The Alaska Election Frontier: Our July 4th Trek Across Three Episodes

The Purple Principle

In this bonus episode we revisit the vast nation-sized state of Alaska, model for election reform in numerous states around the country even as that voting system of an open, unified primary plus instant runoff general election faces a potential 2024 recall ballot measure back in the frontier state.

The Purple Principle has made three previous audio visits to Alaska, arguably our least partisan, most indy-minded state with 60% of voters choosing not to register with either major party. We first revisit our initial Alaska episode from the fall of 2020 to learn how campaign manager, Shea Siegert, was persuaded to take on that challenge by his own family’s enthusiasm for non-partisan voting reform.

“I was having a conversation with my mother who lives in Boise, Idaho the other day,” Siegert confides. “And she said, every time I look at the news, I think about your ballot measure. And it just makes more and more sense.”

Next we hear from independent Alaska House Member Calvin Schrage in the fall of 2022 as the Alaska voting model is put to the test for the first time. That election produced a pragmatic split ticket outcome with reelection of conservative governor Mike DunLeavey, moderate indy-minded US Senator Lisa Murkowski, and the pragmatic centrist House Democrat, Mary Peltola.

Our recent season four discussion with Native Alaskan Mary Peltola completes our trek across three episodes, highlighted by the advice she received some years before upon election to the Alaska state legislature.

“So when I was first elected, I was in my mid-twenties and I imagined, like most people do, that I was going to Juneau to fight, to fight against our enemies and fight for my district,” Peltola tells us. “And when I got there, one of my colleagues told me you have to have 59 best friends if you want to accomplish anything.”

Tune in to find out how Rep. Peltola broke bread across the political aisles in this bonus episode with Alaska-related insights from Katherine Gehl, architect of Final Five Voting, Eric Bronner of Veterans for All Voters, as well as Doug Goodman of Nevadans for Better Elections and Lisa Rice of Make All Votes Count DC, both of whom have looked to Alaska as a model for their own reform efforts.

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.