Alaska Goes Native!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Alaska held a special election on August 16th to choose a replacement for the state's only representative in the US House of Representatives, Congressman Don Young who died in office earlier this past March.  Congressman Young, a Republican, had held that seat just short of fifty years and was the longest-serving member of the House.  Even though the election was held more than two weeks ago, the results were not known until yesterday when the last of the mail-in ballots were due in.

Alaska has just instituted a "ranked choice" system of voting.  In that system the names of all candidates who have qualified to be on the ballot, from any party, are listed on an open primary ballot.  The top four vote-getters on that ballot, regardless of their party affiliation, go on to a general election ballot.  Voters in the general election select their favorite candidate from the four - their "first" choice - and then may rank the remaining three in order of their preference if they want to.

In Alaska's ranked choice system, if no candidate gets over 50% of the first-choice votes, the bottom (fourth) candidate in first-choice votes is eliminated, and that person's "second-choice" votes are tabulated and assigned to the remaining three candidates.  If none of those then reaches 50%, the third place candidate is eliminated, and his second-choice votes are given to the top two - and then the person with the most votes is the winner.

The Alaskan primary election was held in June with forty-eight candidates vying to be elected to replace Congressman Young.  Mary Peltola came in fourth in that race, barely making the cut to be on the general election ballot.  The other three were Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska, Nick Begich III, a Republican from a prominent Democratic political family, and Al Gross, an Independent with strong Democratic Party support.  Gross eventually dropped out of the race, leaving only Palin, Begich, and Peltola on the ballot for the general election.  There were also six "certified" write-in candidates.

After the initial Alaska vote in the general election, Peltola was leading but did not reach the 50% threshold for victory, Palin was second, and Begich, who came in third, was eliminated and his second-choice votes were counted and assigned to the other two - and Peltola came out on top.  She defeated Palin 51-5% to 48-5 percent.

Mary Peltola, who turned forty-nine yesterday, was born in Alaska to a native Alaskan (Yup'ik) mother and a Nebraska father, while her predecessor was already serving in Congress!  She is married and a mother of four - and she is the first Native Alaskan ever elected to Congress.

Mary Peltola was elected to serve out the remainder of Don Young's current term in the House of Representatives which ends next January, and she will again face Palin and Begich in an election for a full term to the position next November.

Peltola campaigned on pro-choice and pro-union positions, as well protecting the environment and issues related to protecting western Alaska's salmon population.   Palin, on the other hand, had long advocated for overturning Roe v Wade.   Sarah Palin was endorsed in the race by Donald Trump.

Surprisingly, Mary Peltola and Sarah Palin are good friends since the days when Palin was governor and Peltola was serving in the legislature, and Palin has described the native Alaskan politician as "a sweetheart."

And now the "sweetheart" is headed to Congress!