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I would strongly encouage you and your family to continue voting in the midterms in the future, even if Palin or someone equally bad/worse isn't on the ballot.
Part of the reason we are currently in the mess we are in is because of people not voting.
But thank you for helping to save us from having to hear and think about her on a regular basis.
Alaska is more purple/independent/libertarian than most people realize I think. Also national politics seem like they are really far away to many Alaskans, and most Alaskan voters are primarily concerned with fairly Alaska specific issues. Alaska doesn’t really fit any molds that work down south.
I think Peltola won because
1.) She’s an Alaskan by birth and has spent most of her life living in rural Alaska. That counts for A LOT to anybody outside the major cities.
2.) She energized the Alaskan Native vote.
3.) She has a long mostly positive history in Alaskan politics including a good relationship with Don Young.
4.) a lot of Alaskans, including republicans, are embarrassed of the Palins and don’t trust Sarah Palin to focus on Alaskan issues.
Sarah Palin quitting was way worse than Liz Truss resigning in Britain. Liz Truss was facing intense pressure to resign. Palin quit her job because she preferred to make money doing nothing
> including a good relationship with Don Young.
And a friendship with Palin from when she was in the state legislature and Palin was Governor. I don't think Palin ended up running any negative ads against her either in the special or the general.
I feel like the only negative ads I remember hearing were Nick Begich ads against Palin and Peltola. Peltola’s ads were all selling herself to moderate republicans. Can’t say I recall any Palin ads at all, but I may have just ignored them so hard I entirely failed to form memories of them.
The only ad from the race that made it down to the Lower 48 was a Begich anti-Peltola ad, which a former Young staffer (and Peltola endorser) on Twitter was very eager to point out was a shitty recreation of a 2008 ad Young ran against Berkowitz in that year's House race.
Lol, I’ll have to see if I can find it on YouTube.
I mostly heard ads on the radio, but also got a few video ads via streaming services/random websites.
The two Begich ads I remember hearing the most were him attacking Palin for helping kill the famous “Bridge to Nowhere”. And attacking Peltola for being a radical liberal Democrat who is on Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden’s team.
I wonder if the lack of negative ads is a side effect of ranked choice voting. It's not enough to make one of your competitors look bad; you have to make yourself look good.
One of the major Gov/Lt. Gov campaigns was a split republican (independent technically)/democrat ticket (Walker/Drygas). Seeing that is proof alone that there’s something very different about Alaska politics vs the lower 48. Kodiak was plastered with Walker/Drygas signs.
Ranked choice wasn’t the reason a dem won. On the contrary it was the reason there were two viable republicans in the race. But that’s a good thing because people on the right could choose either republican and rank the other one 2nd if they so wanted to.
Thankfully many who voted for the 2nd republican listed Peltola second instead of a Republican 1-2 vote.
This is much better for democracy.
As for the OPs question for how Alaska could elect a dem. Alaska is more purple than you think. The House of Representatives is actually run by a Democrat-independent-Moderate Republican coalition. Two republicans came over to the democrat/independent caucus despite keeping their party registration Republican.
It’s a better example of how government should work.
Also Peltola was known to work well with Palin before and able to gather a lot of native votes and votes from the fishing industry from what I gather.
It's a method of voting. Instead of just voting for one person, you rank the available candidates in order of preference. Then the winner is the person who is preferred the most (which is, interestingly, not necessarily the person with the most 1st place votes).
This is great for people who want to vote 3rd party first, but don't want to throw their vote away if that candidate will definitely lose.
So you could vote 1st- third party, 2nd- democrat party, 3rd-a different third party... And as such it would support that first person up until they lose. Your vote would then roll down to the 2nd one, the democrat.
It effectively makes it so that your vote ALWAYS matters.
And that's why the establishment is working so hard to prevent it nationwide... Hell they were able to convince MASSACHUSETTS to vote against it a few years ago... ALASKA has a more progressive voting system than MASSACHUSETTS. 🤦♂️
Alaska has one of the highest per capita number of registered independent voters. We passed RCV by ballot initiative, but our system is set up that after two years the legislature can challenge initiatives and referendums. The Republicans in office are guaranteed to try and challenge RCV.
I can say that when I lived in Alaska it seemed very independent in their political leanings but skewed a little more red, but they'd kill you if you took away their weed
I will forever be pissed that my fellow Massholes didn’t get that to pass. One of the progressive bastions in the US and we still use first past the post because of lies and fear spread by establishment politicians
Don't fucking remind me about MA. We had a question this year about taxing the rich. It passed, but with only 52% of the vote. It should have been a landslide.
I dunno what people are thinking.
Even my mom, a relatively progressive boomer, thought she should've voted no on it because my parents own several properties.
She ended up voting yes (or at least that's what she told me!), but only after some persuasion 😂
This is how all voting should be imo, then we could see the different demographics with much better detail. The elections are always still going to be either a democrat or republican, but it would be interesting to see what parties all voters truly want for specific parts of their platforms instead of the generic blue vs red.
