It's No Longer 'Sarah Palin's Alaska'
Daniel Kenealy, Guardian UK
Contrary to the Palin stereotypes, Alaskan politics is now a model of bipartisanship
n 2008 John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, flirted with selecting Joe Lieberman, an independent, who had been on the Democratic presidential ticket in 2000, as his running mate. Disconcerted by the reaction of his own base he gambled on Sarah Palin instead. The rest is history. Palin, whose transformation from disastrous vice-presidential candidate to the best actress in US politics continues to baffle and amaze in equal measure, may be Alaska's most famous political export.
But all that could change in 2014. For what McCain was almost courageous enough to do might actually happen in Alaska. A former Republican mayor of Valdez (Bill Walker) and an incumbent Democratic state senator (Bill Wielechowski) are considering joining forces to run for Governor and Lt Governor, respectively. Their mission: to defeat incumbent Governor Sean Parnell, who ascended to the governor's mansion following Palin's memorable, ahem, resignation in 2009 (to be fair, he was elected in his own right in November 2010).
While Parnell might not look that vulnerable on paper. there is a sense that the state is reaching a moment - not unlike the US as a whole - where a set of mounting public policy challenges need to be addressed. For the first time in years Alaska posted a deficit. And that is likely to be repeated next year. One of the reasons why the fiscal position has deteriorated is the passage of SB 21; a bill that gave tax breaks to oil and gas companies. Supporters of the bill, including Governor Parnell who championed it with vigour, claimed it would trigger economic growth through increased production. Opponents see it as no more than a giveaway of Alaska's natural resources and have successfully campaigned to have a vote on whether to repeal SB 21 placed on the primary ballot next August.
The state is also wrestling with such "wicked" problems as rural poverty, domestic violence, and drug abuse. And a natural gas pipeline, long a talking point, is nowhere close to being developed. A dynamic partnership between a Republican and a Democrat who happen to see eye-to-eye on many of these most pressing public policy challenges could be the silver bullet required to make progress.
It's an interesting testing ground for politics elsewhere in the US. The potential coalition of Alaskan voters that a Walker-Wielechowski ticket would target comprises independents, progressives, and moderates from both major parties. Moderate Democrats may find a bipartisan ticket such as this more appealing than the likely futile candidacies of Ethan Berkowitz, Les Gara or Hollis French, one of whom will emerge as the party's nominee. And there are plenty of registered Republicans, as I learned during a recent visit to Alaska, angry enough at Parnell's SB 21 giveaway to give Walker a second look.
Fair enough, this sort of independent, bipartisan politics might play better in a state where more than half of all registered voters are 'Independents'. Alaska, despite the stereotypes that may prevail (stereotypes that Palin does little to dispel), was quick to shun the Tea Party. Joe Miller, the Palin-supported Tea Party candidate, may have won the Republican senate primary in 2010, but he was taken down by a write-in campaign by the moderate Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski. Palin has seen her popularity - in a state that once gave her an over 80% approval rating - tumble so low that in a hypothetical presidential match-up Alaskan voters would be more supportive of Hillary Clinton.
It may be that such pragmatism is the precursor to bipartisanship, in which case Washington DC may be doomed for several electoral cycles to come. Yet that same coalition of voters - moderate Republicans and Democrats, progressives, and independents - exists across the US Indeed this is something that Charles Wheelan identified in a recent, and excellent book, The Centrist Manifesto. What they need are standard-bearers.
Walker-Wielechowski still might not happen. And if it does taking on and defeating an incumbent with Parnell's strengths will not be easy. But, given that it offers a prospect of the sort of bipartisan pragmatism that US politics so desperately needs, let us hope that does happen.
With Palin herself hinting at a prospective run for one of Alaska's two US Senate seats, the 2014 election cycle in Alaska could prove to be just as fascinating as anything going on in the lower 48.