Tuesday’s primary is just two days away! Early and absentee voting has been taking place since early August, though turnout has been fairly low. The 7-day campaign finance reports for legislative candidates came out this week. The Alaska State Troopers announced two troopers were charged with misdemeanor assault stemming from a May incident on the Kenai Peninsula. The Anchorage Police Department union and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance are now at odds after LaFrance announced some police reforms. And Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) and Senator Dan Sullivan (R – Alaska) held a press conference with three congressman about how the Biden administration is preventing development in Alaska. 

A friendly message and reminder to all our readers. The Landmine is made possible by myself and a team of awesome Alaskans. I have been covering the legislative session in Juneau for the last six years. We are again providing in-depth coverage for both the primary and general elections. If you enjoy the content we provide, please consider making a one time or recurring monthly donation. You can click here to donate. We have a system that makes it super easy. We would really appreciate it. And thanks to everyone who has been supportive.

Make sure to tune into our live election coverage of the primary on Tuesday night! I will be joined by Charisse Millett and Matt Shuckerow. We will be providing results, analysis, and candidate interviews! 

Primary Approaching 

As most of you know, the primary will only have a material impact on three races: the U.S. House race, Senator Kelly Merrick’s (R – Eagle River) race, and the race for Representative Mike Cronk’s (R – Tok) open seat. This is because these are the only races with more than four candidates. Only the top four from each race advance to the general election. The other 48 legislative races have four or less candidates.

The big race to watch on Tuesday is the U.S. House race. While Representative Mary Peltola (D – Alaska) will surely get the most votes as the incumbent and only Democrat in the race campaigning, the real race will be between Republican Nick Begich and Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom (R – Alaska).

National Republican groups are spending big money to propel Dahlstrom ahead of Begich in the primary. But I think it’s too little, too late. Begich has been working hard for over a year. Dahlstrom got in the race in November, and she hasn’t campaigned much. I predict Begich will get more votes in the primary than Dahlstrom. The question will then be if Dahlstrom and her supporters will be able to convince Begich to withdraw? I think not. Begich has said he will withdraw if he gets less votes than Dahlstrom. But Dahlstrom has refused to reciprocate that pledge. We know some Republicans are not going to “rank the red.” Pelota’s best chance is that they both stay in. Which is in fact what may end up happening.  

The primary will provide valuable insight into several of the competitive legislative races. We will be discussing this in-depth during our election coverage on Tuesday night. For some of the races with three or four candidates, it’s likely there will be some withdrawals after the primary from candidates who perform poorly. The deadline to withdraw from the general election is September 2. 

Senator Jesse Bjorkman (R – Nikiski) aka BJ debated Representative Ben Carpenter (R – Nikiski) in Soldotna this week. You can watch it here. If you didn’t know BJ you would think he was full MAGA after that debate. But the crowd wasn’t fooled. They even laughed at him at one point when he said the Democrats in the Legislature are not the ones preventing energy development in Alaska. Instead of trying to explain his point, he told them they can keep laughing. Hyper loose. I think Carpenter is going to have a good showing on Tuesday. 

While we are on the Kenai, Republican Ron Gillham needs a spelling and grammar lesson. 

APOC Reports

The 7-day Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) came out this week for legislative candidates . The next report is not due until October 7. Candidates are required to report contributions in excess of $250 in the nine days before an election.

Total income from legislative candidates for this reporting period is more than $572,000. Candidates collectively reported more than $1.65 million beginning cash on hand – money from the previous reporting period. Candidates collectively spent more than $420,000 on campaign expenses. And after debts, candidates collectively report $1.68 million cash on hand. 

If you would like a complete summary of all the reports, consider subscribing to the Alaska Political Report. You can email me at jeff@akpoliticalreport.com for more information. 

Here are a few takeaways from the recent reports:

