Like other state Republican committees whose senators voted to convict now-ex President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, the Alaska GOP is out to punish Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)-and it’s going even further than the rest.
Several of Murkowski’s other sins included:
Have a functioning brain, reasonable conscious, societal awareness, and aversion to misogynistic, racist bullshit.
Murkowski is the only senator out of the seven who is up for reelection in the upcoming midterms.
I am supporting her in the early rounds, hoping she takes another bite out of the state Republican Party.
Who’s a good Democratic candidate?
She won an election where she was a write-in candidate, and her name is not necessarily easy to spell. I doubt she’s overly worried.
“Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.”
Alaska (unless the GOP successfully overturns it in court) has a “jungle primary” where everyone runs regardless of party followed by a general election in which ranked choice voting is used. The chance of a far right GOP candidate winning is slim to none.
Now playing at your local GQP:
Al Gross, who ran against Sullivan doesn’t look bad, to me. Not necessarily a Democrat, per se, but, close enough for Alaska. (I must admit, however, I don’t understand anything about politics in Alaska. Murkowski was primaried last time, I believe, and won as a write-in candidate, and everyone knows, that NEVER works. Can’t happen.)
Well, if we ask the Alaskan GQP it’d be Lisa Murkowski.
Excellent!
And it’s a very good thing for, say, Republicans to contemplate, but a bit of context puts the rest of us on notice as well:
When people come to see us, we foolishly prattle, lest we be inhospitable. But things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. A lady of my acquaintance said, “I don’t care so much for what they say as I do for what makes them say it.”
– Emerson, 1875
It’s one person’s credo, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be everyone’s!
That was over a decade ago when the Tea Party was new on the scene and she barely hung onto her seat. Today’s iteration of the GOP is even worse than the Tea Party and they only require one thing to be a member in good standing: absolute and total loyalty to Donald John Trump (what a stupid name). A decent Dem candidate can most definitely take out a divided GOP in Alaska, especially if Dems and some indies line up behind a single candidate. Begich barely lost his seat to Sullivan.
Are you sure of this? Ranked-choice voting isn’t useful or necessary in a two-candidate race.
A ranked-choice primary followed by a top-two general would make more sense, although if the scoring is done properly in the primary there isn’t a need for a general unless voter preferences change.
This is the relevant part of a ballot measure that was approved in November:
replacing partisan primaries with open top-four primaries for state executive, state legislative, and congressional offices; and
establishing ranked-choice voting for general elections, including the presidential election, in which voters would rank the candidates.
True, but in Alaska’s new system, the top four candidates (not two) emerge from the primary to be considered in the general.
OK, so I want to get up to speed: has Alaska adopted any sort of ‘sore loser’ law that would prevent Murkowski from running as write-in if she is successfully primaried?
Okay, if they’re going top-four rather than top-two, ranked choice is necessary. They ought to be using ranked choice in the jungle primary, though.
Danke!
So the entire adult population of Alaska will be candidates?
Shades of Bill Buckley …
Be careful there–your momma may wash your mouth out with soap for saying stuff like that.
All of the electoral analysis I’ve seen from anybody I consider credible opines that the new Alaska system, which I won’t attempt to describe fully because it’s above my head, makes Murkowski essentially immune to challenges from the right.
Which I won’t lose sleep over. Better a Murkowski than a Tommy Tuberville.