Republican former Rep. Chuck Kopp’s time in the Alaska Legislature came to an end in the 2020 Republican primary. Republican primary voters in Anchorage sent him packing by more than 20 points after he spent a session caucusing in a moderate, bipartisan coalition with Democrats, independents and other moderate Republicans.
The 2020 election saw several moderate Republicans in the House and Senate defeated in semi-closed partisan primaries, mainly because they resisted Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s scorched-earth approach to budgeting and governance.
But four years later, with Alaska voters’ adoption of open primaries and ranked-choice voting, Kopp is among a resurgence of moderate Republicans willing to buck a party they say has abandoned its values of freedom and leaned into an authoritarian streak embodied by former President Donald Trump and other corporate interests.
“I’ve been a lifelong registered Republican, and I think the party has changed dramatically,” Kopp said in an interview with The Alaska Current last week. “This is not the party of Ronald Reagan or George Bush I or II; it’s almost unrecognizable to me some days … I do not believe times have become too desperate for the Constitution, and I don’t like it when I see the hardliners turn against First Amendment principles … I think we have a drift toward authoritarianism that concerns me.”
The old semi-closed partisan system made getting elected as a Republican a cakewalk in most districts, producing outright bad candidates in some cases, Kopp said. All you had to do was appeal to Republican primary voters for a free pass in the general election.
“The voters are empowered now. They all have to be listened to,” Kopp said. “It has empowered candidates in a way to run for office who, before that, knew that the closed political primaries made it possible to elect a ham sandwich or an inanimate object who agreed to toe the party line.”
And it appears there’s an appetite for the change. Four years after losing by 20 points, Kopp finished 20 percentage points ahead of incumbent Republican Rep. Craig Johnson, one of the key figures in the House Republican Majority. In his interview, Kopp was blunt about his dissatisfaction with Johnson — particularly regarding education funding and public employee pensions, both issues that Johnson played a critical role in blocking — and other Republican legislators.
“I’m just one Alaskan who cares, and I want to step up and get rid of the logjam,” he said. “My opponent is a key log in that jam.”
The same goes for Fairbanks Republican Joy Beth Cottle, a longtime firefighter running against extreme-right Republican Rep. Frank Tomaszewski. She said she too was disappointed that Tomaszewski voted to uphold the governor’s veto of the education funding bill and helped block efforts to bring up a public pension system.
“I don’t fall in line with everything that has been put out there by the republican party,” she said in an interview with The Alaska Current. “I think that one of the biggest differences between Frank and I is that he will bow to that pressure. He owes them in some ways. When I’m making decisions, I listen to the experts in the field and those most closely affected by the decisions, and I run it through my own moral filter, so I’m not going to be a predictable vote.”
Cottle says she’s keenly aware of the problems the state’s move from public pensions to a 401k-style retirement system in 2006 has had on public services. She said that at the fire departments where she’s worked over the last 25 years, she’s seen some of the best and brightest employees leave for greener pastures just as they were getting experienced.
“It’s something I’ve seen first-hand, and that institutional knowledge in the fire department, police department and Troopers is irreplaceable,” she said. “The public suffers when we don’t have experienced people in those positions.”
While the politics of Alaska’s growing cohort of moderate Republicans varies from individual to individual, one of the near-universal positions is their support for restoring a public pension system. Once one of those issues that Republicans reflexively opposed, Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel successfully passed a public pension bill in the Senate during this session.
For moderates, the legislation is a good, commonsense measure to address the revolving door of public sector employees in everything from public safety to schools to road maintenance.
“I support an investment in a workforce that will strengthen it,” Kopp said, noting the Anchorage School District started the year without enough teachers and many rural communities rely on foreign teachers working on visas. “We’re not attracting, growing and retaining talent … I firmly believe that there has to be a balance between the employers and employees, and when you have a fair balance, you’ll have a strong workforce.”
But for leaders of the Alaska Republican Party, like Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a pension system has been a non-starter. Kopp says this is due in part to the out-sized influence of groups like Americans for Prosperity, which is funded partly by annuity companies that benefit from the current system. The group has deep pockets and can make life difficult for legislators who buck the party come re-election time.
“If your highest priority is to be elected and re-elected, you can’t make the tough decisions,” he said. “I’m very willing to not be re-elected, and that’s what makes some Republicans not like me. They know that’s the least of my fears.”
For Cottle, her experience of seeing talented firefighters leave for greener pastures trumps whatever the party would have her do and believe in pensions. That, perhaps, is one of the most precise ways to define what it means to be a moderate Republican in today’s political climate.
“I don’t tolerate bullies in the workplace,” Cottle said. “And I’ll stand up to them wherever I am.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