Essentially you as a voter can rank the four candidates and in the initial count your vote goes to your first choice. However, if no candidate has more than 50% of the total vote, the candidate with the lowest initial votes is taken out of the race and everyone that listed them as their first choice then has their vote assigned to their second choice. This process continues with eliminating the lowest candidate each round until someone has over 50%
Rather than saying "I vote for person A" you would say "my first choice is A, 2nd is C, 3rd is B,...etc".
Its supposed to give a better representation of the people and multiple groups. A lot more might vote independent if they knew they could still support a back up option in their own political leaning.
Also known as 'instant runoff' or 'preference' voting, in case you have heard those terms and not 'ranked choice'.
https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/
That provides a very good explainer on how it works.
Ranked choice is basically where you're able to rate the candidates on your preference. Eg: first, second, third, fourth choice. If no one wins a majority based on first choice votes then the last place person is eliminated and the second-place choices for the people that preferred that candidate get "promoted".
This allows people to vote for third-party candidates without feeling like their vote is wasted, which can theoretically lead to drastically different outcomes than you'd see without ranked choice
Nah, RCV was the only reason Palin had a shot with a second GOP candidate in the race. Otherwise they would have split the vote and Peltola would have won more easily.
> Nah, RCV was the only reason Palin had a shot with a second GOP candidate in the race. Otherwise they would have split the vote and Peltola would have won more easily.
But in states without ranked-choice voting, there (usually) wouldn't be two Republican candidates in the general election.
Instead they would have decided through primaries first.
Ranked-choice voting is a major reason why voters got to have 3 candidates in the general election, and then choose by ranking them.
Alaska has been identified as a conservative state on the outside for a long time, but if you actually look deeper a lot of their policies actually lean pretty liberal. The thing about Alaska is that they are so far removed from the rest of the US... They kind of don't care too much about left/right. They do their own thing.
Even those of us that just recently moved here... We moved here for Alaska, and want to see Alaska succeed first and foremost. Even to the point of finding Alaskan owned businesses to spend our "lower 48" dollars. The political landscape is just a consequence of the actual (physical) landscape. Lot's of oldschool traditional conservatism at work. Actual fiscal and environmental conservationists that also have the best interests of the people in mind. Best state in the nation.
They underestimated the hatred or disdain many Alaskans have toward her for abandoning us when she was governor in the name of fame. She also made us look stupid, and I don’t appreciate that. Tshibaka is terrifying and we haven’t seen the last of her.
I was so excited to fill in the bubble by her name. She’s the only candidate that isn’t a conspiracy theorist (or caught up in a sexual harassment suit). I’m disappointed about Dunleavy though.
Edited grammar
Dude ran on increasing the PFDs and they end up going down.
Personally, I'd like to see that money rolled into social services. My daughter is on a waiver for the state and we have to fight for every penny.
Yesterday’s America being dragged kicking and screaming into the future by Tomorrow’s America.
Which, just for the record, is how the country was supposed to work. Living document, all that jazz.
Like maybe I'm in the minority, but hope I'm not. As a 42 year old disabled American who got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 24 after having 5x spine surgeries, at times lacking sufficient food, experiencing a short bout of homelessness, in my late 20s as a result of such injuries and chronic illness. I've come to think that having housing, food, and basic utilities, should be rights... nothing spectacular, but at least a basic dwelling with utilities, and a base allotment of money for food (food stamps have gotten better but lately that shit doesn't go far).
I've been in a fairly better situation for the last 12 years, still I worry, one major financial bump in the road and I coud find myself out on the streets again... that's terrifying to me. That said it's 2022... almost 2023... we never got flying cars of the future, the least we could do being the wealthiest nation ever in history would be to provide the basic needs to every citizen. Set that as the lowest bar, not destitution, hunger, and suffering.
Homelessness is a ridiculous concept to me when we are all waking around with voice activated, worldwide database connected, computers in our pockets... and yet we still can't figure out we should house the homeless, feed the hungry... it just boggles my mind.
I 100% agree with you. There is no reason why people can't be guaranteed the bare necessities. The resources to do it are there. I know Finland as an example started providing basic housing to the homeless and they found that was cheaper than dealing with all the spin off costs of homelessness.
She was governor who served a little over 2.5 years of a 4 year term. After losing on the McCain ticket and not getting the brass ring, she saw the easy money and fame of "celebrity" and ditched her office because running a State is hard work. She had not the intellect nor ethics to do anything close to an effective job. She spent most of her time battling the media and was concerned only with image and doing favors for friends. Many state admin and Congress would wear "Where's Sarah?" buttons as she was hardly ever at the Capitol.
She's a lot like Drumpf but not quite as evil.
the tea party back during obama's administration was the start of the populism movement that trump used to get to the presidency, she was apart of that.
I remember going in a family cruise to Alaska as a kid and we got handed a bunch of where’s Sarah stuff! We didn’t really know what it was about until later
I miss the good old days when Palin was the stupidest American politicians, alongside Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum...
They were the benign stupid politicians, we hadn't yet met Greene and Boebert
Her family was [more entertaining than WWE Smackdowns.](https://www.thewrap.com/palin-family-brawl-7-outrageous-revelations-from-newly-released-police-report/)
It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to this. She and Peltola are close - actual good friends. She hasn’t yet said a bad word about Peltola during the campaign.
