'Not on my bingo card'
As Trump's second term comes into focus, Dunleavy may be Dun-leavin'.
It’s Wednesday, Alaska.
In this edition: The president-elect is getting underway with forming his cabinet, and it’s Juneau’s “worst-kept secret” that Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy would like a part in the circus, which played right into a mysterious late-night teasing of an announcement that never came. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her centrist colleagues are meeting some of the nominations with the concern that might matter more if there wasn’t already a plan to circumvent them. Finally, about 38,000 of an undetermined amount of uncounted ballots were counted this week, inching us closer to what looks like Republicans’ defeat of Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola while open primaries remain too close to call.
Current mood: 😬
‘Not on my bingo card’
So, what does the election outcome mean for a litany of issues important to Alaska? It’s hard to say, but there’s plenty of intrigue around the president-elect’s cabinet.
As detailed by The Alaska Beacon’s James Brooks, the “worst-kept secret” in Juneau is that Gov. Mike Dunleavy could soon be headed to Washington, D.C., to join the Trump administration in some form. Head of the maybe-soon-to-be-extinct Department of Education? Giving the Pebble Mine new life at the Department of Interior? Perhaps, as I’ve heard in passing, the Department of Agriculture? Who knows!
And it seemed like something might be happening when he posted late Tuesday that “Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and I will be going live on Facebook with an announcement later tonight. See you then!”
Only to, as one Redditor noted, post .0037 Scaramuccis later that “Update: We will not be going live tonight on Facebook. Have a great night, Alaska.”
There’s been no word about what it was going to be.
Also, because this has come up in conversations if Dunleavy were to step down, there wouldn’t be a special election. Under the Alaska Constitution, the lieutenant governor fills a vacancy in the governor’s office until the end of the term.
From what I’ve heard, all the Dunleavy-to-the-Trump-Administration talk is only concentrated in Alaska. There’s been very little, if any, chatter outside about him being tapped for a cabinet position. But then again, there probably wasn’t a whole lot of chatter ahead of Trump announcing controversy-pocked Florida Creep Matt Gaetz as his pick for U.S. Attorney General, either.
That news appears to have landed with pretty widespread shock in Congress, with even some Trump-y legislators questioning the wisdom of the nomination and the chances of its success under the normal confirmation process. We also got the usual round of shock from Congress’ ever-shrinking number of Trump-skeptical legislators, of which Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a member.
“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general. That’s Lisa Murkowski’s view,” she told reporters, according to The Washington Post. “This one was not on my bingo card.”
Alaska Public Media’s Liz Ruskin reported this quote: “Is he a serious candidate? Not as far as I’m concerned.”
Murkowski’s colleague in consternation, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, shared similar sentiments and said she was looking ahead to questions in the nomination process.
All of the concerns may be for naught, though, as Trump has leaned on Republicans to pick a leader who would allow him to make recess appointments—which ended up being South Dakota Sen. John Thune. Thune has wholeheartedly backed Trump, making clear he’s open to abdicating the Senate’s oversight responsibilities if Trump’s nominations come up against resistance.
More ballots counted
The state tallied a little more than 38,000 votes on Tuesday—coincidentally, waiting to post results until after Dunleavy’s tease came and went—that bring Republican congressional candidate Nick Begich a step closer to defeating U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.
While the results shrank Begich’s lead slightly—from about 10,000 votes to 9,500 votes—the dwindling number of uncounted ballots means Peltola’s path to victory is narrowing. To win, she will have to way overperform with the remaining ballots or win an impossibly high number of second-place votes from the third-and fourth-place candidates in the race.
Tracking the vote counting this year has been more opaque than I’ve seen in the past, and it doesn’t appear that there’s a firm number out there of how many votes are left to count. The Alaska Beacon’s James Brooks broke this down in his report, doing some math to get to a ballpark estimate of about 33,000 ballots left to be counted.
Peltola would have to win those remaining votes by about 2-1 to pull ahead of Begich, a tall order. And if Begich pulls ahead of 50%, he’d win the race outright without ranked-choice voting coming into play. He’s currently at 49.1%.
Meanwhile, the fate of Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system remains too close to call. The yes/repeal side of Ballot Measure 2 is still leading, but the lead has shrunk from about 4,200 votes to about 2,800, which amounts to a 1% margin.
The next round of ballots is expected on Friday, with the final tally set for next Wednesday.
Down the ballot, the legislative races remain essentially unchanged. Most legislators who will be critical to the already-announced bipartisan majorities have extended their leads with the latest counts.
Stay tuned.