Former members of the Alaskan Independence Party have organized a successor group called the Alaskan Party, which state officials recognized this week as a political group eligible for voter registration.
The Alaska Watchman reported Thursday that the Alaska Division of Elections approved the group’s application, meaning it will begin listing it as a political group and tally voters who register under the affiliation. Under state law, the group will become a recognized political party once it reaches at least 5,000 registered members.
The effort is coordinated by former AIP chair Bob Bird and former vice chair Mark Chryson, both of whom are serving in interim leadership roles while the group recruits members. To that end, the two have been encouraging former AIP members to re-register under the new party once the option becomes available.
The new party was formed following the dissolution of the Alaskan Independence Party late last year. On December 31, the AIP’s governing board released a statement announcing that it had voted to dissolve the party following declines in membership engagement and deeper questions raised about the organization’s mission. The statement said the party had lost its direction after the Walter Hickel–Jack Coghill years and described the organization as “legally alive yet spiritually dead.”
The decision was not supported by all members, among them Bird, who at the time called the choice to dissolve “premature” and said he would consider attempting to keep the organization alive.
According to the report, Bird questioned the process used by party leaders to dissolve the organization and sought to delay the move until a convention could be held. Bird and Chryson reportedly met earlier this month with Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, but their request to postpone the dissolution was ultimately unsuccessful.
Following that attempt, supporters made the choice to establish a new organization. In an opinion piece published Friday in the Alaska Watchman, Bird wrote that the new Alaskan Party retains most of the former AIP’s bylaws and intends to continue what he called the older party’s core mission. He also outlined several principles that define the new party’s platform, including advocating for public awareness that the initial 1958 statehood vote was “flawed.”
Bird argued that when Alaska voted on statehood in 1958, voters were not presented with all of the options outlined under the United Nations Charter, which included remaining a territory, statehood, commonwealth status, or independence. He wrote that the party’s primary goal is to push for recognition of those flaws and to pursue the same range of self-determination options afforded to other U.S. territories, adding that the effort is not intended as a call for secession.
Bird further wrote that the new organization intends to advocate changes to what he called “locally distorted” state laws and provisions of Alaska’s 1955 constitution. Among the policy areas he listed were the state’s use of ranked choice voting, grand jury powers, abortion policy and funding, and constitutional provisions he said allow excessive federal control over land within the state.
The group also hopes to clarify the party’s purpose for prospective members. Bird wrote that some voters previously joined the AIP under the mistaken belief that it functioned as an umbrella affiliation for independent or undeclared voters, something the new organization hopes to avoid. Party organizers also said they intend to remove from the membership rolls those individuals who have died or moved out of state.
Bird said the next step will be hosting a statewide convention once the group meets the 5,000-voter threshold required for party recognition. Delegates would elect officers, debate party issues, and conduct “all other acts and things which recognized political parties do.”
Be First to Comment