Based on a flyer, I attended what I believed to be a Fairbanks town hall hosted for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan on March 17.
As a conservative, I was curious to hear from my senator and engage in a productive conversation with fellow constituents. However, what I walked into was not a town hall, but rather a protest against the very man I came to hear from. It looked like a standard town hall event. It was advertised at the library, the location and time seemed to line up but upon arrival, the scene was anything but what I had expected. Instead of a discussion about policy or the senator’s actions, there was a palpable energy of frustration and dissent.
An empty chair was placed at the front, a symbol of Senator Sullivan’s absence, though no one took ownership of the event.
A young lady approached me, holding a piece of paper with a QR code, asking if I wanted to stay updated on similar events.
When I asked her who was organizing the event, she replied with a cryptic response: “There is a different person that takes that responsibility each time so that we don’t get targeted.” I couldn’t help but find the irony striking. A group of about 125-150 people, gathered in what seemed to be a safe space for free speech, were apparently so fearful of backlash that they couldn’t even publicly claim responsibility for hosting the event?
The flyer in question, which I later discovered had been posted on the Native Movement website and their recent newsletter, described the event as an “Empty Chair Town Hall.” In this instance, the event was framed as a way to hold Senator Sullivan accountable for declining the invitation to attend the meeting. Did he really decline, was he really asked/invited or demanded of?
This “Empty Chair” event was a missed opportunity, a chance for people to vent their frustrations (real or imagined or made up) without offering real solutions. This event, far from facilitating a thoughtful exchange of ideas, seemed more like a performance aimed at making a point rather than fostering understanding. Do we get to hold them accountable for a “fake” townhall?
The views expressed here are those of the author.
8 Comments
Yeah, I can see why they do that because when you go out of your way to support local groups like Alaska Right to Life, Alaska Gun Rights, or the Alaska Grand Jury Association, you get targeted by political psychological operations by the very people who claim to be conservative.
Sally: Here’s s a test of your hypocrisy (which BTW on march 21 the strategy of hypocrisy was added to the national republican RNC platform for the 2026 midterms; so was gullibility. Both were unanimously accepted.). Sullivan was invited to a meeting with his constituents. He declined. He knew that a thousand Fairbanks citizens would eviscerate his general weakness and his spectacular silence on our county’s assault by republican domestic terrorists. He held true to Pebble shill Tom Collier’s assessment of Sullivan 5 years ago: “ So right now they’re just kind of sitting over in a corner and being quiet, ok?”
You seem to forget the 2012 Republican National Convention, when Clint Eastwood (a supporter of Mitt Romney at the time) spent much of his speech time on a largely improvised routine addressing an empty chair representing President Barack Obama.
LOL! Right on.
This is so rich…they want to Lampoon the two Roble who show up for work yet they never once criticize no show Mary and her refusal to show up forwork
“the event was framed as a way to hold Senator Sullivan accountable for declining the invitation to attend the meeting.” Duncan caught the surface vibe but not the real reason Alaskans wanted to have Sullivan there (he was invited). We wanted to learn why he is sitting quietly in his corner while Trump, his major campaign donor and the fired 7-11 managers of his cabinet are destroying our country and our democracy. Big bad stuff is occurring caused by intellectual gum drops, grifters, and incompetents acting under a mandate of dishonesty. Why is Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska not protesting? Why does Sullivan stand FOR Trump rather than stand UP to Trump?
So the ends justify the means is what your saying, as long as it applies to Trump? Correct? It does not matter that this was a duplicitous attempt to attack. I guess if you had promised per diems, “no Show Mary” would have shown up. But then again in her gratefully short term, she never really accomplished anything except assist one of the most brilliantly cognitive men she had ever met obstruct Alaska – the very thing she was not elected to do. Why did “no show Mary” stand Against Alaska rather than Stand Up for Alaska?
A Stunt organized by Fairbanks leftists. Completely phony. False advertising. Check out the article at KUAC.ORG : https://fm.kuac.org/wildfires/2025-03-19/constituents-air-complaints-and-questions