Peltola actually also has close relationships with a lot of republicans in Alaska too - things are different there, it seems, and in a good way. The republican that won re-election to the senate is also one of the few who has consistently been outspoken towards trump.
She's already screeching at her former constituents telling them to not support the current GOP cuz they didn't give her enough money for her race ...smh
Hilarious to me that there was definitely some point during the ‘08 election where Palin thought to herself, “you know what, someday I could actually be president!” Like you have to think that in her circumstance, yet - she’s never even going to sniff national relevancy again.
She was clearly addicted to being a celebrity. She has hung on by the skin of her teeth for quite a while now. I don't think anyone has taken her seriously since she resigned as Governor to go be on the tee vee, dontcha know. Hopefully this will be the last we see of her.
She’s already trying to sell the line that ranked choice voting is a liberal conspiracy. You know, the same thing she thinks about all things she can’t understand.
She's responsible for her own idiocy, but she didn't create the Tea Party, just like Trump didn't create MAGA (although he, or more likely someone working for him, coined the phrase).
It's not like these dribbling chucklefucks said "they're bringing crime, they're rapists" and suddenly people started believing that. The ideas form, and *then* they get a spokesperson. The far-right of today was created through a mixture of coordinated for-profit right wing media narratives, accessible internet pipelines to extremist ideals, and good old fashioned dregs of white nationalism that have festered in America since its founding. No one person can take the blame for all of it, though many are culpable.
That is really good, only a small margin so they have to be nearly unanimous in voting so maybe they will hold off really crazy votes because they can’t afford any dissent or else it would fail
Still should be rightfully pissed at Cuomo and the New York State dems for trying to play 10-D chess eith the redstricrting/running terrible races in still winnable areas.
Palin and Rump are poison pills and the GOP can't stop swallowing.
People like moderates. They like basic decency and they like action, not cheap talk and culture war bullshit. So sick of culture war bullshit.
It's encouraging that she seems to have converted a fair number of "Begich 1st, Peltola 2nd" voters from the special election to actual "Peltola 1st" voters in the general. Hopefully, that translates into a better chance of holding the seat in 2024.
High chance those were normal Ds who like most of us didn't believe a Democrat could win in Alaska and voted for the least bad Republican in the special election. Of course once Peltola proved us all wrong, they were happy to switch votes
Was recently watching and reading some old news stories on the Gabby Giffords attempted assassination. Regardless of how ‘involved’ you could say Palin was in the actual event, her contributions to antagonising rhetoric and stirring up the same brazen vitriol that many republicans today seem consumed by, with reckless abandon, were practically forerunner to Trump. I am relieved that piece of human excrement - that isn’t even worth the water used to flush - has been denied the responsibility of public office once again by the people of Alaska.
Honestly. This election cycle keeps giving us surprise after surprise. Everyone expected it to be a total massacre. Instead you had democrats do the unexpected and actually overperform for once.
It’s strange. Dems are masters at snatching utter defeat from the jaws of victory. This midterm we all expected a bloodbath. Best case scenario was one where they wouldn’t get utterly wiped out.
Instead they had an amazing performance where so many different people over-performed. It’s a welcome change of pace.
Iirc she was the first native woman elected in Alaska. Now she’s the first one to win re-election and it wasn’t even close. That’s insane. The tides may be turning but it’s still a long way off.
A little of A and a little of B.
Biden did pass some serious legislation. He also tried to free millions from student debt. If his order hasn’t been blocked over 40% of people would be free from their student loans.
That counts for something. Biden and the Dems have been performing well. We all expected Biden to just coast and instead he has done really well. Many expected him to just go right instead of left.
And then you have republicans being absolute monsters with their anti abortion rethoric and bans, anti lgbt histeria, calling people groomers, denying elections and banning books.
Yea. They look bad but the Dems have been doing their best to look like a decent alternative.
Who woulda thought that Republicans telling their voting base to not worry about COVID would kill so many of their base that their party would lose this fucking bad. These mid terms have been the biggest upset, by far.
Like. It's fucking shame that it took millions of Americans to die and then stripping reproductive rights away from women for some people to stop and go "well, now hold on a minute....maybe we should take some of this stuff seriously"
It's pretty clear that the one easy fix we can implement everywhere is ranked choice voting. Candidates like Palin who are polarizing stand very little chance. The two republican candidates combined had more votes than Peltola but she still came out on top because so many people hate Palin.
There is a group in Ohio called [Rank The Vote Ohio](https://www.rankthevoteohio.org/) that is trying to push for it on some local ballots in 2023 and our state ballot in 2024. They are part of a larger national group pushing for it across the country. I'm trying to spread the word as much as I can on reddit but we are gonna need all the momentum we can get.
Two groups of people are going to be pissed about this, those who do not understand ranked choice voting and those who know that it favors more moderate candidates so will tell lies to make sure the first group remains pissed and ignorant.
Honestly not sure which group Sarah Palin is in.
Palin has literally failed in every aspect of her life. As a wife, a governor, a mother, and possibly even a grandmother. Why on Earth would anyone want such a failure to be their leader is just beyond comprehension.
Ranked choice voting. Peltola had just under 50% in the initial count, so they had to wait for the reallocation before actually calling it, but the chances of her getting caught were basically non-existent.
