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  • David TottenSkylarkDuquesne@mas.to
    Oct 23, 2026, 11:11 PM

    (3/4)
    At their height of power, the AIP managed to capture Alaska's Governor's Mansion, but that's really overstating it. Wally Hickel was always a fairly vanilla Republican--more moderate than some, more of a jerk than many--and it always seemed to me that he had co-opted the AIP to facilitate a right-flank attack on the party and, running for re-election in 1994, he switched back to the GOP.*

    I saw lots of examples of this when I was a journalist. Sour-grapes candidates who were behind in a primary switching to AIP to unfurl their RW flag. None of them talked about secession.

    *I met Wally a couple of times.

    #election #alaska #uspol

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  • David TottenSkylarkDuquesne@mas.to
    Oct 23, 2026, 11:23 PM

    (4/4)
    So, in that sense, Dan J is not doing anything out of character for an AIP'er. Acting as a spoiler for the orthodox GOP has been the AIP's role as long as I've known them! I think a few Democratic governors can thank AIP candidates for their wins, but that's absolutely on the fringies, not the Ds!*

    Today's articles suggest that Alaska's fairly recent adoption of ranked-choice voting** is what's changed, but they are undervaluing the other big change: MAGA.

    There's no need for a right flank party in Alaska since MAGA captured the GOP. What I think is funny here is that Dan J's big sin isn't that he isn't RW enough, it's that Dan S is Trump loyal!

    Help yourself to looking into some of the characters in the AIP history--ranging from colorful to terrifying.

    (/end)

    *please take note of this lesson on the consequences of purity tests.

    **I'm not a fan.

    #uspol #election #alaska

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