Fogbow

ANCHORAGE — The Matanuska-Susitna Valley, a lush patch of the state where the lakes are fed by glacial meltwater, is where Sarah Palin launched her political career three decades ago. In the heart of the state’s conservative movement, she rose from city council member to small-town mayor, before beating a sitting Republican governor and becoming the GOP nominee for vice president in 2008.

But to construction contractor Jesse Sumner, who was born and raised in the valley and in 2018 was elected to the local borough assembly on a platform of fiscal conservatism and gun rights, that’s all a distant memory overshadowed by what he sees as years of political neglect. Now, as Palin seeks a comeback in a run for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat, she won’t be getting his support.

“I think maybe she left us behind somewhere on the way to fame,” said Sumner, who has supported the candidacy of one of Palin’s opponents since last fall and is not changing his plans. He complained that Palin — who has spent much of the past decade as a right-wing celebrity, bouncing between reality TV, cable news punditry and the Trump movement — hasn’t been involved in Alaska politics since leaving office in 2009.



It’s the first time in five decades that Republican Rep. Don Young, who died last month, won’t be on the ballot. The top four vote-getters in June’s nonpartisan primary will move on to a special election in August under a recently implemented ranked-choice voting system. Nearly 50 candidates have entered the race.

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:55 am Oh ya, she is just one crazy in a very crowded field.

keith wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 9:10 am

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:55 am Oh ya, she is just one crazy in a very crowded field.

Its a preferential voting system. Called "rank choice" in USA.

bob wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 3:59 pm

keith wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 9:10 am

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:55 am Oh ya, she is just one crazy in a very crowded field.

Its a preferential voting system. Called "rank choice" in USA.

Alaska uses a a slightly different system.

In the upcoming primary, the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. The general election then uses the usual ranked-choice voting for the Final Four.

keith wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 9:10 am

Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:55 am Oh ya, she is just one crazy in a very crowded field.

Its a preferential voting system. Called "rank choice" in USA.

Look for Australian (we have a zillion years experience) "vote whisperers" to set up preference deals.

In a 50 person field, some of those folks are stalking horses. Assume nobody gets 50% 1st choice votes, so the bottom dwellers vote go to their 2nd choice, and so on till sombody gets to 50%.

Vote whisperers are paid big bucks to secure those preference deals. Senators have been elected with less than 5% 1st choice votes.

Palin could win if she can organize the right set of preference deals.

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 10:24 pm Explain ‘…Seth Abramson ’ please?

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 10:30 pm

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 10:24 pm Explain ‘…Seth Abramson ’ please?

He predicts a lot of things progressives want to hear that rarely if ever pan out. I blocked him years ago for that.

Edit: Short version: Low credibility. So many bombshells, so few explosions.

Sarah Palin’s Bid for New Libel Trial Against The Times Is Denied
A judge ruled that Ms. Palin failed to introduce “even a speck” of evidence to prove that the newspaper defamed her in a 2017 editorial that mistakenly connected her political rhetoric with a mass shooting.

Sarah Palin lost her bid for a new trial in her libel case against The New York Times on Tuesday, with a judge ruling that she had failed to introduce “even a speck” of evidence necessary to prove the newspaper had defamed her in a 2017 editorial.

The written decision by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said that while mistakes were made as editors rushed to meet deadlines, “a mistake is not enough to win if it was not motivated by actual malice.”

Actual malice is the legal bar set by the Supreme Court that a public figure like Ms. Palin needs to prove to win a defamation case. That would mean either that The Times knew it was publishing false information or recklessly disregarded evidence despite harboring doubts about the truth of what it published.

“The striking thing about the trial here was that Palin, for all her earlier assertions, could not in the end introduce even a speck of such evidence,” Judge Rakoff wrote. “Palin’s motion is hereby denied in its entirety.”

Former Alaska governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin took a step toward a political comeback Saturday, finishing in the top four of a 48-person special primary election and advancing to the August general election to fill the House seat of the late Rep. Don Young, according to a CNN projection.

Palin will be joined in the special general election on August 16 by Republican Nick Begich III, the grandson of former Democratic Rep. Nick Begich, whose plane went missing in 1972 and has never been found, as well as independent Al Gross, who lost a 2020 Senate race and has said he would caucus with Democrats, CNN projects.

Votes are still being tallied to determine the fourth slot, with two candidates who each could make history as the first Alaska Native elected to Congress -- former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Tara Sweeney, who was backed by a coalition of the state's Native corporations -- in fourth and fifth place among the ballots tallied so far.

Santa Claus, a North Pole councilman and democratic socialist, is in sixth place.

bob wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 5:31 pm Sadly:

Santa Claus, a North Pole councilman and democratic socialist, is in sixth place.