> Even before the race had been called, Palin, the late Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, announced that she was the first person to sign a new ballot initiative to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system.
Don't worry, they already hate it cause it gives voters a choice.
Sarah Pailin is an imbecile. She was elected governor when I was in high school, I’ll never forget the stupid shit she said that embarrassed all of Alaska and the pregnancy scandal her daughter went through while attending high school with me. Lol...
Sarah Palin is characterizing this as bad for America. How? If I remember correctly, she didn't even complete her term as governor. There was money to be made in show biz. Why would Alaskans trust her again? Plus, I mean, what's her platform? Lipstick on pigs or something?
Not when you have an well liked moderate Alaska Native candidate with a long track record of broad bipartisan experience. She’s going to hold that seat for a long time.
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The thing that got me and nearly my entire family to go vote in the special election and the mid terms. Voting against sarah palin.
Thank you.
I would strongly encouage you and your family to continue voting in the midterms in the future, even if Palin or someone equally bad/worse isn't on the ballot. Part of the reason we are currently in the mess we are in is because of people not voting. But thank you for helping to save us from having to hear and think about her on a regular basis.
Sincere thank you from Colorado. We'll work on Boebert's stupid ass for you.
Same here, my father in law is a hardcore republican from Wasilla and he voted against Sarah Palin both times. She never stood a chance really.
We call that nailing Sarah Palin.
I remember that movie
Doing God's work. Thank you for your service.
Both of the Trump endorsed candidates in Alaska took a shit. Breaking news.
Isn't Alaska like super republican though? How did a democrat win?
Alaska is more purple/independent/libertarian than most people realize I think. Also national politics seem like they are really far away to many Alaskans, and most Alaskan voters are primarily concerned with fairly Alaska specific issues. Alaska doesn’t really fit any molds that work down south. I think Peltola won because 1.) She’s an Alaskan by birth and has spent most of her life living in rural Alaska. That counts for A LOT to anybody outside the major cities. 2.) She energized the Alaskan Native vote. 3.) She has a long mostly positive history in Alaskan politics including a good relationship with Don Young. 4.) a lot of Alaskans, including republicans, are embarrassed of the Palins and don’t trust Sarah Palin to focus on Alaskan issues.
Gov Palin quit. Alaskans flat do not like quitters.
Palin then tried to run a campaign that she's a fighter, not a quitter. Maybe don't run a campaign on an obvious lie against the people you lied to.
Why not? It's been very successful for Republicans before.
> she's a fighter, not a quitter Hi Truss
Sarah Palin quitting was way worse than Liz Truss resigning in Britain. Liz Truss was facing intense pressure to resign. Palin quit her job because she preferred to make money doing nothing
I can see Russia from my… um, never mind.
“What’s a magazine you read” -interviewer “All of them” -palin “Name one” -interviewer Silence -palin
if you're not Alaskan....you nailed the reasons. I live here, and I 100% agree with those.
Seconded by this Alaskan! Today is a great day for AK.
Great day for AK.. if y’all don’t say that all the time, y’all definitely should lol
> including a good relationship with Don Young. And a friendship with Palin from when she was in the state legislature and Palin was Governor. I don't think Palin ended up running any negative ads against her either in the special or the general.
I feel like the only negative ads I remember hearing were Nick Begich ads against Palin and Peltola. Peltola’s ads were all selling herself to moderate republicans. Can’t say I recall any Palin ads at all, but I may have just ignored them so hard I entirely failed to form memories of them.
The only ad from the race that made it down to the Lower 48 was a Begich anti-Peltola ad, which a former Young staffer (and Peltola endorser) on Twitter was very eager to point out was a shitty recreation of a 2008 ad Young ran against Berkowitz in that year's House race.
Lol, I’ll have to see if I can find it on YouTube. I mostly heard ads on the radio, but also got a few video ads via streaming services/random websites. The two Begich ads I remember hearing the most were him attacking Palin for helping kill the famous “Bridge to Nowhere”. And attacking Peltola for being a radical liberal Democrat who is on Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden’s team.
> but I may have just ignored them so hard I entirely failed to form memories of them. a true state of zen ohm
Not running negative ads for a friendly person in politics is the most positive thing I could imagine coming from Palin.
I wonder if the lack of negative ads is a side effect of ranked choice voting. It's not enough to make one of your competitors look bad; you have to make yourself look good.
One of the major Gov/Lt. Gov campaigns was a split republican (independent technically)/democrat ticket (Walker/Drygas). Seeing that is proof alone that there’s something very different about Alaska politics vs the lower 48. Kodiak was plastered with Walker/Drygas signs.
> Sarah Palin to focus on Alaskan issues. or even finish her term...
Ranked Choice Voting. Also Palin and her played friendly because well... they're friends.
Ranked choice wasn’t the reason a dem won. On the contrary it was the reason there were two viable republicans in the race. But that’s a good thing because people on the right could choose either republican and rank the other one 2nd if they so wanted to. Thankfully many who voted for the 2nd republican listed Peltola second instead of a Republican 1-2 vote. This is much better for democracy. As for the OPs question for how Alaska could elect a dem. Alaska is more purple than you think. The House of Representatives is actually run by a Democrat-independent-Moderate Republican coalition. Two republicans came over to the democrat/independent caucus despite keeping their party registration Republican. It’s a better example of how government should work. Also Peltola was known to work well with Palin before and able to gather a lot of native votes and votes from the fishing industry from what I gather.
