It is January in Alaska, and that means the State Legislature is about to reconvene. Despite having Republican majorities in both houses, Democrats run things in our legislature again. This happens thanks to the betrayal of seven Republicans who will join with Democrats to form governing caucuses, defying the voters who elected them.
You might wonder how we elected seven people with such low character that they will lie to voters to get elected and then betray them at the first chance they get. Well, a recent example from North Carolina shows us just how liberals work the system to their advantage.
A Democrat in North Carolina named Lakeshia M. Alston, is trying to pull a little political dirty trick. Ms. Alston noticed that no Republican had filed to run for the district 22 senate seat there, so she changed her party affiliation and registered to run in the Republican primary. Alston isn’t a Republican, and in fact has expressed some pretty extreme leftist views, such as supporting the terrorist group ISIS. It is unlikely that she had an epiphany and changed her political views to become a GOP true believer. The most likely explanation is that she saw an opportunity to game the system and decided to take it.
Since there are currently no other Republicans in her primary race, Ms. Alston will automatically win the Republican primary and advance to the general election in November. Should there be a nationwide anti-Democrat backlash in the wake of all the Somali fraud being found and the Democrat support for it, Ms. Alston might even sneak into office as a faux Republican. While it is doubtful that a hajib wearing Muslim woman who supports terrorist organizations would normally be elected as a Republican, in today’s crazy world of politics, who can say how this will turn out. The important take away is that liberals will do whatever it takes to get elected.
Here in Alaska, when considering the case of the seven RINOs who join the Democrat caucuses, you have to wonder if these RINOs were ever really Republicans in the first place. They may have sneaked into office in the same way Ms. Alston is trying to do. Their intent all along may have been to pretend to be a conservative Republican to get elected and then govern from the left. If that was their plan, it seems to have been successful.
Fortunately, this is an election year, and Alaskans will have the opportunity to vote some of the bums out of office. Two of the RINOs are safe for now; Jesse Bjorkman (R-Nikiski), and Kelly Merrick (R-Eagle River) won’t face reelection until 2028. However, the remaining five must face voters this November.
Unfortunately, according to the Alaska Division of elections website, all of the RINOs are currently running unopposed in the Republican primary. Were the Republicans serious about stopping this behavior, each local district GOP organization would sponsor primary challengers for every one of the RINOs. Doing so would send a message that the Alaska’s GOP is no longer putting up with those who betray conservative principles and join with Democrats. The current lack of primary challengers tells you that the Alaska GOP is not serious about stopping this behavior. Until there is accountability, we can expect more political treason down in Juneau.
Every time I write an article chastising the weak leadership in the Alaska GOP, one of my Republican friends asks me to tone it down. They say it might further disenfranchise voters and cause other conservative Republicans to lose close elections. My response is that if the AKGOP tolerates the feckless seven, then the party is weak and deserves to lose elections. Wanting to keep the seven RINOs as members of your party because they are incumbents is like wanting to keep cancer in your body because it makes you bigger. The seven RINOs are a political cancer that must be excised.
Failing to do so will result in voters seeking more conservative alternatives elsewhere. Perhaps the Republican party in Alaska is heading the way of the dodo, to be replaced with some more conservative organization. If that should happen, I say bring it on, the Republicans have earned failure by doing nothing to ensure the integrity of their party, or the loyalty of their members.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
15 Comments
Great article! Thanks for telling it like it is!
We’d have to put it out in the open that the Alaska GOP is at the top of the problem and then work ourselves down the list you have and take into account the rest of the RINOs and what their lack of involvement has cost the state.
Is the gop ready to apologize for giving us the fraud Dunleavy? How about Murkowski? Do they have the guts to give a response to this question?
