2016 primary: Last hacks

PALMER — On a national level, the Republican Party is so disenchanted with its establishment that it put at the top of its ticket a real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity who has never held public office.

Here in Alaska, where the conservative base is even more irate facing a gaping budget debt after years of plenty, even the mention of the phrase ‘Down in Juneau’ has become almost as perjorative as ‘Along the Beltway.’

In most years, the bounce from state house to senate would be virtually assured promotions for the likes of Republican lawmakers Lynn Gattis and Shelley Hughes, but not so this time around. Thursday night, in the final forum before Tuesday’s primary election, Hughes found herself challenged by three candidates with no government experience — all sitting, coincidentally or not, to her right.

The furthest right, both physically and philosophically, was Steve St. Clair, a military veteran who pays not even lip service to the idea of caucus loyalty, and has no compunction about using the word ‘primary’ as a verb.

“The target was 4.5 (percent) in unrestricted general funds (UGF). And if local reps busted that, we were going to primary them,” St. Clair said, adding that the percentage wound up as high as 5.2 percent. “I share the Republican values, but I will not be beholden to a caucus. I am Pro-Life; I will not change any taxation until 3.8 UGF has been attained; I will not mess with the PFD — those are not negotiable.”

If you’re Hughes, trying to talk about the particulars of passing legislation against that kind of ideological purity can sound like inside baseball at best, and Juneau gobbledygook at worst.

“Sometimes, folks, understandably, they don’t know the process,” said Hughes, who’s served one term in the House. “I’m relatively new since I’ve been there I’ve done the right things people have asked me to do. I believe I’ve been accountable to what I’ve said and we’re heading in the right direction. They said, ‘throw the bums out,’ and I say throw the bums out, too. But I’ve been working hard and I’m not one of the bums.”

Across the hall in a classroom setting at Mat-Su Services in Palmer where the forum, presented by the AARP was held, Gattis, who, like Hughes, was fighting off a primary challenge of her own in her bid to jump from house to senate.

Though at least in Gattis’ case, her lone primary challenge did come from a fellow politician in first-term Wasilla City Council member David Wilson.

“I haven’t felt that in areas I go to,” Gattis said of a general resentment to Juneau, though Thursday’s debate did open with her having to distance herself from legislation that cut benefits to seniors. “People are very pleased that my belief is we have a largesse of government and until we make the government smaller, we’re not going into their pockets.”

Also, in her case, Gattis has the benefit of not running against a faceless ideology so much as an ambitious individual. A young, African-American social worker, originally from the Bay Area, Wilson espouses and expresses Republican orthodoxy seamlessly, but does not bring it with the same anti-establishment vitriol as Hughes’ opponents.

“I think our race is not really talked about as much because it’s not a heated controversial race back and forth with attacks,” Wilson said after Thursday’s debate. “Ms. Gattis and I, our values may differ a little bit… but we respect each other enough to keep things civil.”

Gattis is confident, but not certain, she’ll survive and advance to the general election.

“I don’t know if you ever have an election you could have a feel for,” she said. “You do your best, and you come back to the person you are. If I don’t win, I have a lot of positive things I get to do… I want to (win) to help Alaska.”

The seat Hughes vacated is being contested between two local Palmer politicians — outgoing second-term mayor DeLena Johnson and 11-year council member Richard Best.

Taking the stage in the main dining room for the early round of forums, Johnson and Best found themselves split by Bert Verrall, a shop steward for MTA, who, one day just decided to run, or as he puts it, ‘get off his couch.’

“The fact that nobody except a Republican signed up to run in the race did it for me,” said Verrall, who, running non-affiliated will not appear on Tuesday’s primary ballot. “I caught myself an hour before (the filing) deadline and realized that if I didn’t do it, it was going to be the same old thing, only under a different name… Our district has been that way for 22 years.”

Verrall spiced the debate between the two partisans with pragmatism and humor, but conceded he has a lot of work to do if he’s going to make much of an impact in the general election.

“I didn’t feel good about it, but all the people who love me said, ‘you did great!’ So what can you say?” Verrall said. “I learned a lot about myself tonight in that I need to become more educated about the issues. I tried but you start looking at the budget stuff on the ‘interwebs’ and oh my goodness, it’s almost intentionally cumbersome.”

Best and Johnson showed their greatest differences when the conversation swayed toward education. Best favored cutting school spending by encouraging more homeschooling and charter schools, while Johnson preferred to start cutting administrators rather than teachers.

“I really feel comfortable in that kind of stuff, but I thought I did OK,” said Best, a veteran of the construction, mining and oil and gas industries, who, on multiple occasions took issue with the moderator’s insistence on ‘yes or no’ answers, when he felt a more complicated answer was required. “I can talk about what I’ve done on the city council level and that, I truly believe is how I would handle myself in Juneau. At the city level I’ve eliminated positions and found efficiencies in contrast to the mayor who has not eliminated a single position but has created positions that, I felt, were wasteful.”

Johnson felt confident in her debate performance, and remains confident going into Tuesday thanks to her relationships in the community.

“I thought it went great. There were no big surprises as far as issues,” she said. “I don’t want to be complacent or sound too confident, but I’ve just been having a great response door-to-door. I ran for mayor twice so I know a lot of the people. I’m not an unknown quantity and I have great, positive interactions.”

The debate on Thursday’s menu that was bound to have the greatest sparks flying was the District 9 House race between incumbent Jim Colver and challenger George Rauscher. Rauscher, and even much of the Republican Party in Alaska itself seemed to have turned on Colver after his resounding win two years ago.

Neither showed, however, for the Thursday debate, as was the case in the District 7 House race where Republicans Colleen Sullivan-Leonard and Brandon Montano were both no-shows. Democrat Sherie Olson did show and fielded questions from the limited audience.

Tuesday morning, polls open at 7 a.m. and don’t close until 8 p.m., and winning will all come down to turnout, something not lost in any degree on Senate F Republican candidate Adam Crum.

Crum, a former Big 10 football player, provides perhaps a gentler option than that offered by St. Clair for those Senate F Republicans looking for an alternative to Hughes. For bona fides, he’s running on his record as a businessman, and has been pounding the pavement to fire up voters, especially his fellow Millennials.

“I’m feeling pretty good, cautiously optimistic… The issue with this race is that we’re probably looking at 2012 turnout of 19 percent rather than 2014 when it was 31 percent,” Crum said. “Canvassing — we’re going through the super voter list to point out the fact that (their area) has 10 percent turnout. It embarrasses them. You’ve gotta vote to be part of the process. Otherwise, you get the government you deserve.”

Low turnout necessarily benefits Hughes — the incumbent, or at least the known quantity in Senate F — and though the additional opponents means more attacks, it also figures to help her on Tuesday if Crum and St. Clair wind up splitting the anti-establishment vote.

St. Clair said he’d been approached about joining forces with Crum, but he declined.

“I’ve been behind from the beginning, but if I didn’t think I had a chance I wouldn’t be here,” St. Clair said. “I’ve been asked to combine campaigns, and I’ve spoken with Adam about it, but I don’t want a deal. If I suspend my campaign I want nothing in return… It will be interesting. I think people will be really surprised on Tuesday on who gets nominated.”

Hughes is confident it will be her.

“I believe I’m going to win; maybe closer than I’d be comfortable with,” she said. “I will celebrate when I win because I will have overcome a number of tough obstacles that someone in the house a couple of years moving to the senate would not experience. It’s different this time — much more challenging.”

Contact editor Matt Hickman at 352-2268 or matt.hickman@frontiersman.com