In unprecedented move tailor-made for Alaska’s new voting system, two different campaigns for governor on Oct. 28 released a joint ad urging voters to rank them either first or second — regardless of the order.
It’s not a new message for independent candidate former Gov. Bill Walker and Democratic candidate former state Rep. Les Gara. Both Walker and Gara for months have indicated that they would vote for the other candidate second. But it’s the first time their campaigns have indicated as much in an ad jointly produced by the two campaigns.
The new ad features their candidates for lieutenant governor — Heidi Drygas, who is running with Walker, and Jessica Cook, who is running with Gara.
“We are uniting because our teams agree — Alaska can’t afford four more years of Mike Dunleavy,” Drygas said. Drygas and Cook cite education funding, the Marine Highway System and abortion access as key issues on which they agree — and where they diverge from Dunleavy, the Republican incumbent.
Both tickets have emphasized increasing funding for education and preserving abortion access. Meanwhile, Dunleavy has defended his record of stagnant K-12 education funding, substantial cuts to the university system, and his support for changes to the state constitution that could remove protections for abortion access.
“As mothers we’re committed to fighting for our daughters,” Cook said. “Reproductive freedom is on the ballot,” said Drygas.
The ad comes as a last ditch effort before the Nov. 8 election. Polling throughout the weeks leading up to the election has shown Dunleavy in the lead.
Still, the campaigns are sticking to their earlier pitches about why voters should choose Walker or Gara. Walker has claimed he is the only candidate who can feasibly unseat Dunleavy and work across the aisle. Gara has campaign on his purist progressive views.
Gara and Walker spent much of the earlier weeks of the campaign bickering over issues on which they largely appear to agree. Gara and Cook have said that they are the only “pro-choice” ticket in the race, a position backed by an endorsement from Planned Parenthood. But Walker has said he would set his personal “pro-life” views on abortion aside and, if elected, protect the constitutional provisions that currently allow for access to the procedure in Alaska.
Abortion has become a key issues for voters in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision removing federal protections for the procedure; access to the procedure remains protected under the Alaska state constitution.
Political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt said the months of internal bickering between Walker and Gara on progressive hot-button issues like abortion access and education funding have allowed Dunleavy to comfortably cruise through the campaign.
“Les Gara spent more time trying to poll better than Bill Walker, than make the case that Mike Dunleavy shouldn’t be re-elected. And you could probably say the same thing about Bill Walker in reverse to Les. Those two had to contend with each other when the number one task is to make the case not to re-elect Dunleavy, and so they squabbled and he waltzed,” Lottsfeldt said.
Lottsfeldt compared the relationship so far between Gara and Walker to that between Republican U.S. House candidates Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, who for months have subtly and not-so-subtly attacked each other even while instructing voters to “rank the red” in an effort to beat Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola.
“Those guys needed to unify, and basically, they’re sort of a little more pleasant version of Nick Begich and Sarah Palin,” said Lottsfeldt, who has contributed to Walker’s campaign.
While they have continued to draw attention to their differences, Drygas said the two campaigns have had “a lot” of joint conversations about their strategies to overtake Dunleavy. The outcome of those discussions, she said, has been a push to convince voters supporting both Walker and Gara to rank the other ticket second.
“The worst thing that could happen in this election is for somebody to not rank their ballot,” Drygas said. “which really means to lose out on the opportunity to vote if your candidate is eliminated.”
The two women — rather than the men at the top of the tickets — appeared in the ad because “we really wanted to reach in particular women,” Drygas said. Both Drygas and Cook are mothers to daughters.
“We are committed to fighting for our daughters,” Cook said.
Dunleavy, too, has turned his three daughters into campaign talking points. He mentioned them three different times during an hour-long televised debate when discussing his positions on abortion, violence against Alaska women, and protecting transgender and marginalized students.
Reader Comments(0)