While the 2021 Anchorage municipal elections represented what appeared to be the first step in a successful effort for conservatives to take over and reshape the municipality in their image (Anti-Semitism, a guillotine, burning masks at Assembly meetings, etc.), we never thought it would be the apex of that effort.
Indeed, if things in Alaska keep going the way they are after last Tuesday’s surprisingly good election cycle for everyone but AK Republicans, the blame for the rapid shift against AK conservatives may lie squarely at the feet of Save Anchorage.
The Alaska State Legislature is effectively operating as a double Bipartisan Governing Coalition/Democratic Majority. Combine that with the meteoric rise and rapid cementing of Congresswoman Mary Peltola as the most beloved politician in the 49th state, and it’s extremely clear that Alaska has quickly gone from a GOP stronghold to a battleground state.
And the finger pointing has begun.
After badly underperforming expectations in 2022 in virtually every contest but the Governor’s race, the accusations are flying. Is it Suzanne Downing’s fault? Her venom-spreading brand of politics that gave energy to Save Anchorage seems like it may have not only alienated some more moderate Alaska voters, but some Save Anchorage members as well. Take a look at this screenshot a reader sent us this week:
If you listen to this group, it seems like Downing, Dan Fagan, Bernadette Wilson and Americans for Prosperity bear at least some of the responsibility for not being able to train their fire in the right direction and turning their ire instead on fellow Republicans and conservatives.
Even Dave Bronson, hailed as the second-coming of Anchorage’s conservative leadership after his surprise victory over now-Senator-Elect Forrest Dunbar in the 2021 mayoral election is catching heat from Save Anchorage members, with one poster calling him “Lame duck Dave” and pledging to never vote for him again.
One poster took it a bit farther, impugning the motives of Downing, Americans for Prosperity, the Alaska GOP and the “elite old guard” that seems to have squandered the politics of a reliably red state and made room for a surprising number of progressive victories in a midterm that should have favored the GOP by basically every metric.
Or, does the blame lie at the feet of Former Alaska Governor and failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R-Arizona Alaska) for losing not one but two congressional elections in a few short months? One poster believes that the Democratic Partty (sic) may have infiltrated…something? We even got a “do you know who I am?” out of the deal:
Suffice it to say, Democrats and moderate independents are on the rise in Alaska while the GOP and Save Anchorage devolve into infighting, finger pointing, and castigations in the aftermath of what should have been a slam-dunk election for Republicans in a “red state.”
The best thing Democrats, progressives and civic-minded independents can do is roll up their sleeves, get to work making Alaska even better for those of us lucky enough to call it home, and follow one of Sun Tsu’s classic maxims: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
