By PAULETTE SIMPSON
Alaska’s Democratic Party is meeting in Juneau this weekend and the Alaska Republican Party will be in town February 22 for their quarterly State Central Committee meeting.
The work that state political parties do is largely invisible. Consequently, there has always been a fair amount of misconception about state parties – why they matter and what they can and cannot do.
On and off for 29 years I have served on the Alaska Republican Party’s State Central Committee. While I have no clue how Alaska’s Democratic Party conducts its business, I understand how the ARP operates – and why it matters.
When you register to vote, you can register as “Non-Partisan” or “Undeclared” or pick a political party. It’s the voter’s choice to register with a party or not. Parties are opt-in organizations. No Republican party leader, nor the State Executive Committee or the State Central Committee has the authority to decide whether or not you are worthy, and no one can kick you out.
Parties exist to elect our candidates to office, promote the principles found in our platform, and recruit new members to our Party. Republicans did just that over the past year. Since the February 2024 report from the Division of Elections, Republicans have gained over 7,000 more new voters than Democrats have.
American political scientist E.E. Schattschneider once observed that democracy is “unthinkable” without parties to do the work of campaigning, organizing stable coalitions, and helping citizens make sense of political choices. Most voters simply don’t have time to dig into each candidate’s philosophical underpinnings, so party affiliation can at least provide some clue.
It is the biennial State Convention and the State Central Committee that determine Alaska Republican Party policies. Remember, every single Republican Party officer and State Central Committee member is a volunteer – no one is paid.
The primary function of our 40 District Committees is to promote the election of Republican candidates in their individual districts. This includes candidate recruitment, fund raising for Republican candidates, promotion of the candidates, and any other campaign assistance that may be requested by the candidates.
Districts are not empowered to meddle in the affairs of other districts.
Parties do have a say in deciding which candidates get Party money – to the extent that its members and leadership raise any money to disburse.
Party contributions to candidates are subject by law to laughably low limits – $10,000 per State House candidate and $15,000 to a State Senate candidate, making the Party largely irrelevant in funding campaigns.
Typically, our candidates rely on their own networks and grassroots efforts to finance their races. In Fairbanks, Leslie Hajdukovich raised over $220,000, and Jesse Bjorkman (Kenai) raised over $144,000 for their 2024 State Senate races.
When a legislative vacancy occurs during a term of office (usually unexpectedly), the Party, through the affected District Committee, recommends three names of qualified Republicans from whom the Governor may select a replacement legislator until the next election. That’s why it’s important to have functioning districts that are well-acquainted with Republicans in their district who once appointed can go on to win the next election.
Our State Chairman oversees the Alaska Republican Party organization and affairs. The most daunting task of the Party chair is to keep our wings flying in the same direction. The November 2024 general election demonstrates why that is so challenging. In Wasilla’s District 27, Trump captured 77% of the vote and Begich won 69%. In Juneau’s District 4, Trump received 29% of the vote and Begich garnered 25%.
Republicans must turn out their base, but candidates in every district need swing voters to win. In November, Nick Begich won 159,950 votes statewide but only 66% (99,288) of registered Republicans voted in 2024.
Republicans can’t win without attracting swing voters, most of whom are unaffiliated with a party.
Alaska Republicans are a diverse and often uneasy coalition of very dissimilar districts, but at least we don’t disguise who we are.
The Democrat way of winning elections in Alaska is a model of deception. As of Feb. 3, 2025, there were 150,415 registered Republican voters in Alaska and 75,989 Democrats. Recognizing that most voters (358,451) register as “Non-Partisan” or “Undeclared,” five members of the Alaska House campaigned and won election as “Independent” or “Not Affiliated” candidates, yet all five are now serving in the Democratic-controlled majority.
Moving forward into 2026, Democrats and Republicans will fiercely compete for critical swing voters to determine control of the Alaska Legislature, the Governor’s Office, our sole Congressional seat and the Senate seat held by Sen. Dan Sullivan.
It’s all about the math. To win, Republicans must continue to add voters to our Republican ranks and attract swing voters to our candidates.
Paulette Simpson lives in Juneau and has been politically active for decades.
I don’t see a better republican voter turn out. The Alaskan GOP is missing in action. I’m not going to vote for any republican if they’re going to go to Juneau and join the corrupt union democrats. If the party gets together and makes plans and allows the traitors to attend, the democrats will have access to their plans.
Myself and everybody I know feel the same way no Republican vote because they can’t wait to jump into bed with the democrats.