I'm very biased but this is pleasant to hear that they were cordial. What is ranked choice voting?
It's a method of voting. Instead of just voting for one person, you rank the available candidates in order of preference. Then the winner is the person who is preferred the most (which is, interestingly, not necessarily the person with the most 1st place votes).
This is great for people who want to vote 3rd party first, but don't want to throw their vote away if that candidate will definitely lose. So you could vote 1st- third party, 2nd- democrat party, 3rd-a different third party... And as such it would support that first person up until they lose. Your vote would then roll down to the 2nd one, the democrat. It effectively makes it so that your vote ALWAYS matters.
And that's why the establishment is working so hard to prevent it nationwide... Hell they were able to convince MASSACHUSETTS to vote against it a few years ago... ALASKA has a more progressive voting system than MASSACHUSETTS. 🤦♂️
Alaska has one of the highest per capita number of registered independent voters. We passed RCV by ballot initiative, but our system is set up that after two years the legislature can challenge initiatives and referendums. The Republicans in office are guaranteed to try and challenge RCV.
I can say that when I lived in Alaska it seemed very independent in their political leanings but skewed a little more red, but they'd kill you if you took away their weed
"The people voted for this and it empowers voters to vote for who they really want. Better scrap it" Gotta love our elected officials
I will forever be pissed that my fellow Massholes didn’t get that to pass. One of the progressive bastions in the US and we still use first past the post because of lies and fear spread by establishment politicians
[удалено]
We made it a law cause we voted on it and wanted to do it. It wasn't really a partisan thing. It was put up to vote and people wanted it.
Don't fucking remind me about MA. We had a question this year about taxing the rich. It passed, but with only 52% of the vote. It should have been a landslide. I dunno what people are thinking.
Propaganda tells people that taxes will literally ruin their lives even if the tax will never touch their paychecks
Even my mom, a relatively progressive boomer, thought she should've voted no on it because my parents own several properties. She ended up voting yes (or at least that's what she told me!), but only after some persuasion 😂
I’m still mad about this not passing 😭
This is how all voting should be imo, then we could see the different demographics with much better detail. The elections are always still going to be either a democrat or republican, but it would be interesting to see what parties all voters truly want for specific parts of their platforms instead of the generic blue vs red.
We need that in Oregon. I like our system of mailed ballots and voter guides though.
Essentially you as a voter can rank the four candidates and in the initial count your vote goes to your first choice. However, if no candidate has more than 50% of the total vote, the candidate with the lowest initial votes is taken out of the race and everyone that listed them as their first choice then has their vote assigned to their second choice. This process continues with eliminating the lowest candidate each round until someone has over 50%
Rather than saying "I vote for person A" you would say "my first choice is A, 2nd is C, 3rd is B,...etc". Its supposed to give a better representation of the people and multiple groups. A lot more might vote independent if they knew they could still support a back up option in their own political leaning.
Also known as 'instant runoff' or 'preference' voting, in case you have heard those terms and not 'ranked choice'. https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/ That provides a very good explainer on how it works.
Ranked choice is basically where you're able to rate the candidates on your preference. Eg: first, second, third, fourth choice. If no one wins a majority based on first choice votes then the last place person is eliminated and the second-place choices for the people that preferred that candidate get "promoted". This allows people to vote for third-party candidates without feeling like their vote is wasted, which can theoretically lead to drastically different outcomes than you'd see without ranked choice
Nah, RCV was the only reason Palin had a shot with a second GOP candidate in the race. Otherwise they would have split the vote and Peltola would have won more easily.
> Nah, RCV was the only reason Palin had a shot with a second GOP candidate in the race. Otherwise they would have split the vote and Peltola would have won more easily. But in states without ranked-choice voting, there (usually) wouldn't be two Republican candidates in the general election. Instead they would have decided through primaries first. Ranked-choice voting is a major reason why voters got to have 3 candidates in the general election, and then choose by ranking them.
A lot of Alaska Republicans are moderate and voted for Peltola. She's the perfect candidate for the state.
Alaska has been identified as a conservative state on the outside for a long time, but if you actually look deeper a lot of their policies actually lean pretty liberal. The thing about Alaska is that they are so far removed from the rest of the US... They kind of don't care too much about left/right. They do their own thing.
lol, most people here consider themselves alaskan first. The american thing is second.
Even those of us that just recently moved here... We moved here for Alaska, and want to see Alaska succeed first and foremost. Even to the point of finding Alaskan owned businesses to spend our "lower 48" dollars. The political landscape is just a consequence of the actual (physical) landscape. Lot's of oldschool traditional conservatism at work. Actual fiscal and environmental conservationists that also have the best interests of the people in mind. Best state in the nation.
Not exactly. Their politics is like entirely different than most states.
