After the failed assassination attempt of Donald Trump yesterday, it feels a bit weird writing this week’s column. It’s a sad time in America when a former president and soon-to-be presidential nominee is nearly killed on live TV. We can only hope this will make the media and political opponents of Trump stop comparing him to Hitler and claiming he is a threat to democracy. The coming weeks and months in our country will be telling. Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting will be the first for Mayor Suzanne LaFrance as mayor. The fallout from now-former Judge Josh Kindred’s resignation continues. And the August primary is just 37 days away.

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The dynamics of Alaska’s ten Senate races, and the ones to watch

The following is a small excerpt from a recent special edition of the Alaska Political Report. You can click here for more information about the Political Report. A subscription is $1,299/year per organization. Discounted pricing is available for non-profits and government entities. Our coverage of the budget starts with the governor’s proposed budget, and we track everything in detail through the entire process. If you have any questions or would like to subscribe, please email jeff@akpoliticalreport.com.

In our June 27 edition, the Political Report broke down the dynamics of Alaska’s 40 House races, and showed the ones to watch that will affect organization next year. One note, the Alaska Division of Elections denied independent Bruce Wall’s candidacy. Wall was Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher’s sole opponent. This takes the number of House incumbents running unopposed to nine.

This week, we look at Alaska’s ten Senate races. Only half of the 20-membner Senate is up for re-election every two years (2022 had 19 due to redistricting). Unlike the House, where six incumbents are either not seeking re-election or running for the Senate, only one incumbent senator is not seeking re-election, Fairbanks Republican Sen. Click Bishop.

Only one of the ten Senate races has more than four candidates. In Alaska’s new voting system the top-four vote getters in the primary election advance to the general election, which uses ranked choice voting if no candidate reached 50% plus 1 in the first round. So the primary will essentially serve as a poll for the contested races.

First, let’s look at the ten senators who are not up for re-election this year. All but three are members of the current 17-member bipartisan supermajority.

• Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman. Stedman is the current operating budget co-chair of the finance committee. He’s previously been part of Republican and bipartisan majorities.
• Kodiak Republican Senate President Gary Stevens. Like Stedman, he’s previously been part of Republican and bipartisan Senate majorities.
• Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel. Giessel is the current majority leader. She served as Senate president in a Republican majority from 2019-2021. She was defeated by Roger Holland in the 2020 Republican Primary. Giessel came back and defeated Holland in 2022 with the help of ranked choice voting. Giessel was previously one of the most conservative members of the Senate. She became more moderate when she served as Senate president. Now, she is closely aligned with several key Democrats in the Senate.
• Anchorage Democratic Sen. Elvi-Gray Jackson. Gray-Jackson is the current chair of Legislative Council.
• Anchorage Democratic Sen. Löki Tobin. Tobin, who previously worked as a legislative staffer for then-Sen. Tom Begich, was first elected in 2022.
• Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski. Wielechowski is the current rules chair. He’s been part of previous bipartisan coalitions and Democratic minorities.
• Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes. Hughes is a current member of the small, three-member Republican minority (per the Legislature’s Uniform Rules, a minority in the Senate needs at least five members to be a recognized minority). She served as majority leader in the prior Republican majority.
• Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower. Shower is a member of the current minority. He served as state affairs chair in the prior Republican majority.
• North Pole Republican Sen. Robb Myers. Myers is a member of the current minority. Unlike Hughes and Shower, he was offered to be part of the current bipartisan majority, but he declined. He’s the only minority member who has a committee assignment.
• Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman. Hoffman is the current capital budget co-chair of the finance committee. The longest serving senator, he’s been part of Republican and bipartisan Senate majorities. He’s one of the most knowledgeable and powerful members of the Legislature.

Of the ten senators not up for re-election this year, six are Republicans and four are Democrats. All four Democrats are part of the current bipartisan majority and would be part of a future one. Three of the six Republicans (Hughes, Shower, Myers) would likely never be in a bipartisan majority. The other three (Stedman, Stevens, Giessel) serve in leadership roles in the current bipartisan majority. Giessel has endeared herself so much to the Democrats that most of the Republicans in the Senate are now apprehensive of her. In fact, she’s been actively talking to Democratic senators about organization next year.

Now, let’s examine the ten Senate seats that are up this year.

If you would like to read the rest, please email jeff@akpoliticalreport.com about subscribing. 

Kindred Fallout 

The fallout from the resignation of Judge Josh Kindred continued this week. Days after the lengthy report from the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit on Kindred came out, Bloomberg ran a story that said Karen Vandergaw had been demoted from her job as senior litigation counsel for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alaska. The article also exposed Vandergaw as the assistant U.S. attorney who sent nude photographs to Kindred when he was a judge.

Recall this Landmine story – that came out before the report was released – that explained how all of Vandergaw’s cases (and one other assistant U.S. attorney) had been reassigned from Kindred in late 2022. It also talked about how Vandergaw had an affair with a co-worker, James Klugman, who she left her husband for. Klugman also left his fiancé for Vandergaw. What awesome people we have working in the U.S. Attorney’s office! Here is how they responsd when the media tries to talk to them.

It gets better. Vandergaw applied for the vacant federal judgeship left when Judge Burgess went to senior status at the end of 2021. Maybe that’s why she sent Kindred the nudes! There is more fallout coming. I have been working on a story for the last four days that, believe it or not, is bigger than the Vandergaw situation. It involves Kindred and a local female attorney who also applied for the vacant judgeship. Stay tuned.

Other Happenings 

Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting will be Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s first meeting as mayor. Let’s see if the idiots from the Anchorage Party of Socialism and Liberation show up and try to shout over her or the Assembly members. At least Assembly Chair Chris Constant, unlike LaFrance, has shown that he won’t tolerate their rude and interrupting behavior at Assembly meetings.

This was a bizarre Facebook post from Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom (R – Alaska), who is running for Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat. I bet it was a young campaign staffer who did not know Fabio is the “I can’t believe it’s not butter guy” and thought he was some foreign policy expert.

If you missed the latest piece from the Spenaardvark, “Turn the car around, Julia: on performative helplessness and the future of Anchorage,” check it out. It’s definitely worth a read.

This Week’s Loose Unit 

This week’s designee is an easy one. This week’s Loose Unit is Representative Mary Peltola (D – Alaska).

Earlier this week Peltola did an interview with Ben Townsend from KNOM. In response to a question about the delegation’s response to the Biden administration’s decision on the Ambler Road, Peltola told Townsend, “I’m really glad you asked about this, Ben, because I actually did not approve my name being on that press release. I was traveling, I had been in Naknek for a bit and then Kotzebue yesterday, here in Nome today. I don’t think Senator Murkowski had signed off on that either.” Claiming that she AND Senator Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) did not approve the press release is maximum loose!

After the Landmine tweet, Peltola’s team clarified that she thought she was answering a question about Senator Dan Sullivan’s (R – Alaska) attempt to get the Ambler Road into the defense bill, not the press release. But the damage was done. The question Townsend asked was clearly about the press release, not the amendment to the defense bill. She very well may have believed she was talking about the defense bill, but the question was about the press release.

Peltola’s office quickly went into damage control to get the clarification out. I’m sure she heard from Senator Murkowski about it too! 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.