. The enthusiasm is growing for the policies of the Republicans, as people shrink away from the bizarre talking points of Democrats, who appear to have El Salvadoran criminal MS-13 gang members as their most loyal constituency in 2025.
That the Democrat Party is flying the loser of the 2024 congressional race to Juneau to headline the event shows that the Democrats still consider her the top person to reinvigorate the base, which has a heartbeat in Juneau. The Democrats simply don’t have any big draws other than Peltola. Sen. Forrest Dunbar, known to have higher ambitions, is not that well liked by the party.
The pollsters who the party is bringing into Juneau are also looking to find potential clients for 2026.
Pollster Celinda Lake’s biggest clients are national Democratic campaigns, progressive organizations, and issue-groups like women’s concerns, economic inequality, and climate justice. She was a lead pollster for the Biden campaign in 2020 and works with the Democratic National Committee and other national entities. She was the pollster for former Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat who won in 2010 against former Sen. Ted Stevens, but lost in 2014 against Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Lake Research Partners served as a pollster for Peltola’s successful 2022 congressional campaign. Lake was part of Peltola’s top-tier campaign team, which included Anchorage’s Ship Creek Group.
Kaliyur of New Way Forward was also a paid consultant to Peltola’s successful 2022 congressional campaign. New Way Forward also works for hardcore leftists like Squad member former Rep. Cori Bush, who was defeated in 2024, as was NWF client Peltola.
At this fundraising dinner event, to be held at the Crystal Saloon, the Democrats will be discussing US Senate, House, and the Alaska governor’s race.
Here’s what the invitation says:
Juneau White King Dinner
“Join Rep. Mary Peltola and the Alaska Democratic Party for dinner! We’ll have a conversation about how we’re going to win 2026 with Rep. Mary Peltola, ADP Chair Eric Croft, and Sathvik Kaliyur from New Way Forward. “The Alaska Democratic Party is making sure that the issues most important to us here at home — like advocating for education funding, combatting outmigration, and protecting our working families — are being addressed at every level. We’re working to make sure that the progress Democrats made on the ground in 2024 continues to position us to fight Republicans’ extreme agenda and strengthen our party’s power. Together, Alaska Democrats can win the Governorship, U.S. House, and Senate seats – AND keep control of our State House and Senate in 2026.
“But to do this, we cannot sit on the sidelines. With your support, we can continue to stay in the fight, build the strongest Party possible, and help elect leaders who will put people first. Your contribution will help us:
“- Build the bench of Democratic candidates who are invested in improving the lives of all Alaskans and tackle issues like high costs of living and preserving our way of life. – Invest in year-round organizing efforts and spend time in every ZIP code to build an even stronger network of engaged voters. – Support our regional parties and provide them with the resources they need to be successful. Hold far-right extremists like Governor Mike Dunleavy, Rep. Nick Begich, and Sen. Dan Sullivan accountable for their actions. – Build up our staff and volunteers so we have the capacity and infrastructure to contest every race in the state and win.
“Thank you for your continued support of the Alaska Democratic Party. When we work together, we win.”
The Democrats do not mention Sen. Lisa Murkowski in their list of “extremists.”
“White King” is somewhat odd terminology, however, for the Democrats who are demanding a return to segregation in an attempt to “save democracy.”
The fact that they plan to so openly discuss the campaign playbook means they are trying to convince their donor base that they have answers. But they are bringing in two groups from outside Alaska to instruct the Democrats on what Alaskans think, and they are getting organized to rebrand the Alaska Democratic Party for the 2026 election cycle.
