At the Democrats’ statewide convention in Juneau on Saturday, party officers passed a rule that requires any Democrat candidate who doesn’t move forward in a primary scenario to endorse the candidate endorsed by the party — whether or not that advancing candidate is a Democrat.
The rule was advanced by Sen. Forrest Dunbar, an Anchorage Democrat, and it was being called the “Tuck Amendment,” after Chris Tuck, the Democrat who ran for Anchorage mayor this year but didn’t advance into the runoff.
The party had, instead of endorsing its longtime Democrat who had served in the Legislature for 14 years, endorsed non-partisan candidate Suzanne LaFrance, who is now the undeclared winner of the mayor’s race in Anchorage.
Upon being eliminated, Tuck did not endorse LaFrance; he didn’t endorse Republican Mayor Dave Bronson either.
The way the rule reads, if an eliminated Democrat candidate doesn’t make a public endorsement of the party’s choice, that candidate can receive no Democrat party support for at least 24 months if they decide to run again for office. It’s a “binding caucus” type of rule, forcing Democrats to march to the party’s beat, no matter their personal beliefs, and even if the party is endorsing non-party candidates.
Alaska Democratic Party has 73,594 registered members in Alaska, fewer than the number of non-partisan registered voters. But the party punches above its weight in Alaska politics and now dominates the Alaska Senate, even though there are more registered Republicans in the Senate than Democrats. That’s because eight Republicans joined nine Democrats in forming a majority that excludes three conservative Republicans — Sen. Shelley Hughes, Sen. Mike Shower, and Sen. Robb Myers.
In the House, there are a growing number of Democrats who have registered as nonpartisans to avoid the stink of the party, but they caucus with the Democrats in Juneau.