Dave, the Republican’s didn’t give you Lisa Murkowski. Open you’re eyes, she hasn’t never been a Republican. She continues to get elected thanks to Democrats, the natives in the villages (free stuff tribes), and Rank Choice Voting.
she hasn’t ever…
As usual Maxwell your wrong again. No republicans vote for Lisa. The Dems get her elected and even they hate her guts. I wonder where she is going to live when her reign of terror is over. Not much welcome in Alaska.
Oh but Doug and Steve: how naive of you both to pretend to not understand the corrupt system we have! Mike porcaro, appointed by Mike Dunleavy made millions $ in cash getting us RCV! Don’t you understand that Murkowski brought RCV to Alaska? Your republican friends and party are complicit! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!
Greg, thank you for offering a conservative voice on the perpetual willingness of Republican legislators to abandon conservative voters when they head to Juneau. This is a well worn path to success that many GOP legislators have traveled. Remember, Lisa Murkowski was a GOP state legislator representing conservative Eagle River before she became a US Senator. Republican legislators are trained relentlessly not to challenge the Democrat-aligned status quo in Juneau. They posture, but the one thing that is certain in 2026 is that GOP legislators will always come up with just enough votes to keep the left in power. You need look no further than the vote to ensure that the lawless far left public members of the Legislative Ethics Committee be awarded with yet another term in office while voters continue to not have a single public member of the committee who is a Republican. On that vote, it wasn’t just 7 GOP legislators who joined 100% of Democrats. That particular vote required a 2/3 vote in the house and a 2/3 vote in the senate, therefore 7 defectors wasn’t enough to keep the Democrats in power so more GOP legislators had to defect. In all, 21 GOP legislators joined 100% of Democrats in voting to keep the Ethics Committee so completely under Democrat control that the committee continues year after year to not have even one Republican member. This is the status quo the Alaska GOP legislative delegation is committed to defending.
It is partially true that there are 7 defectors. I say “partly” because the GOP establishment that you decry in this article continues to exist based on the overt deceit that there are only 7 defectors and that by addressing those seven defectors conservatives will again find a voice in Juneau. In debate, this would be referred to as the fallacy of alternate causality. Blessings to all who would stand against manifest evil in our body politic.
Thank you for the completely great and detailed explanation. I’m a hopeful person that sees term limits in the future. Only if we have a legislative body and governor to back such a bill for a vote of the people.
Hi David, Thank you for the reply. You know more than most of us the challenges faced by conservative legislators down in Juneau. I am sure that the difficulties you faced are beyond what most Alaskans can appreciate. Thank you for fighting the good fight.
Ranked choice voting should help.
Great Article,Greg
Excellent article.
My focus will be defeating Louise Stutes who hopes to move up top the Senate. I’d even consider supporting anyone in the general who has a shot. Stutes is bad news bears not only politically, but as a person. Incredibly low character and very entitled. If I could, I would throw my hat into the R primary against her.
follow the money, look at who pays to get them elected.
ITS NOT US LITTLE PEOPLE
Good words, Greg and David. So, what do we do about it?
I am For the 80% “good” people (their values are for Life) who agree with us* getting together to fight the “bad” people (those who are for their own greed and power), but I often see so much “in-fighting” as I commented on the Dunleavy article. (*Ronald Regan’s words that these 80% are our friends, not our enemies.)
We need state-wide, yet personal, individualist prayer, in my opinion, to up-root this “deep state” power.
Matsu’s Dr. Louis Day with a doctorate in the US Constitution spoke at our District 27 last yr that the “separation of church and state” is a whole farce, and yet, Christians are still so afraid, it seems, to affect their faith into politics!
Let people know of this lie, and that our Founding Fathers continually combined their faith with politics.
And can we please try to “love our enemies” as Jesus did? Coming against each other for the little that we may not agree on, does Not help our cause! It only divides us…and the enemy, then, loves that!
“God, may your help us to turn our State to a good, wholesome conservative state, where abortion and child/human trafficking is eradicated, and where our leaders are honest, courageous and conquering against the enemy around us. Help us to be Lights in a dark world. Thank you, God. Amen.”