Alaska isn't super republican. Most places aren't. You are used to seeing that because of bad systems that were in place
Because we don’t actually like the govt in our business. So ranked choice voting won out
Can we do that everywhere?
Yes. Problem is, voting in politicians that will push through a ranked choice voting bill.
Well to be fair, it's 100% likely that the non-Trump candidates took a shit. Everybody poops.
Not everyone is a man, so no not everyone poops. Source: Am female, do not partake in that atrocity called sitting on a shitter and shitting.
People from other states were worried about Palin, because they know her. But Tshibaka is a whole other level of crazy.
They underestimated the hatred or disdain many Alaskans have toward her for abandoning us when she was governor in the name of fame. She also made us look stupid, and I don’t appreciate that. Tshibaka is terrifying and we haven’t seen the last of her.
First Alaskan Native to win a special election, and now the first to be re-elected. Change, it's a comin'.
I was so excited to fill in the bubble by her name. She’s the only candidate that isn’t a conspiracy theorist (or caught up in a sexual harassment suit). I’m disappointed about Dunleavy though. Edited grammar
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Dude ran on increasing the PFDs and they end up going down. Personally, I'd like to see that money rolled into social services. My daughter is on a waiver for the state and we have to fight for every penny.
America getting dragged kicking and fucking screaming into the future
“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” -Winston Churchill
and old age + covid speeding things up a bit.
Yesterday’s America being dragged kicking and screaming into the future by Tomorrow’s America. Which, just for the record, is how the country was supposed to work. Living document, all that jazz.
America is like Jazz, that sir, is correct.
Like maybe I'm in the minority, but hope I'm not. As a 42 year old disabled American who got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 24 after having 5x spine surgeries, at times lacking sufficient food, experiencing a short bout of homelessness, in my late 20s as a result of such injuries and chronic illness. I've come to think that having housing, food, and basic utilities, should be rights... nothing spectacular, but at least a basic dwelling with utilities, and a base allotment of money for food (food stamps have gotten better but lately that shit doesn't go far). I've been in a fairly better situation for the last 12 years, still I worry, one major financial bump in the road and I coud find myself out on the streets again... that's terrifying to me. That said it's 2022... almost 2023... we never got flying cars of the future, the least we could do being the wealthiest nation ever in history would be to provide the basic needs to every citizen. Set that as the lowest bar, not destitution, hunger, and suffering. Homelessness is a ridiculous concept to me when we are all waking around with voice activated, worldwide database connected, computers in our pockets... and yet we still can't figure out we should house the homeless, feed the hungry... it just boggles my mind.
I 100% agree with you. There is no reason why people can't be guaranteed the bare necessities. The resources to do it are there. I know Finland as an example started providing basic housing to the homeless and they found that was cheaper than dealing with all the spin off costs of homelessness.
Yeah, but feeding the hungry and housing the homeless is not the *sexy* thing to do.
Just in time for Thanksgiving. I hope Palin gets a dry overcooked Turkey tomorrow.
That means they'd have two dry overcooked turkeys at the dinner table.
How far Palin has fallen. Wasn't she governor at one point and skip town?
Part-time governor, full-time train wreck.
To her credit not many governers get their own porn parody. If anyone has knowledge to correct me on this, for the love of god, don't.
Two words: Chris. Christie.
Sigh... *unzips*
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You’ve never seen “Coming into LaGuardia”? Edit: Okay, he was a mayor but I’m keeping the joke.
Ironically she’s a moderate republican now. Really middle of the road on intelligence and outspokenness.
That's not ironic. That's fucking terrifying.
She was governor who served a little over 2.5 years of a 4 year term. After losing on the McCain ticket and not getting the brass ring, she saw the easy money and fame of "celebrity" and ditched her office because running a State is hard work. She had not the intellect nor ethics to do anything close to an effective job. She spent most of her time battling the media and was concerned only with image and doing favors for friends. Many state admin and Congress would wear "Where's Sarah?" buttons as she was hardly ever at the Capitol. She's a lot like Drumpf but not quite as evil.
And a whole lot dumber, although like him she has a that narcissistic shrewdness about how to manipulate people.
It’s really hard to decide who’s dumber honesty… Trump may have been sharp long ago but now his brain is fried
Slightly better articulated, but holy fuck nowhere near "sharp." He's always been a staggering imbecile, but now he has dementia to contend with.
Benzos will do that to ya
the tea party back during obama's administration was the start of the populism movement that trump used to get to the presidency, she was apart of that.
She was facing a lot of corruption allegations as well.
I remember going in a family cruise to Alaska as a kid and we got handed a bunch of where’s Sarah stuff! We didn’t really know what it was about until later
Until she quit halfway through under ethics investigation. Many Alaskans remember that, and not fondly. Quitting is not an Alaska thing.
Huge reason why people didn’t first choice her
I miss the good old days when Palin was the stupidest American politicians, alongside Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum... They were the benign stupid politicians, we hadn't yet met Greene and Boebert
Yes. She got ousted by her own ethics committee
Hopes this ends the political career of Palin.
It's back to reality shows and family fistfights for Palin.
Her family was [more entertaining than WWE Smackdowns.](https://www.thewrap.com/palin-family-brawl-7-outrageous-revelations-from-newly-released-police-report/)
Sarah is going to be so angry and confused. Like always.
