Under low, gray clouds that spit occasional rain sprinkles, candidates running for office in Alaska stood on street corners in Anchorage on Tuesday waving signs, rallying supporters and trying to win the attention and votes of passing motorists. Tuesday’s primary election activities continued what is a longstanding tradition in Alaska politics, with the major statewide candidates gathering in the largest city to make their final pushes for votes.
Both Begiches — gubernatorial candidate Tom Begich and incumbent U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III — spent part of the morning at the busy intersection of the Seward Highway and Northern Lights Boulevard. Tom, the Begich running for governor, is a Democrat and former state senator who represented an Anchorage district that is one of the most left-leaning in the state; Nick, his nephew, is a Republican and ally of President Donald Trump.
They and their sign-waving supporters stood on opposite sides of the street.
It’s an unusual situation, said the younger Begich, who was in a group that also included Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and his wife, Julie Sullivan.
“To my knowledge, there has never been an election in which two members of the same family have run for statewide office in the same cycle for different parties,” Nick Begich said.
Still, he believes the voters know the difference between him and his uncle, he said.
“You know, Tom’s running his own campaign, and he’s got his own perspective. We have different issues that we think we touch on and at the end of the day, I’m focused on federal issues. And the governor’s race is very crowded right now,” the younger Begich said.
“I think most Alaskans know who’s who,” he added.
Less than two miles to the west along Northern Lights Boulevard, gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins was at the Minnesota Drive intersection, waving to morning commuters.
Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat and former state House member from Sitka who refers to himself as JKT, was in friendly territory. West Anchorage is a reliably Democratic part of Alaska’s biggest city.
Campaigning statewide was a fun experience, Kreiss-Tomkins said.
“The campaign has felt like a love letter to Alaska,” he said. He mentioned some places and events he visited: the Hmong Harvest Festival in Anchorage, the Fourth of July and Mount Marathon festivities in Seward and a 450-mile trip along the Yukon River. “We’ve seen all sides of this incredible state. So it’s been awesome,” he said.
Asked if there might be a reshuffling among candidates who wind up in the top four positions, with possible withdrawals to consolidate support in the general election, Kreiss-Tomkins suggested that might happen.
“It’s so hard to say. I think it just depends on the results. People are going to talk and might try to forge coalitions. I’ve personally spoken to some other candidates, and channels of communication are open,” he said.
Former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent who is now seeking to return to the office he held from 2014 to 2018, refrained from predicting that he would be among the top candidates advancing to the general election.
“We’ll respect the process and we’ll work with whoever moves on,” he said.
Even if he is not among the top vote-getters, it was important for him to run to call attention to serious issues, he said after casting his ballot at a church in West Anchorage’s Turnagain neighborhood. Those issues are primarily the state’s unsustainable fiscal practice of living off its depleted savings, he said, along with the looming Cook Inlet natural gas shortfall that will affect the state’s most populous region.
Walker took a big political hit for reducing the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend in 2016. But that was a time when the state had a $4 billion shortfall and when oil prices were $26 a barrel, he said.
He and his administration took on “the hard stuff,” he said. “We kind of ran into the fire instead of running from it,” he said. Without using names, he said other candidates are making unrealistic promises about good times to come. However, “it’s not what you do in the good times. It’s what you do in the tough times,” he said.
There was some light-heartedness on the streets, as well.
Supporters of independent gubernatorial candidate Meda DeWitt wore costumes as they stood on the Seward-Minnesota corner opposite Kreiss-Tomkins and his supporters. DeWitt supporters were dressed as a blue and white shark, a white polar bear and a pink axolotl, which is a type of salamander.
Also hitting the Anchorage streets was Lisa Keller, a state House candidate with what appears to be only token opposition. A Democrat, she is running in House District 13, a slice of Midtown Anchorage that has been represented by retiring Rep. Andy Josephson, also a Democrat. Keller worked as aide to Josephson, and her only opponent is another Democrat, Felix Rivera, who has done little campaigning.
Waving campaign signs at the intersection of Dimond Boulevard and the Old Seward Highway as morning commuters drove by, Keller admitted that her race isn’t getting the same attention as the big statewide races.
“I think I know how the assembly candidates felt back in April because they were being overshadowed,” she said, referring to Anchorage’s municipal election that took place as the statewide races were heating up.
Her race also may lack the drama and excitement that is enveloping the statewide races, she said.
“It doesn’t feel like a very competitive race, but you can never take anything for granted. Just like in sports,” said Keller, who is a champion triathlete and a coach.
But a group of young Anchorage voters who cast their ballots on Monday at the Midtown Mall early voting site suggested that state legislative elections may be more important to them than the bigger races.
“I’m here voting because I think it’s important to participate in our local elections, and because I think that small-town elections, small stuff matters more than the big stuff, the big scale,” said Colby McMichael.
With him was Ze — “It’s just Ze,” she said of her name — who also attested to the importance of local elections. “Local change is the most important and most effective change,” she said.
McMichael, Ze, Jo Maillet and Curt Burgoyne were voting early because they were due to be on a friend’s film set on Tuesday. They were among more than 25,000 Alaskans who cast their ballots at the state’s 10 early voting stations.
As they waited in a line that was about an hour long, they took turns playing two guitars. The instruments were fetched from a car once they knew they would have to wait a long time to vote, they said. “We walked in the door, saw the line, and then walked right back out,” Maillet said.
