Before departing as ADP’s Communications Director in May, Jeanne Devon and I had a couple of long talks about the much-loved and often bombastic “Tall Tales” political roundup she’d written over the years. Jeanne felt strongly that the “Tall Tales” title should change.
“The title is pretty Dunleavy centric and hopefully we can make it obsolete,” she said, perhaps not so subtly, with a grin on her face.
And thus, the “Blue Alaska” title was adopted because at the end of the day, what many of us want is a more Blue Alaska — a state that isn’t consistently accused of being “10-20 years behind the rest of the country,” and a state that doesn’t make the news cycle when:
- Anchorage Mayor David Bronson defends his anti-masker supporters wearing yellow Stars of David, claiming it’s ‘actually a credit to Jews, or when —
- Eagle River Assemblyperson and now House candidate Jamie Allard defends Nazi terminology on vanity license plates, or when —
- Governor Dunleavy says in a press conference that the best strategy to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is to not strongly encourage them to do so, because “this isn’t some place in Europe in 1939,” or when —
- Rep. David Eastman travels to Washington, D.C. on January 6 to participate in the Trump rally that led to the storming of the Capitol, or when —
- Rep. Eastman has been revealed to be a lifetime member of the far-right anti-government militia Oath Keepers, or when —
- Alaskans challenge Eastman’s candidacy for re-election to the Alaska House over his membership in the same anti-government group, or when —
- Rep. Eastman poses with a quote from Adolf Hitler — no, really…he did that. It might have been around the same time he compared a quote taken from a speech of President Biden’s to one of Adolf Hitler’s, but honestly who can keep track of it all?
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Rep. Ben Carpenter made national news in 2020 when he emailed all 39 of his statehouse colleagues to compare health-screening stickers to the badges that singled out Jews during the Holocaust. But don’t worry, he cleared everything up when he told the Anchorage Daily News that Hitler wasn’t a white supremacist!
So…as you can see, the events of the past couple of years tell us that we could clearly benefit from a more Blue Alaska, but that’s only going to come about when we stand up for our values and vote out the people who seem intent on keeping the state in a perpetual stream of embarrassing news cycles.
Speaking of Embarrassing…
“The Quitter” sent out some new mailers, complete with BOLDED WORDS, BIG RED ✓‘s and a smattering of repetition thrown in. She appears to be acutely aware of her own gross unpopularity, finding it necessary to remind people TWICE that she’s in it for the LONG HAUL.
I’m not sure if she’s talking about being in the congressional race, being in Alaska or being in Arizona for the “long haul,” but I’m not so certain she knows either. What we do know is that after years of Fox News appearances where she said some…interesting things, Palin is pretty unpopular with 56% of Alaskans viewing her unfavorably — if we are in fact back to believing polls again…🙄
I think there’s also something to be said about selling yourself to the people you quit on as the person who championed the phrase “drill baby drill.” Has anyone even used that phrase since the Deep Water Horizon oil spill when the phrase was mocked and re-tooled as, “spill baby spill?”
Seriously, I feel like Palin was desperately searching for something to fill in the third checkbox with and that was one of the last things that came to mind. Maybe she should have just skipped it altogether. 🤷♀️
But don’t worry, “The Quitter” knows exactly how to boost her approval rating — by sharing photographs of herself standing with the Insurrectionist-in-Chief! I’m not gonna’ lie here, but I’m a little concerned for Sarah’s safety if only because people “liked” the photograph of her with Trump LESS than the one of her with a photoshopped David Clarke. (Let’s hope Trump doesn’t notice, he IS, after all, somewhat of a narcissistic loose cannon).
Although counting won’t be finished until June 21, initial returns in the Special Election show Democrat Mary Peltola in the top 4 — which is a good thing because not only would it mean we have someone who shares our values to vote for — it also means that if a Democrat were elected, we wouldn’t have to worry about spending an exorbitant amount of time deciphering stuff like this ⬇️. Nobody has that amount of extra time on their hands. Trust me. ⬇️
Making her boldest campaign promise to date, Sarah Palin announced that, if elected to the United States Congress, she would seek statehood for Alaska — so says Andy Borowitz.
Sometimes it really is difficult to tell satire from the real thing.
And lest there be any doubt that Palin has gone full MAGA, there’s that pesky interview from last February where Palin called the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol “idiots,” (which is good) but then turned around and defended Trump, who had told the would-be insurrectionists to head to the Capitol. (this is very bad).
