Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. On Being a Democrat from the Northeast, Homogeneity
2020 General Election
Flip the Senate. Democrats have hopes for winning in Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia. Even South Carolina and Mississippi. How about Alaska?
Not a Democrat exactly. Al Gross https://dralgrossak.com/ is running as a “no-party” candidate. The Democratic Party has endorsed him. That should clear out opponents in the Democratic primary.
Is this a little odd? Not so odd in the US Senate. Two US Senators who vote with the Democrats are not Democrats. Angus King of Maine is an Independent. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is a Democratic Socialist who wants to be the Democratic nominee for President.
Is this a little odd? Not so odd in Alaska. In 2018, Alyse Galvin, an independent (even though Alaska law doesn’t allow use of the term because there is an Alaska Independence Party) won the Democratic nomination to run for Alaska’s only House seat. She lost to the incumbent 53-47.
In 2014, the process of electing a governor was more complicated and more successful for the Democrats. Bill Walker, formerly the Republican mayor of Valdez was running for governor as an independent. Two months before the election, he merged his campaign with the Democrats. The Democratic nominee for Governor, Byron Mallott, became his Lt. Governor candidate. They defeated, 48-46, the Republican incumbent governor, Sean Parnell, whose running mate was Dan Sullivan, Mayor of Anchorage.
Republicans do it. In 2010, Senator Lisa Murkowski lost the primary to social conservative Joe Miller. She regrouped and ran independently. She won with a write-in campaign because she could not get listed on the ballot.
Is this a little odd? In 2014, Dan Sullivan was elected US Senator from Alaska, 48-46, defeating the incumbent Mark Begich. Not the Dan Sullivan who ran for Lt. Governor in 2014 and was mayor of Anchorage. The successful candidate for the US Senate was the Dan Sullivan who had been GW Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, had been Alaska’s Attorney General for a year and Commissioner of Natural Resources for three.
Not at all odd. Al Gross has been running as an independent candidate for the US Senate. The Alaskan Democratic Party has endorsed him.
Could he win? Let me repeat. An independent endorsed by the Democrats for the US House lost 53-47 in 2018. An independent endorsed by the Democrats for the governorship in 2014 won 48-46. In 2014, Dan Sullivan replaced a Mark Begich, a Democratic incumbent US Senator. Democrats can win in Alaska. Independents can win in Alaska. Independents endorsed by the Democrats can win in Alaska.
Senator Dan Sullivan is vulnerable. A poll in June this year tested another Democrat, Forrest Dunbar, who now plans to run for mayor of Anchorage in 2021. The poll found him actually tied or virtually tied with Sullivan depending on whether he ran as a Democrat or as an independent endorsed by the Democrats. Al Gross could take advantage of Dan Sullivan’s vulnerability.
Why is Dan Sullivan vulnerable? That is not so clear. Because his ties with Alaska are relatively recent? He came to Alaska slightly more than twenty years ago for a judicial clerkship. He didn’t last long. He returned to work in Washington. His girlfriend, later his wife, was there. She, however, has real Alaska claims. She was on the staff one of Alaska’s senators and is an Athabaskan, a native American tribe from Alaska’s interior. Because he withdrew his support from Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016 after scandals became public? He has made up for that with loyalty to Donald Trump as Senator. Even if Dan Sullivan is vulnerable, he will not be easy to defeat.
Who is Al Gross to defeat Sullivan? He is a native born Alaskan. His father, Avrum, was Attorney General of Alaska. His mother, Shari, founded the League of Women Voters of Alaska and was the first Executive Director of the United Fishermen of Alaska. Al Gross has been a commercial fisherman since he was a teenager. He borrowed money to buy his first boat when he was 14. He earned money fishing to help pay for college and medical school. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He founded and was head of the Juneau Bone and Joint Center. His wife is a pediatrician. He still has a fishing business and has thoughts about the medical care system.
Al Gross suggests that offering Medicare as a public option would be the route to more universally accessible health care. He is for Medicare negotiating the price of medicine as a route to reducing health care costs. He’s for comprehensive women’s health care services.
He’s for increasing the minimum wage, strengthening the rights of workers to bargain collectively, and making college more affordable. He argues for major steps to combat climate change, noting that Alaska is actually losing villages to the ocean. He describes the current system for funding campaigns as corrupting.
With those views, why isn’t Al Gross a Democrat? He attacks Dan Sullivan for voting with his party 97% of the time. Al Gross’s video shows him in the ocean as a commercial fisherman saying “if you’re out here, you have to think for yourself.” It is an Alaska thing. Republicans have created an image of rugged individualism within their party. When holding political views that resemble the views of Democrats, in Alaska the individualism rings truer when you are outside the political party system.
This will be an expensive campaign. In 2014, Mark Bedich turned down an agreement to only raise money in Alaska. The two candidates raised $40 million. Double that amount for 2020. Triple it. Help Al Gross. He could be the Democrats secret weapon. Give him some financial support. Find a way to volunteer.
We know who the Democratic nominee will be in some of the Senate battlegrounds. The contest for the US Senate is crucial for the direction of the country. Democrats need to win the Presidency and flip a net of three Senate seats. Pick the candidates you like. Consider monthly donations. Consider ways to volunteer.
Alabama Reelect Doug Jones
Alaska Elect Al Gross
Arizona Elect Astronaut Mark Kelly
Iowa Elect Businesswoman Theresa Greenfield
Maine Elect Maine House Majority Leader Sara Gideon
Michigan Reelect Gary Peters
Minnesota Reelect Tina Smith
Mississippi Elect former Congressman and Ag Secy Mike Espy
New Hampshire Reelect Jeanne Shaheen
South Carolina Elect former Party Chair Jaime Harrison