• Anchorage attorney Robin Brena donated $5,000 to Democrat Ted Eischeid and $5,000 to Representative Cliff Groh (D – Anchorage). This takes Brena’s donations this cycle to more than $41,000. Suing oil companies is good business! 
• The following Republican candidates, for reasons completely unknow to me, paid Joseph Lurtsema significant amounts of money: Jubilee Underwood, Elexie Moore, Dawson Slaughter, Lucy Bauer, Heather Gottshall, Rob Yundt, and Senator Kelly Merrick. The money would have been better spent if they threw it out of a plane over a populated area. 
• Senator Scott Kawasaki (D – Fairbanks) raised just under $30,000, taking his total haul this cycle to nearly $100,000. His opponent, Republican Leslie Hajdukovich, has raised $170,000 so far. This race may end up costing in excess of $400,000 when it’s all said and done. And that does not factor in third party groups. This is shaping up to be a very expensive race.
• Republican Mia Costello, who had a slow start on the last report, raised $21,000. She reports $16,000 cash on hand. But her opponent, Democrat Denny Wells, reports more than $68,000 cash on hand. Brena donated $20,000 to Wells earlier this summer. 
• Representative Jesse Sumner’s (R – Wasilla) race is really strange. Sumner has barely raised any money and has not campaigned. Republican Steve Menard has reported zero activity even though he is clearly doing some campaigning. Republican Elexie Moore has given the bulk of her money to Lurtsema. And Republican Jessica Wright did not even file a report. 
• Republican Bart LeBon raised nearly $20,000. While his opponent Representative Maxine Dibert (D – Fairbanks) raised just over $9,000. They are each sitting on a little more than $40,000 cash on hand.  

Police Problems 

Two Alaska State Troopers were charged with misdemeanor assault this week stemming from a May incident on the Kenai Peninsula. The Landmine broke the story. Public Safety Commissioner Jim Cockrell held a press conference on Thursday (8/15/2024) to discuss what happened. Good on him for addressing it and taking questions from the media. You could feel the condescension and anti-police attitudes from Anchorage Daily News reporter Tess Williams and Alaska Public Media reporter Wesley Early. 

After Anchorage Police shot and killed a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly holding a knife, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced a series of police reforms. This was in response to several officer involved shootings this summer. While the police shootings this summer are all tragic, some context is necessary. Officers were cleared in the May shooting of Kristopher Handy. A woman called 911 to report a domestic disturbance involving a man with a shotgun. When cops showed up, Handy was outside with the shotgun. Another shooting in June involved a man named Tyler May. In this case, 911 was called about shots being fired in a parking lot. When police got there, one of the men pulled out a handgun while a K9 was deployed. Do we expect police to “negotiate” with people who are armed and refuse to drop their weapons? 

Anyhoo, the Anchorage Police Department union, who endorsed LaFrance, is not happy. I can’t say I blame them either. The next week weeks and months are going to be very interesting. Just like Vice President Kamala Harris trying to figure out how to appease the pro-Hamas radicals in the Democratic Party, LaFrance is trying to figure out how to appease her “defund the police” supporters. She’s definitely listening! From the press release on the reforms: 

“We know there is a lot of pain and anger right now, and a lot of work to do to make sure everyone feels safe in our community. We must engage with community members to do that, especially members of the BIPOC community, as we know that these shootings disproportionately impact people of color. We are committed to listening to the community, learning, and taking action.” Mayor LaFrance said.

Other Happenings

This was an interesting press conference. It was basically about how bad the Biden administration is for Alaska. Something I agree with. But when I asked about the horrible condition of the haul road, Governor Dunleavy basically brushed it off. We need to do a better job taking care of our own infrastructure. 

Check out this bizarre letter from Senator Bill Wielechowski (D – Anchorage) and Senator Cathy Giessel (R – Anchorage).  

This Phillip Izon guy is a real nut. Going after Jesse Sumner, who is probably the most successful legislator in business, is hilarious. Izon is mad that Sumner wrote an opinion piece in Must Read Alaska defending ranked choice voting. 

This guy never stops! 

This Week’s Loose Unit

There were definitely a few good contenders this week. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance picking a fight with the Anchorage police union, who endorsed her, was pretty loose. But someone else really earned it. This week’s Loose Unit is Nick Moe. Moe, a Democrat turned independent, is running against Democrat Carolyn Hall for the open West Anchorage House seat. He has a rabid supporter, Chelsea Foster, who keeps repeating the lie that Hall owns part of the Landmine. She does not and never has. I have told this to Foster multiple times.

But Foster decided to go full Loose Unit this week by wring a letter to the editor in the ADN. In the letter she repeated the dumb argument that I attack progressive women, and again attempted to hurt Hall by connecting her to me. Moe told me in July that he was going to tell Foster to knock off the baseless and dumb attacks, but I guess she did not get the message. Or he’s actually telling her to do it. Who knows.  

I had enough. I wrote this piece about the whole thing, which exposed several problems with Moe’s candidacy. Including how he is taking big money from Robin Brena, who wants to raise taxes on oil companies, and paying staffers who are totally against that. And also how he is getting a lot of stealth help from conservative Republicans. The whole thing is super loose. 

It could have ended with my article, but since, Foster has taken to Facebook, X, and even the article itself to comment! You can read a bunch of her comments below. Foster thinks very highly of herself. Moe refusing to distance himself from this nut is classic Loose Unit behavior. 

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.