APOC, the Alaskan state elections board, by law consists of two members from each of the largest two political parties, as defined by the most recent vote for Governor. The obvious intent being to have two Democrats and two Republicans and no other parties.
Except the Democrats didn’t run a ticket for Governor this year. Their candidate dropped out to become the running mate of ex-Republican Bill Walker, who was running as an independent. This ticket then defeated the GOP nominee to win the election.
“Independent” isn’t a party, though, and can’t appoint board members. The two parties that got the most votes for Governor are Republican (2nd place) and Libertarian (3rd place). Meaning APOC will now consist of two Republicans and two Libertarians, with zero Democrats, once the staggered terms of the current Democratic members expire in 2015 and 2017. As required, the L.P. of Alaska has already submitted a list of four nominees for the two positions, including their 2014 candidates for both Governor and US Senate, Carolyn “Care” Clift and Mark Fish.
This is not unprecedented for the Libertarian Party. After Ed Thompson garnered 10% for Governor of Wisconsin in 2002, the Libertarians were entitled to a seat on that state’s since-abolished elections board. A similar situation also resulted from Tom Tancredo’s performance for Governor of Colorado in 2010, where he placed 2nd and out-polled the Republican nominee, sending the American Constitution Party of Colorado into disarray as it struggled to find enough willing members to serve on numerous state boards and commissions.
It seems more like “tactical surrender” of a major party organization. IE, they could have ran against him but they know they would have lost, so it’s better for them to line up behind him and give him enough extra support to win, and hope that gives them enough influence over him and his administration, while denying the Republicans a win. But that’s different from a scenario where a Democrat runs as an independent just to avoid the taint of his party label, and even that would be better than nothing, because it would indicate that the label had become so toxic that they have to run away from it.
I agree that none of these scenarios are as good as Ventura in 1998, but on the other hand my friends in Minnesota have told me that Ventura went on to govern about exactly the same as any DFL governor would, despite his campaign rhetoric and despite being nominally alt partisan. And, his win did not make the Reform Party a major party either in Minnesota or nationally, and thus far hasn’t done anything for any presidential aspirations he may have; even the Independence Party of MN has now lost its status.
I was thinking more at the state level, for Governor, where there are more Republicans in blue states than vice versa. But maybe I was drawing too much from anecdotal information.
As for Walker, when a major-party withdraws its own candidate and forms a fusion ticket with an independent, I think “the full backing of a major-party organization” is fair way to describe the situation. He may be a great liberty-friendly Governor who fought hard against the establishment in both parties to get where he is, I’m not really keyed in to Alaska politics enough to comment on that, but he still won with the backing of the official Democratic Party of Alaska. Contrast with Ventura’s 1998 win in Minnesota, where both Dems and Republicans had their own candidates who campaigned against each other as well as the third-party.
For now. But the longer term trend is that the Republican Party is dying in New England and in the greater NYC area.
Likely, in fact Guinta’s a former 1-timer. He was elected during the teabagger midterms in 2010, was defeated in 2012 by the incumbent he replaced, then was elected again this year. NH1’s a revolving door.
Well, it was a heavily Republican year. Odds are pretty good those two will be one-termers if they stick with the NSGOP.
“Does New England even have any Republicans in the US House?”
None currently, two incoming.
Bruce Poliquin, Maine District 2
Frank Guinta, New Hampshire District 1
Ron:
I thought everyone would realize that was a bit of hyperbole on my part.
The rest of your comment sounds like great news to me!
Andy:
Do they? Does New England even have any Republicans in the US House? What percentage of the legislatures in Mass, Vermont or Rhode Island?
Ron Windeler’s comment indicates otherwise as far as Walker goes.
The Democrats are not the third party in Alaska, we libertarians are. They also won’t loose ballot access because they failed to get three percent in the Governor’s race. They still have more than enough registered voters in Alaska to qualify for that. Bill Walker didn’t get “the full backing of a major-party organization” from either the Republicans or Democrats. He was defeated in the last primary election by the same party organization that backed the defeated Republican incumbent. Because he opposed legalization, he didn’t even get solid support from Democratic voters. Other than a strong component of Ron Paul Republican/Libertarians such as myself, most of his support really came from independent Alaskans. The position papers that I wrote for him contained many ideas that were outside the box of the established two party thinking. He used a few of those ideas in his campaign, and I suspect more of them will show up during his administration. In addition to the APOC, which he is required by law to appoint ALP members to (Care and I are among the nominees), several of us are seeking other positions of influence within his administration. He said that he wants his administration to “look like Alaska”, and there are at least 7,000 ALP members in Alaska. We have the good ideas about Alaska’s (and the world’s) future. So far, he is listening to us.
I also don’t think it’s a coincide that we see Democrats do this more often, particularly in 2014. This year in particular the Democratic ballot label was a stone weight dragging down every candidate who had to suffer bearing it. And in every election, that’s true of more states than the reverse. Republicans are generally able to do better running as moderates in liberal states, than Democrats trying to run as moderates in conservative states, because state GOPs are better at creating a perception of themselves as different and distinct from their national party. So getting a liberal Republican to run as a nominal independent is more often an appealing scenario to Dems, versus the GOP getting a conservative Democrat to run as a nominal independent.
That’s just my gut feeling observation though, I don’t have any hard data to back it up other than the anecdote that the Dems did it twice this year and the Republicans none.
lol, fair enough.
They way I look at it, candidates like Bill Walker or Bernie Sanders or Greg Orman aren’t independents in any real outside-the-two-party-system sense. They’re just Democrats (or Republicans as the case may be) who don’t have that ballot label for whatever reason. But they had the full backing of a major-party organization in their states, and would/do govern for all intents and purposes as if they are a member of that major party.
It’s interesting that they choose to go that route, and says something about the brand value of the independent vs. major-party label. But it’s not like an actual independent or third-party candidate getting elected.
And I’ll console myself with the fact that they had to go “de facto” to do it. Remember, I don’t like Republicans either.
I’m sure they’ll be able to console themselves with their de facto win of the governor’s mansion. 😉
It’s good to see the Democrats finally take a well deserved third place.
Cody, I try not to hate at all. It is true the ALP was in a long decline in Alaska. They appear to be reinvigorated now. I have had my differences with the LP, that is why I’m with the CP. That doesn’t mean we hate each other or can’t work together when needed. We rejoice in the garden of Liberty which grows and blossoms in Alaska.
Who’s the third party now? LOL!
I thought you hated the Alaska LP and claimed they were declining in your state?
Congratulations to the ALP on this well deserved victory!
GOP has a pretty solid majority in the state legislature.
I have no doubts that the Dems will try to rewrite the wording of the law so that the Board always includes D’d & R’s, and occasionally includes a member of some other party
Also of note, is that the Libertarians would not have been able to take advantage of this had Clift not managed to get just over 3% for Governor, re-qualifying LP of Alaska for recognized party status.