We need true conservatives in Jueanu
And now I wonder what’s happening with the peoples PFD and who’s got their hand in the cookie jar.
At this point all government looks guilty.
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I totally agree with you, Andrew.
And sorry, Paulette, but your claim that “Party matters” rings very hollow when we now regularly have multiple RINO state legislators stabbing their voters in the back and caucusing with the radical leftist Democrats in violation on Republican party rules, common sense and simple decency.
HOW do YOU justify this, and how do you justify your claim that “Party matters” when it clearly does NOT matter to a growing number of Republican-in-name-only state legislators, such as my own state representative, for example, Kelly Merrick? Tell me how “Party matters” pertains to this outrageous and insulting betrayal of Alaska’s GOP voters! Please, go ahead, I mean it —- tell us, or stop making these false claims.
Either they isolate the ‘decepticons’, and cast them out, or they are a part of the ‘deception conservative’ movement.
Why Juneau? Doesn’t it make more sense for our legislature to meet in a place that isn’t primarily inhabited by union workers and L48 lobbyists?
Let’s make sure when a candidate runs for a seat, when they declare themselves to be in whatever party they choose, they have to pinky-swear to stay in that party, no switching over to the other party for whatever party-favors the other party is offering the candidate to switch parties for … simple, right?
Having served “on and off for 29 years” in the Republican party, then you are partly responsible for its sorry state. I was a life-long Republican until the religious right took it over. It’s time to get back to the old Republican party that advocated for small government and worked to get the government our of our way. Nothing else matters.
“Religious Right” means … you don’t like to talk about abortion and homosexuality. Both values are virulently anti-life and mock God. Not so long ago, “DISHONRABLE DISCHARGE” attended homosexual members of the military. Oh, and it was treated by psychiatrists as a mental disorder. If you think today’s “enlightened” change by the military and psychiatry is somehow desirable, look at the results. YOU are part of the problem. If you don’t respect human life, what good is a political party? No wonder we have: child mutilation, euthanasia, and all the infinite varieties of attendant weirdness that passes as “mainstream”.
John Hancock, not sure what you mean about the “old Republican Party.” Near as I know the Republican Party platform has stood strong for the Judeo-Christian values that founded our nation and made it great. Rather than expecting the party to change for you it sounds like you would be better off by joining the pro-atheist Libertarian Party. That party embraces all vices and cultural degradation while promoting low taxes.
I was once a registered Republican, mostly so that I could attend the local party caucus meetings to support the better presidential primary candidates, Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul, for example. Not long after the disappointing 1996 presidential primary I shrugged and changed my registration to Undeclared. Today, I am cheerfully ready to again become a registered Republican. Thank you for this article, Ms. Simpson.
“THE PARTY” would build a lot of good-will and restore confidence and integrity if they dumped … Daddy’s Little Princess immediately!!!
I second that response. She is most definitely an “Alaska Republican” who disguises her true identity. There are a couple other disguised politicians in the Eagle River/ Anchorage area.
Yes, party matters. But when the Republican Party wins and goes to Juneau and bends the knee to Democrats to join their caucus, all bets are off. In Alaska, Republicans only know how to lose. Merrick, Stedman, Giessel and the rest. The (D)ems just sit back and watch the Rs eat each other and laugh. We have Republican deep-stater Lisa fans who donate huge bucks to re-elect Peltola. So, please, don’t tell me party matters. Until we flush these Republicans who get elected and act subservient to (D)ems, party really doesn’t matter. At least in the case of so-called Republicans.
Exactly!
Jesse BJorkman didn’t RAISE that money. The unions gave it to him like they always do for their own.
How well’s the “invisible” thing working?
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You have no clue how your enemies do business, but they know all about your business, how to force RCV, Dominion vote-counting gear, ERIC, and mail-in voting down our throats because you’re invisible?
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Are they invisible? No… they quite visibly own and operate the legislative half of Alaska’s lobbyist-legislator team, including Republicans whose cheerful betrayal of Republican Party voters made the legislature a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party.
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Seriously? “no Republican party leader, nor the State Executive Committee or the State Central Committee has the authority to decide whether or not they are worthy, and no one can kick them out”…. We’re okay with that because they’re cute and cuddly and look just like us plus they bring home money and, if we kiss their as.., oops, may not totally confiscate our PFD’s?
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These vermin rot the Republican party from the inside out and you can’t kick them out? Remind again how this appeals to “swing” voters? What’s the attraction of a Republican Party who don’t have brains or cojones to muck out their own house?
