This fall, control of the House of Representatives will almost certainly hinge on a few swing seats. Democrats seeking to take back the House will be putting who they see as vulnerable Republicans in their crosshairs (and thank you, Sarah Palin, for that metaphor) while Republicans looking to expand their current razor-thin majority will be doing the same.
One of the seats national Republicans had better be looking at is Alaska's at-large seat, currently held - thanks in no small part to ranked-choice voting - by Democrat Mary Peltola. Now, Mrs. Peltola has given Republicans more ammo in their campaign to send her back to Bethel, as we learn from Must Read Alaska's Suzanne Downing that she has thrown her hat in with "Voters of Tomorrow," a far-left advocacy group.
Alaska’s Mary Peltola is among the vulnerable Democrat candidates who have aligned with Voters of Tomorrow, which is described by Influence Watch as a leftist group that supports the defunding of police.
“VoT claims that conventional law enforcement methods do not lower crime rates and supports reducing police department budgets in favor of funding other government programs which the group claims will reduce crime. The group also supports decriminalizing most drugs and regulating them like alcohol or tobacco and erasing the prior criminal records of drug offenders. In addition, VoT has demanded that border security and immigration law enforcement be significantly curtailed, and that presently illegal immigrants be granted American citizenship,” Influence Watch says.
This could be a bad misstep by Mrs. Peltola.
See Related: Battle for the Great Land: Alaska Republicans Gunning for At-Large House Seat
Alaska is still, of course, dealing with the unnecessarily complicated and confusing ranked-choice voting (RCV) system, but her alignment with this group should be hung around her neck like an albatross by Alaska Republicans. Here are some of the policy positions advocated for by this group:
Voters of Tomorrow has a particular focus on “justice” issues such as decriminalizing prostitution, dismantling “racist” institutions — including those that carry out “racial profiling in education and policing” and ending “racist voting laws” — as well as calling for stricter gun control, and ending “the abusive practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection.”
It's hard to imagine an Alaskan aligning themselves with any of this crap - especially if they want to stay in office. Gun control in Alaska is an especially bad position for an Alaskan pol to take; as I'm fond of pointing out, up here in the Valley, even the hippies have guns and know how to use them. Alaska is a Constitutional-carry, stand-your-ground, Second Amendment sanctuary state, and we like it that way.
Mary Peltola won the 2022 election in large part because she hitched her electoral wagon to Senator Lisa Murkowski's re-election campaign. Senator Murkowski isn't exactly the darling of Alaskan conservatives, but she regularly gains some cross-over votes from Anchorage and Juneau Democrats who accept the reality that they are unlikely to get a Democrat into the Senate. But Mrs. Peltola doesn't have the Murkowski campaign to help her out this time. and Alaska Republicans need to take a good hard look at the positions of Voters of Tomorrow and ask themselves why Mary Peltola chose to align herself with them.
Even with RCV in place - and a repeal of RCV will also be on this year's ballot, although the system will still be in place for 2024's elections - Republicans can send her home. It's not hard; as candidate Nick Begich III said in 2022, "rank the red." It's looking a lot like Mrs. Peltola will be facing Begich and Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom this fall. If every Alaska Republican, Libertarian, and conservative-leaning independent ranks the Republican candidates at #1 and #2, they can send Mary Peltola home.
Mary Peltola isn't the best choice for Alaska. Even with RCV in place, there's an opportunity here to send her back to Bethel.
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