Watch the exchange below and yes, I’m sorry to say, it is indeed going to be a long five months.
Murkowski’d
Until just a couple of days ago, Sen. Murkowski’s social media accounts were void of any messaging on three important issues: abortion, gun control and the Jan. 6 coup attempt. Instead, there’s been a lot of complaining about the Biden administration, lots of oil talk and a reassurance to her constituency that she and Sen. Dan Sullivan are working hard to fulfill the legacy of Congressman Don Young. Holding hands with Federalist Society guy (yikes) isn’t something I’d be messaging at this point, but you do you Lisa.
Sen. Murkowski wrote that she was “encouraged” by the bipartisan gun control proposal, an effort she was not part of. Using carefully crafted language, she wrote that the proposal appeared to be “fairly reasonable” and said she looked forward to seeing the details.
In 2018, the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, claimed 17 victims, making it one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. Murkowski said at the time there were things up for discussion, but by and large, and as usual, did nothing — pressed for nothing — on the issue of gun control.
Not making local news was this bit from last week about an interaction Murkowski had with Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg. In both-sides fashion, and towing the narrative she’s dragged around for years, Murkowski said there was work to be done on the issue of gun violence.
Following the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings, a comprehensive gun control bill was pulled from the Senate floor due to widespread opposition from Second Amendment advocates.
- Lisa chose to vote to defend “Second Amendment freedoms” on every roll call vote.
- She opposed the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which would have required background checks for private firearms transactions.
- She opposed the Feinstein gun ban amendment, opposed the Lautenberg amendment to restrict the size of magazines, and opposed all efforts to create a national gun registry.
I would think it’s difficult to tackle those “complicated” issues when you’re literally opposing taking steps that might help curtail gun violence.
The NRA “A Rated” U.S. Senator from Alaska, is adept at messaging misrepresentations, that somehow, she’s overtly sympathetic to progressive and Democratic values. She’s the queen of “both-sidesing,” an issue to death and a triathlete when it comes to running for political cover when constituents attempt to get her to align on the correct side of an issue.
Remember when she voted “present” on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court? Vox called the vote “a savvy, strategic, complex move, filled with contradictions.”
Contradictions are the last thing Alaska needs right now.
Lisa’s also taken a pretty incredible $146,262 dollars from the NRA who also endorsed her in 2016. And in April 2021, the NRA encouraged its members to email Murkowski in an attempt to pressure her to oppose what they called the Biden administration’s “gun control agenda,” you know, as if a safer America is a bad thing.
I submit there’s nothing wrong with a President who seeks to curtail gun violence and lower the body count while at the same time respecting the rights of responsible gun owners.
Be sure and check out Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Pat Chesbro, who lost her daughter to an unspeakable act of gun violence. She has some thoughts on the issue of gun control and isn’t afraid to share those thoughts.
And look, I get that we’ve come up with varied reasons over the years to justify voting for Lisa, and often it’s because there’s an extreme candidate like Joe Miller in the mix that we don’t want to see elected. However, with Ranked Choice Voting, we have an opportunity to vote our values and send a pro-choice Democrat to the U.S. Senate. #FoodForThought
Bueller?
I was going to write this whole thing and bring everyone up to speed on the campaign of far-right MAGA Republican and election fraud conspiracy theorist U.S. Senate Candidate Kelly Tshibaka —
but ever since the big shake-up over at her campaign there hasn’t been much going on. While recent events may not bode well for her candidacy, they could be most beneficial for the Chesbro campaign, who are seeking to outpace Tshibaka in the first round of voting later this year. I don’t know if Tshibaka’s campaign can rebound from the turmoil going on over there, time will tell. (I won’t be sad if it doesn’t).
This and that…
We’ve begun updating the 2022 candidate listings on our website, complete with district maps and links to candidate social media accounts. Be sure to check them out and see who is running for office in your area!
The Alaska Division of Elections released a short video that explains how Ranked Choice Voting works. Give it a look here. ⬅️
In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll look at the Democratic and progressive candidates running for election (including their opposition) and we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it! Something tells me a certain HD 31 (Fairbanks) candidate is going to be the gift that keeps giving. 😗
And that’s it for now! Remember, to help us do what we do at a time when it’s very clear that it needs to be done, click HERE to support ADP once, or become a monthly donor!
And thank you for doing what YOU do to make Alaska a little (or a lot) more blue.
Matthew
