The Patriot Post® · Alaska's Banana Republic Elections

If you want rigged elections, support ranked-choice voting.

Alaska has elected Republican majorities for many years into its state legislature. Yet most years there have been a handful of moderate Republicans joining hands with Democrats, giving power and control over the state House or Senate to Democrats. Since the 1990s, Democrat legislators have usually been outnumbered in the Alaska legislature, often by a wide margin, yet they still manage to gain power.

Alaska? Though it has voted red overall for decades at the state and federal level, that statistic is deceiving. Having an “R” before your name means little in Alaska politics. Some Republicans routinely abandon their colleagues and collude with Democrats, and the voting public seems none the wiser. A second odd twist is “independent.” In Alaska, that is generally code for “Democrat,” but one who can’t win with a “D” in front of their name so they put an “I.” They caucus with and vote with Democrats. Walks like a duck, talks like a duck, probably a duck.

Over the last four years, with the help of a handful of Republicans, the Alaska state House has been under the control of left-wing Democrats. In 2019 and again in 2021 (Alaska has a two-year legislative session), those “Republicans” chose to join Democrats for various perks — chairmanships, leadership positions, etc. As you’d expect, it’s about power, not principle. Run as a Republican, fool your constituents during a campaign, but join with those wholly opposed to Republican principles once elected.

Alaska has 20 state senators and 40 representatives. After the most recent election, the Alaska state Senate has a “coalition” of 17 out of the 20 members. Nine Democrats gained power because eight of the 11 Republicans elected chose to join hands with Democrats, shunning the three more conservative senators. In effect, that resulted in nine Democrats and eight Republicans, giving Democrats control of the Alaska state Senate.

Beyond that disgrace, there are three areas in Alaska politics that are just, well, bizarre.

In other states and at the federal level, once a political party reaches a “majority,” they are automatically in power. In Alaska, things are done differently.

The first departure from normality is that Alaska has a “binding caucus” rule. A legislator — say, a Republican — must agree to surrender his vote for the entire two-year session on the budget by agreeing to vote “Yes” no matter what the final product is. If he does not agree to give his vote in advance, he isn’t allowed to join the majority Republican caucus. If he does surrender his vote in exchange for the “privilege” of joining the team, and later votes no due to any number of reasons, his is punished by being stripped of all positions of power (chairmanships, committees, staff, office space). No other state operates in this manner.

The second area is this penchant for legislators running as a Republican but then crossing the aisle and joining Democrats to give that group a “majority” number for control of the body. Unlike other states and the U.S. Congress and Senate, any makeup of Ds or Rs “counts” in Alaska. Whoever reaches that magic 11 (Senate) or 21 (House) is in control. So having an “R” in front of your name in Alaska in no way indicates how you’ll actually act once elected. Alaskans routinely send more Republicans to the state legislature only to watch it fall under the power of a minority of Democrats having control.

Third and perhaps most importantly this year was the installment of the jungle primary and ranked-choice voting in Alaska. It barely passed via citizens’ initiative in 2020 under the “big lie” of getting “dark money” out of Alaska politics, but it was truly about RCV. It was brought to Alaska by several “Lower 48” billionaire-funded left-wing interests with one goal in mind — reelect Lisa Murkowski to the U.S. Senate. Those who ran the scheme have admitted this postmortem. That’s not surprising, as the balance of power of the U.S. Senate hinged on Murkowski’s often reliable vote with Democrats. Left-wing interests installed RCV in Alaska because the U.S. Senate is evenly split, so it was an “all hands on deck” effort to maintain Democrat power at the national level.

The jungle primary and ranked-choice system is designed to elect more “moderate” politicians and move red states toward purple and blue. It had other downstream effects including putting the first Democrat in 50 years into Alaska’s only U.S. Congress seat after Don Young’s passing earlier this year. It additionally resulted in several moderate to even slightly left-leaning candidates winning on the Republican side and provided a pathway for Democrats to pick up extra seats, more easily gaining power when combined with Alaska’s other issues highlighted above.

Ranked-choice voting is a disaster, but not just for conservatives. It is perhaps the most elegant voter-suppression scheme in existence, and the data supports this conclusion. A deep dive study into RCV was conducted by a professor of political science at an Ivy League institution. It noted the disenfranchisement of minorities, speakers of English as a second language, the elderly, and those with less than a high school education at the highest rate, sometimes greater than 25%. It’s hard to comprehend how anyone could support such a system. Then again, it was designed by liberal elites who talk about supporting those groups but in reality do little to actually help them. They want them on the left-wing political plantation at all costs.

There are now other states considering implementing a jungle primary and RCV. They do so at their own peril and would be wise to learn from Alaska’s mistakes. There is a statewide effort to run a citizens’ repeal of RCV, so let’s hope Alaska takes a step back from the brink to the land of political sanity. Perhaps one day Alaska will join other states in operating under the color of law and ban the unethical practice of the “binding caucus” and stop supporting politicians who switch teams year after year for political gain.

Fortunately for the future of the integrity of Alaska elections, there is a movement underway to end ranked choice voting.