After a week of political chaos, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced that the Division of Elections will certify former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor’s nomination to run for governor in the general election.
On Aug 31, Dahlstrom announced that she would not certify Taylor after the Alaska Public Offices Commission recommended against certification.
“The Department of Law has since provided this office with an initial, independent review of candidates’ public official financial disclosure statements,” a notice from Dahlstrom’s office stated. “That informal review identified numerous potential discrepancies between filed statements and public records. The department stated that the review is preliminary and is not a determination that any specific candidate violated AS 39.50.”
“Alaskans should decide our elections,” he said. “Not political insiders. Not special interests. Not the establishment. The people get the final say. Period.”
On the basis of that additional information, the Lieutenant Governor will certify Taylor, along with Jose Tagle, who is running for State Representative for District 22.
“The Department of Law’s informal review has raised questions about the recommendations made on August 31,” Dahlstrom noted on Sept. 4. “I will not withhold certification from two candidates on recommendations that, in light of this additional information, I cannot apply with confidence across the field of candidates. Certification decisions have to rest on a process that can be defended as to every candidate.”
The department provided an initial working draft of the same information to the Commission on Thursday evening. The Commission has not acted to reconsider its recommendations despite the need to finalize the ballots. The Division of Elections will now update the certified list of candidates, including the governor and lieutenant governor pairing.
Taylor praised the decision.
“This campaign has always been about standing up to political insiders and special interests who think they get to decide what’s best for Alaska,” he said in a Sept. 4 statement. “Then they tried to take me off the ballot. They realized that if they applied the same standard they used against me, they’d have to remove multiple candidates from the ballot, throwing our election into chaos. So, they put me back on. That tells you everything you need to know.”
Taylor said he and his lieutenant governor running mate Candi English are “running to end these types of political games.”
“Alaskans should decide our elections,” he said. “Not political insiders. Not special interests. Not the establishment. The people get the final say. Period.”
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With this latest development, Taylor will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot along with fellow Republicans Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson, and far-left Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.
Kreiss-Tomkins led the 17-field primary with 22.5% of the vote. He was followed by Tom Begich, who took 20%. Wilson finished third with 10% of the vote, followed by Bronson with 8.1%. Since Begich withdrew, that moved Taylor – who finished fifth – into the top four and a spot in the general election.
The Nov. 3 election will be decided by ranked-choice voting. In the primary, all 17 candidates ran on one ballot, and the top four advanced. In the general election, voters may rank the final four candidates in order of preference. First-choice votes are counted first. If any candidate wins a majority (50% plus one), they win outright in round one. If not, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots’ second-choice selections transfer to each voter’s next remaining choice. This process continues in each round until one candidate gains a majority, or two candidates remain and the one with the most votes wins.
On Nov. 3 Alaskans will also vote on whether to repeal the ranked-choice system, which many find confusing and easy to manipulate. If Ballot Measure 2 passes, Alaska will repeal ranked-choice voting and restore its party primary system, along with a traditional one-ballot, one-vote system for general election contests.