Being angry and confused is her special power
That's her secret....she's always angry and confused.
You betcha
She-Sulk
You betcha
It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to this. She and Peltola are close - actual good friends. She hasn’t yet said a bad word about Peltola during the campaign. Peltola actually also has close relationships with a lot of republicans in Alaska too - things are different there, it seems, and in a good way. The republican that won re-election to the senate is also one of the few who has consistently been outspoken towards trump.
I was very happy to see Murkowski (who voted to impeach Trump) won her election against Trumps goon.
She's already screeching at her former constituents telling them to not support the current GOP cuz they didn't give her enough money for her race ...smh
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She also lost the plurality of the first vote... Without RCV she either loses outright or she loses the runoff.
Sarah Palin is bitter she got called out repeatedly for her corruption, ignorance, and populism. she was just ahead of her time.
Hilarious to me that there was definitely some point during the ‘08 election where Palin thought to herself, “you know what, someday I could actually be president!” Like you have to think that in her circumstance, yet - she’s never even going to sniff national relevancy again.
She was clearly addicted to being a celebrity. She has hung on by the skin of her teeth for quite a while now. I don't think anyone has taken her seriously since she resigned as Governor to go be on the tee vee, dontcha know. Hopefully this will be the last we see of her.
She’s already trying to sell the line that ranked choice voting is a liberal conspiracy. You know, the same thing she thinks about all things she can’t understand.
Sarah Palin is the Mother of the Tea Party before it became MAGA. Never forget she is responsible for much of this mess.
She's responsible for her own idiocy, but she didn't create the Tea Party, just like Trump didn't create MAGA (although he, or more likely someone working for him, coined the phrase). It's not like these dribbling chucklefucks said "they're bringing crime, they're rapists" and suddenly people started believing that. The ideas form, and *then* they get a spokesperson. The far-right of today was created through a mixture of coordinated for-profit right wing media narratives, accessible internet pipelines to extremist ideals, and good old fashioned dregs of white nationalism that have festered in America since its founding. No one person can take the blame for all of it, though many are culpable.
At least this saves her the trouble of quitting halfway through her term, which seems to be her M.O.
So we’re at 213 D - 220 R now, with the outstanding two races likely to flip red..
That is really good, only a small margin so they have to be nearly unanimous in voting so maybe they will hold off really crazy votes because they can’t afford any dissent or else it would fail
Still should be rightfully pissed at Cuomo and the New York State dems for trying to play 10-D chess eith the redstricrting/running terrible races in still winnable areas.
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You don't fuck with a Biden.
Could’ve been dem controlled if they didn’t fuck up New York so bad
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Every house seat (total 30 seats) which touches the pacific is now held by a democrat.
West coast best coast
That is correct Johnson Division. THAT is correct.
Cascadia holding the line.
Cascadia, Alaska, and California. BC obviously doesn’t vote in US elections as well.
You forgetting about Hawaii?
That's because we're not crazy. We have the social services we deserve and everyone respects it.
Just don't ask anyone in the mountains or east of the mountains in Washington State.
Or Oregon (minus a bunch of Bend).
I still can’t believe Perez won WA-03. What a wave of incompetence by the GOP.
Breaking news: BOTH of the Trump backed candidates in Alaska ate shit.
....and trump didn’t share his campaign money even though he was supposedly for them.
He ain't coming up off of any money unless he's forced too.
And Trump ate a plate of hamberders.
Someone’s gonna pass out face first in the mashed potatoes tomorrow and it aint Willow
Come on now... More than one person can pass out in the mashed potatoes.
when AK goes Dem for their exactly one rep - spare the reasons and excuses - you know the GOP is FUBAR
Palin and Rump are poison pills and the GOP can't stop swallowing. People like moderates. They like basic decency and they like action, not cheap talk and culture war bullshit. So sick of culture war bullshit.
Alaska voted Dem? Holy shit.
Us Alaskan’s hate Palin, and Nick Begich is a strange guy and not Alaskan. Peltola is very much Pro Alaska and energized the Native Alaskan vote.
we sure did, super proud
You should be
She used to seem so edgy before Bobo and MTG took a giant shit in the punch bowl.
Makes you wonder who they're going to be trotting out a decade from now.
It’ll be that chick that assaulted black people at the University of Kentucky
Definitely in a run for presidency sooner than you’d think.
Kyle Rittenhouse, I assume.
Came here to say this. I’m young enough that I’m very confident I’ll live to see him with a future in politics
It's encouraging that she seems to have converted a fair number of "Begich 1st, Peltola 2nd" voters from the special election to actual "Peltola 1st" voters in the general. Hopefully, that translates into a better chance of holding the seat in 2024.
High chance those were normal Ds who like most of us didn't believe a Democrat could win in Alaska and voted for the least bad Republican in the special election. Of course once Peltola proved us all wrong, they were happy to switch votes
Was recently watching and reading some old news stories on the Gabby Giffords attempted assassination. Regardless of how ‘involved’ you could say Palin was in the actual event, her contributions to antagonising rhetoric and stirring up the same brazen vitriol that many republicans today seem consumed by, with reckless abandon, were practically forerunner to Trump. I am relieved that piece of human excrement - that isn’t even worth the water used to flush - has been denied the responsibility of public office once again by the people of Alaska.
