Al Gross is the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Alaska. He is criticizing the Republican incumbent in a way that every Democrat running against an incumbent Senator can also criticize. (Except, of course, for Susan Collins, who got special permission from Mitch McConnell to vote the way she did.)
“Senator Dan Sullivan voted to deny Alaskans the opportunity to hear from witnesses at the Senate’s impeachment trial. No matter how you feel or have felt about this process so far, I think we can all agree that this is not the Alaskan way. We deserve facts and we deserve a fair trial, always. That’s the way it should be, no matter the political party of the President.
Dan Sullivan has shown us yet again that he is a yes man for the President. He puts his party — not Alaska — first, every chance he gets. That’s not what we need in a Senator. Our state (and our country) deserves better.
I grew up learning about bipartisanship first hand. My Dad was a Democrat, but he was the Attorney General for the Republican Governor Jay Hammond. Together, they forged a path forward for Alaska. They created the Permanent Fund and the Dividend. They worked tirelessly to make Alaska the unique, special place it is today.
It wasn’t an easy task. There were plenty of disagreements. There was plenty of tension. Politics would always rear its nasty head, and partisanship often made compromise seem difficult. But at the end of the day, Alaska came first. And that always proved to be a winning formula for my Dad and Governor Hammond. I look back on their relationship and think about what they would do today.
They would agree that, at a time like this, politics cannot come in the way of facts. They would agree that Dan Sullivan did a disservice to Alaskans by blocking witness testimony. They would agree that whether a President is a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, a trial is a trial and the facts are the facts. We deserve a complete and fair process.
That’s not what Dan Sullivan voted for.
It’s time to make a change in 2020.”
Democrats: Copy the man.