Republican state Democrats are looking at the 2024 election like a snowshoe hare looks at an approaching lynx: with apprehension, not a little fear, and wondering whether or not the cat is hungry. Mary Peltola of Alaska is one of those Republican state Democrats, and her enthusiastic support of Joe Biden’s re-election effort could well cost her the election in November. Must read: Suzanne Downing of Alaska has interfered:
The shock-and-awe effect among Democrats continues this weekend, a full three days after President Joe Biden’s frightening display of advanced dementia during Thursday’s 90-minute debate with former President Donald Trump.
Democrats across the country are raising their voices – some trying to defend Biden, others calling for him to withdraw from the race. Four major newspapers, including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, and even the Philadelphia Inquirer have called on Biden to resign.
But not the Alaska Democratic Party or Democratic Representative Mary Peltola. They say nothing.
In Ms Peltola’s case, this is probably due to embarrassment. She enthusiastically supported Joe Biden’s candidacy in 2024, and claimed in February 2024 that senior Joe was “…one of the smartest and sharpest people I’ve met in DC”
Yes, exactly.
Extreme Democrat in the House of Representatives Mary Peltola (AK-AL):
“Biden’s intellectual acuity is very, very edged. He is one of the smartest, sharpest people I have met in Washington DC.”https://t.co/crjWtgWQFB pic.twitter.com/FvnjKGTDkL
– NRCC (@NRCC) February 8, 2024
The last time Biden’s mental acuity was “very, very forceful” was probably during the Reagan administration, and it’s obvious that Mary Peltola and other Democrats are making that claim – especially after last week’s debate.
Mary Peltola will almost certainly face one of two Republican candidates in November: Nick Begich or Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom. (See my interview with Nick Begich here.) In the 2022 election, Ms. Peltola had an advantage: She was able to attach herself to the moderate Senate campaign of Princess Lisa Murkowski, and the two are ideologically close enough to make the sale possible. In Democratic areas of Alaska, like Anchorage and Juneau, there have been many “Murkowski/Peltola” signs this election cycle.
This time she doesn’t have that advantage.
See also: Soros is on the rise again: Soros-linked gloomy money group supports Alaska’s Mary Peltola with huge ad buy
DC is not a swamp, it’s a tar pit: Case study, Mary Peltola from Alaska
And another factor: no Sarah Palin. The former governor still has enormous name recognition in Alaska, but that is not necessarily a positive thing; her name also motivates the political left in the Great Country to go to the polls. 2022 was a Year of low voter turnout for Alaskabut the left seems to have done its part, and Mrs Peltola won her first full term easily.
The final factor was ranked choice voting (RCV). The repeal will be on the ballot in November, and with luck Alaska will return to the time-honored closed primary system—but that won’t affect this year’s election. RCV may save Mary Peltola, but the experience of 2022 will, we can hope, enlighten the Republican candidates; the August primary will produce a Republican frontrunner, and if the other GOP candidate drops out at that point and endorses the frontrunner, that could remove the RCV confusion from the race and make it a one-on-one matchup. In Alaska, that’s a significant advantage for the GOP. Nick Begich has already promised to do just thatalthough Nancy Dahlstrom has not done so at the time of this writing.
Whichever candidate ends up running against Mary Peltola—or whether they end up running against each other, which is possible under the RCV—Mary Peltola’s support of Biden and her constant insistence that the emperor’s novel clothes are beautifully made and fit perfectly will cost her victory in November. Both Begich and Dahlstrom should hammer that home to her at every opportunity.
Susanne Downing concludes:
Alaska Democrats across the state have also fallen still, whistling past the Biden administration’s graveyard, seemingly waiting for direction from the national party on what to say.
Peltola or the Democrats in Alaska have not received these instructions, because the Democratic Party is currently in the midst of a civil war, a battle they brought upon themselves when they nominated Biden as their candidate in 2020, even though his dementia was already obvious but was covered up by skillful candidate management personnel.
Now they must pay the price and decide whether to appoint Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris or another candidate, and how to convince Biden and – importantly – First Lady Jill Biden to give up the White House.
This bagpiper is warming up in the wings, and the tune he might play in the Big Country is “So Long, Mary Peltola.”
