Where is the Democratic party in Alaska? Why haven’t they sent out a tweet since May 31st, 2017?
These are questions I ask myself on a near daily basis. I wait for a tweet. I wait for them to tell us who is running for local office. I wait for them to be more visible and instead, they disappear.
The Democrats spend more time focusing on national politics vs running a strong ground game like the Sanders campaign did. I seen the Sanders campaign show up in Homer and had the opportunity to meet Jane Sheehan, a bright and energetic campaign manager.
Just coming to Homer made us feel as if the Sanders campaign cared about us. I live in Homer, Alaska a town with right around 5,000 people in the summer time, and around 3,000 people in the winter time. It meant a lot to see the Sanders campaign come through.
We felt like he cared about us. We believed in his platform. We didn’t feel the same about Hillary. If we did feel strongly about Hillary we would have probably gave her the nod, but we didn’t. Homer was over 90% in support of Sanders during the primary.
We know that the ground game strategy works because Bernie swept the entire state of Alaska with 82% of the vote.
What we didn’t expect, was that Alaska’s super delegates would go against voters wishes and vote for Hillary Clinton anyways. Casey Steinau, Kim Metcalfe, and Ian Olson all voted for Clinton, even though their state was 82% Bernie.
Let that sink in.
As far as being able to forgive those three for going against Alaskan wishes, I cannot. Every politician or representative isn’t judged for their beliefs, they are judged by the way they vote and these three super delegates completely disregarded the will of the voters and did what THEY thought was right.
They did not represent. They overruled us. Veto. Check mate.
If the Democratic party wants to win in Alaska and wants to win my vote, it needs to deliver a platform I can get behind and it must develop a stronger grassroots base.
Democrats must pay attention to local elections. From city council, all the way up to the Governor.
After turning Alaskan councils and the legislature blue, they need to put some time and effort into defeating Dan Sullivan, Lisa Murkowski, and Don Young.
These folks just sold out Alaska. They gave all the keys to the oil companies and if you think it ends at ANWR think again! Pebble will soon follow folks, along with all the other mines and oil developments we have been opposing. They are coming for it all!
That is why it is so important for the Alaska DNC to DO MORE. Ask the national party for money if you have to. Tell them we are in crisis mode here in Alaska and that we need to swing our legislature blue so that these tycoons do not get permits to drill or mine!
Just because the federal government gave away ANWR doesn’t mean the state has to issue permits. We own the land. We can also self-designate that land as off limits.
We can’t do that until we have a blue legislature. I know Democrats can win. I know we can beat the nasty GOP infection that is spreading. I know we can beat the ideologies of Trump, Tuckerman Babcock, and Suzanne Downing. I know we can win folks, we just need a platform and bandwagon to jump on.
The Alaska Democrats can win if they put these three things in their platform;
1- Restore our PFD.
2- Further protect the permanent fund.
3- Eliminate oil tax credits.
It’s really that simple folks. You will sweep the election because this is something that is most important to working class Alaskans. Democrat, Independent, and Republican voters all believe in those three things.
So, I am saying to the DNC; DO MORE.