Rep. Mary Peltola has been a no-show in the state for the past several weeks, missing meetings in Anchorage of the House Infrastructure and Transportation Committee, of which she is a member, and advising media she can’t fit Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg into her schedule, but she’ll be back in 10 days.
At least that is the schedule.
Peltola is set to be on a panel for the Kenai River Classic Roundtable on Aug. 23, from noon to 3 pm at the Soldotna Sports Center. After the Kenai Classic, she is said to be appearing at a charity fishing event, the Lu Young Children’s Fund, which raises funds for Alaska Native children.
But her invisibility has continued for weeks now. In fact, she hasn’t been seen in the state since possibly as early as June. Her office cryptically posted a social media post on Aug. 9 that advises she is “traveling across the state this August” — with no photographic evidence she is anywhere close to the state.
Peltola’s campaign has also gone dead silent since July 28.
Her official social media accounts only show sporadic file photos of things like interns in her D.C. office and articles from The Washington Post. It’s all very vague.
While Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan are crisscrossing the state from Ketchikan to Kenai, “Where’s Mary,” has become the refrain in political circles, as people on both sides of the political spectrum wonder about the health and welfare of their only U.S. representative, who is supposed to be working in her district in August but is nowhere to be found.
