The Alaska Legislature has seen its fair share of extremists in recent years, from “Oathkeeper” Rep. David Eastman to the ineligible-to-fly Lora Reinbold. But does the Alaska Legislature fully comprehend what they are getting with incoming Rep.-Elect Jamie Allard?
In her two-plus years on the Anchorage Assembly, Allard has thrown countless temper tantrums, promoted conspiracy theories, and thrown her own allies under the bus, all while achieving extremely little. Her inability to work as a team or rise above extremist partisan politics have been her biggest weaknesses, as she routinely found herself alone on an island, unable to pass policy for her district.
Early in her tenure on the Anchorage Assembly, Rep.-elect Allard showed her knack for being a distraction above all else when, in January 2021, she was removed from the Human Rights Commision by Governor Mike Dunleavy after a full-throated defense of license plates reading FUHRER and 3REICH, which received national media attention.
When the public pushed back, she looked up their voter registration, informed them that she didn’t represent them and blocked them on Facebook. A statement from a Dunleavy spokesperson at the time indicated that Allard’s controversial brand of politics was too much of a “distraction”.
Allard has repeatedly shown an inability to follow public meeting rules. She has little interest in decorum or working with others to solve problems for Alaskans, and often resorts to outbursts of anger directed at her colleagues and the public.
If known for nothing else, Allard is known to throw full-on temper tantrums during Assembly meetings.
(Video from Nika Wolfe and Municipality of Anchorage Meetings)
While attributing her inability to follow the rules of decorum on the Assembly to her demand for “freedom of speech,” Allard is quick to shut down those she disagrees with, including her new colleague in Juneau, Rep.-Elect Andrew Gray, when she told him his testimony was full of crap.
Allard frequently interrupts testifiers and berates members of the public for being “leftists.” Attempts to pull meetings back to a place of civility often end with Allard jumping out of her seat to shout at and insult residents and colleagues alike, with the Assembly chair being the most frequent victim of her vitriol.
Even with two other conservatives on the Assembly, Allard is often the lone no vote as she seems to obstruct legislation just for sport. She has been the lone no vote against building a long-range transportation plan, using the Alex Hotel as homelessness housing (despite voting to fund the costs associated with leasing it), and against using an empty, municipal-owned building for emergency homelessness shelter, among other things.
Some of the more irrational 11-1 Allard votes were against bipartisan Assembly-supported solutions to Anchorage’s homelessness issues, after demanding that her allies in the administration get out of the homelessness business and let the Assembly implement a plan. Allard seems to have no problem at all sticking the knife in her own caucus when it suits her own personal political ambition or wild ideological views:
Allard has voted in a 11-1 or 10-2 split against almost every aspect of the municipality’s budget, save for amendments that benefit her own district (she appears to be willing to help her constituents when it’s at the expense of the rest of Anchorage). While Allard’s Assembly colleagues regularly vote unanimously to fund projects in her district, she will turn right around and vote “no” when it comes time to support her colleagues’ requests.
Allard’s childish tactics get praise from the Save Anchorage crowd, but by refusing to get along with anyone else, she is unable to either pass policy or stop policy from passing. In the legislature with tighter margins, her approach will result in obfuscation, embarrassing public fights against her own caucus members, and an endless media circus.
In a body with a super-majority working together for the citizens of Anchorage as a whole, this has not created any major non-optical issues, but in a legislative majority with tight margins, this inability to work with others for the good of the entire state could end up being problematic, and Allard would likely hold her vote hostage to extract painful and ridiculous concessions in order to get the basic business of government done.
While the 33rd Legislative session may struggle to achieve any meaningful accomplishments, it is sure to become The Jamie Allard Show instead of what it’s supposed to be: a serious place where the representatives of the people convene to handle the business of the state.
Rep.-Elect Allard’s penchant for throwing temper tantrums, legislative hostage-taking, hyperpartisanship, and seeming obsession with garnering as much negative media attention as possible will certainly reflect poorly on her caucus and her colleagues. House Republicans may want her vote to form their majority, but the consequences of giving Allard a veto over any deal, bill, or state budget seems like a very high cost for very little power.