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How come state Democrats have big, untouchable dark-money machines and fawning media hosts, but Republicans don’t?
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“Districts are not empowered to meddle in the affairs of other districts”, so it’s okay if Kipnuk votes en masse for Cornell West, cuz that’s somebody else’s district and it’ll never happen in yours? Anchorage votes en masse for Governor Giessel and Senator LaFrance because nearly two dozen people reportedly showed up to vote, but that’s okay cuz it’s somebody else’s district?
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You think Democrats, about whose business you have no clue, operate like this? This is Alaska GOP’s total idea of teamwork?
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If “the Democrat way of winning elections in Alaska is a model of deception”, then it’s pretty clear the Republican way of losing Alaska’s House and Senate is a model of stupidity.
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Blind trust in an easily corruptible election system and unelected officials who cloak it from public scrutiny is a requirement for Republicans?
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How come Republicans don’t make as much noise about their right to free, fair, and honest elections as Democrats make about their right to dress funny?
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Alaska’s Republican Party already has fractal software analysis conclusively verifying accuracy of election counts and voter-registration numbers?
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Or the Party still clings to ERIC for voter-registration numbers, despite alarming news like: “The Public Interest Legal Foundation sued Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, last month for allegedly destroying records from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) indicating which voters have been wrongfully removed from the rolls, as The Federalist reported at the time.” (‘https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/07/watchdog-to-doj-investigate-oregon-for-destroying-voter-records/)
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Can’t be both, which is it?
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So, we’re down to… “Democrats and Republicans will fiercely compete for critical swing voters to determine control of the Alaska Legislature, the Governor’s Office, our sole Congressional seat and the Senate seat held by Sen. Dan Sullivan.”
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One side controls ranked-choice voting, untouchable dark-money machinery, ERIC, unlimited advertising money, sympathetic media, uncontrolled mail-in voting, and Dominion vote-counting gear running on proprietary software into which thumb drives of unknown purpose can be stuck at any time, for any reason.
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The other side has …wings flying mostly in the same direction and a paralyzing fear of the Holy City of Juneau where they (reportedly) don’t like President Trump.
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How does this turn out, Paulette?
I would not be surprised to learn that the Demos have figured out a way, through the USAID, to pay all the Demo Party leaders a handsome stipend.
That’s probably why Peltola voted for everything the Democrats wanted. She’s probably getting her hand out from the principal.
I disagree with that assessment.
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Leftists live in a top down driven world. They look to leaders so they know what to do, what to say, how to act, etc… Just look at the few leftist NPCs we have on MRAK. They do nothing by parrot the current narrative.
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There is no reason to think Peltola was any different. She looked to her leadership for marching orders, not her constituents.
It’s time the Republican State Central Committee got some balls. Censure means nothing. Expulsion is needed when a so-called Republican member acts inapposite of the party lines and party values. Republicans need to get a spine and draft some new party rules, which include expulsion. Call it……….the Murkowski Rule. And enforce it.
How does the Alaska Republican Party define “Republican”……..I’ll wait………….
Horsepoop.
The Cleveland Browns are better run and more effective than the AKGOP.
“………Parties do have a say in deciding which candidates get Party money – to the extent that its members and leadership raise any money to disburse.
Party contributions to candidates are subject by law to laughably low limits – $10,000 per State House candidate and $15,000 to a State Senate candidate, making the Party largely irrelevant in funding campaigns……..”
Is this why so many Republicans thumb their noses at the platform, specifically the abortion plank, and essentially do as they please, specifically caucusing with Democrats? Is this why the party has absolutely no control over their candidates? Why is this not the case with the Democrats?
Something is missing here…………..
“It’s all about the math” Paulette says. Not when that math is Rigged Choice Voting. Until RCV is eliminated Republicans in AK will continue to 1)lose, 2) pander to left-leaning undeclared/non-partisan voters in order to get their votes, and 3) join the Democrat Party caucus in the state legislature to be their useful idiots in taking AK further to the left.
RCV: power to the people!
Well said and thoughtfully presented Paulette. Thank you.
The bitterness of the snipers I find appalling, but not unexpected – selfishness is human sin nature, and their inability to work for what we can achieve in a diverse population is merely selfish and ignorant. I get their frustration! – but we live in America, not a dictatorship. How I wish they would channel all that angry energy into working with us constructively to achieve conservative goals! Giving up and sniping from the sidelines is the mark of bitter losers.