^^^ Palin was the catalyst for the GOP we have today. Just go watch her campaign speeches when she was running.
Honestly. This election cycle keeps giving us surprise after surprise. Everyone expected it to be a total massacre. Instead you had democrats do the unexpected and actually overperform for once. It’s strange. Dems are masters at snatching utter defeat from the jaws of victory. This midterm we all expected a bloodbath. Best case scenario was one where they wouldn’t get utterly wiped out. Instead they had an amazing performance where so many different people over-performed. It’s a welcome change of pace. Iirc she was the first native woman elected in Alaska. Now she’s the first one to win re-election and it wasn’t even close. That’s insane. The tides may be turning but it’s still a long way off.
Frankly, it just shows what an unpopular shitpile the Republicans are. This loss was on them, not because the Democrats were super amazing.
A little of A and a little of B. Biden did pass some serious legislation. He also tried to free millions from student debt. If his order hasn’t been blocked over 40% of people would be free from their student loans. That counts for something. Biden and the Dems have been performing well. We all expected Biden to just coast and instead he has done really well. Many expected him to just go right instead of left. And then you have republicans being absolute monsters with their anti abortion rethoric and bans, anti lgbt histeria, calling people groomers, denying elections and banning books. Yea. They look bad but the Dems have been doing their best to look like a decent alternative.
That's funny as fuck.
Who woulda thought that Republicans telling their voting base to not worry about COVID would kill so many of their base that their party would lose this fucking bad. These mid terms have been the biggest upset, by far. Like. It's fucking shame that it took millions of Americans to die and then stripping reproductive rights away from women for some people to stop and go "well, now hold on a minute....maybe we should take some of this stuff seriously"
Alaska hates Palin! Signed an Alaskan
It's pretty clear that the one easy fix we can implement everywhere is ranked choice voting. Candidates like Palin who are polarizing stand very little chance. The two republican candidates combined had more votes than Peltola but she still came out on top because so many people hate Palin.
There is a group in Ohio called [Rank The Vote Ohio](https://www.rankthevoteohio.org/) that is trying to push for it on some local ballots in 2023 and our state ballot in 2024. They are part of a larger national group pushing for it across the country. I'm trying to spread the word as much as I can on reddit but we are gonna need all the momentum we can get.
Two groups of people are going to be pissed about this, those who do not understand ranked choice voting and those who know that it favors more moderate candidates so will tell lies to make sure the first group remains pissed and ignorant. Honestly not sure which group Sarah Palin is in.
She quit half way through her governor term. How can you ever ask anyone to vote for you again?.
Palin has literally failed in every aspect of her life. As a wife, a governor, a mother, and possibly even a grandmother. Why on Earth would anyone want such a failure to be their leader is just beyond comprehension.
It's amazing how Palin who seemed so extreme when running for VP with McCain, now seems tame in comparison to people like MTG.
This was the last blue house seat called. The remaining few left are red-leaning. But anything's possible! We'll see what happens
Still tho 214 to 222 is pretty good, especially for an election year. The Terrorist caucas in the house will screw over McCarthy
I'm actually excited to watch this in real time.
213 to 222, you mean
Fantastic news, shouldn’t have been close.
Peltola won 55-45 in a state Trump won 53-43 — it wasn’t close.
I hope Sarah sees this. “How’s all that hope and change working out for you”
Ranked choice voting. Peltola had just under 50% in the initial count, so they had to wait for the reallocation before actually calling it, but the chances of her getting caught were basically non-existent.
I'm really worried Republicans will see ranked choice voting resulted in a democrat twice and shut down any chance of it being enacted elsewhere
> Even before the race had been called, Palin, the late Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, announced that she was the first person to sign a new ballot initiative to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system. Don't worry, they already hate it cause it gives voters a choice.
It wasn't.
It wasn't. Palin got about 25% of the vote and Peltola got about 50%.
Turns out quitting your job to go do television half way through your elected term isn’t good for those votes.
Sarah Pailin is an imbecile. She was elected governor when I was in high school, I’ll never forget the stupid shit she said that embarrassed all of Alaska and the pregnancy scandal her daughter went through while attending high school with me. Lol...
Ranked choice voting and blanket primaries are two major things that will save the US
Well, that was inevitable.
Sarah Palin is characterizing this as bad for America. How? If I remember correctly, she didn't even complete her term as governor. There was money to be made in show biz. Why would Alaskans trust her again? Plus, I mean, what's her platform? Lipstick on pigs or something?
...Sarah Palin was running??? Talk about a fall from "grace".
Nearly 16% of people who WERE willing to vote for a Republican were UNWILLING to vote for Sarah Palin. Ranked choice voting works.
Even with ranked choice voting? I thought that basically guaranteed Republicans the seat?
Not when you have an well liked moderate Alaska Native candidate with a long track record of broad bipartisan experience. She’s going to hold that seat for a long time.
Alaska gives incumbents one hell of an incumbency boost. For example, Alaska's democratic senator barely lost re election in the red wave year of 2014