The problem with that entire narrative, Rich, is that you have acheived literally NO conservative goals. Going along with a decidedly left-leaning uniparty and accusing those who oppose it of wanting a dictatorship is the height of hypocracy.
Would that your accusation be better than your spelling! Hypocrisy claims are easy to throw when you don’t know what you are talking about. We get much done and keep the lefties from achieving their dictatorial wet dreams – and I agree that there is much work to do to turn the ship of State in the right direction. Hear this, snipers – you have no viable, electable, alternative, and your constant stream of vitriol only serves to hurt your and my cause. I blame the victory of the rino solely on you.
The fact that the Alaska GOP has handed us feckless candidates and actually worked to get rid of ones like David Eastman really underscores why no one should be supporting them. Add to that the total lack of interest in fixing our broken elections and you have to suspect they are completely happy with the current system. Parties are just a grift to keep the allusion of elections alive for people too dumb to realize what is going on.
President Musk needs to round up the lefties, commies and union thugs and make this nation One Party Rule ! Damn the Democracy, Party over People !
Paulette, you have overlooked a critical point: The Republican party of Alaska does, in fact, not promote the principles found in their platform. The large number of undeclared or non-partisan voters you lament are mainly conservatives who generally vote for Republicans as the (often slightly) lesser of two evils. Those conservatives, who very likely make up the largest voting bloc in Alaska, expect to have representatives who will enact actual conservative policies. The Alaska Republican party has failed miserably in that regard. They all, especially those in Juneau, talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. Instead, they cave immediately to leftists and pander to Planned Parenthood and other special interest groups. Your numbers will not increase until you start walking the walk.
A friend of ours in a state that was once red said the state Republican Party was filled with long time party elites content with the status quo. These “place holders” (our friend’s term for them) did not like being challenged by newer party members who wanted the party to back conservatism and conservative candidates. Some County Republican Parties did change but it was not enough to stop the blue takeover. Like AK this state has a large percentage of Unaffiliated voters that the state GOP pandered to for their vote. Hopefully the AK state GOP will not follow in these same footsteps.
“Would that your…” Not a lot of room to talk there, Rich. What, specifically of any substance, did you get done? Nothing! If Jared Goeker or David Eastman were in my district, I’d have voted for them. I’m sure you would have supported the actual RINO in either race. You ARE the Alaska RINO Party!
Good commentary Paulette. Thank you.
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Recapping and expanding on a couple of Paulette’s themes:
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No political party has the authority to kick anyone out. People opt-in as a function of voter registration. So, it’s a personal choice that cannot be revoked by any organization or individual other than the registrant. While this can be the source of some irritation, it is not a bug. In fact, it’s very much a feature of free societies.
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In contrast, consider the Soviet Union. Party membership was very much a requisite for career success and social status. But, in this ecosystem, a party member could have their affiliation summarily revoked even for the slightest indiscretion or misstep, or for no reason at all. As we know, the USSR ultimately proved to be a colossal failure due, largely, to a political and economic system lacking the benefit of free will.
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Finally, party strength lies not in a set of rules or a platform, but in the people who voluntarily contribute precious time, talent and money in support of political activism. This is why the Alaska Republican Party is, by far, the leading grass-roots political organization in our great state. The ARP is blessed with a small army of remarkable people who choose to get off the couch and into the game.
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Of course, the only thing better than a small army is a large army. Those who possess conservative values and principles and wish to genuinely, constructively and actively improve the political condition are very much welcome. The Alaska Republican Party sincerely invites your spirited participation.
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Many thanks again Paulette for helping shed light on what political parties can do and also what some of the practical limitations are. You are certainly among the remarkables. In fact, your service to the Alaska Republican Party over the decades approaches the non pareil!
Take note and tell others about the deceitful legislators who exchange their Republican votes for Democrat committee dominance, They are: Gary Stevens (Kodiak), Bert Stedman (Sitka), Cathy Giessel (Anchorage), Kelly Merrick (Eagle River), Jesse Bjorkman (Nikiski), Chuck Kopp (Anchorage), and Louise Stutes (Kodiak). Follow their voting through this legislative session as your Permanent Fund disappears,,,. By the way why hasn’t the capital been moved to the mainland after two times Alaskans voting to move it so that we can have access? The legislators do not want it moved even though the law instructs them to move it. Not access to the legislators is part of the problem and the lobbyists in Juneau know what to do. These legislators act like sociopaths who missed out on truthfulness.
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