Just crazy enough to work

What was shaping up to be a relatively non-competitive general election battle between firefighters for the Alaska District 10 House Seat, has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting.

The sheer numbers of registered Republicans and right-leaning independents, were bound to make Wasilla firefighter David Eastman — a newcomer to politics — a heavy, heavy favorite over current Houston Fire Department Captain Christian Hartley on Nov. 8.

But with Hartley, the only candidate on the Democrats’ side in the Aug. 16 primary, bowing out to, in his view, more ethically pursue Houston’s opening for a fire chief, state Dems went a more daring direction.

They reached out to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ top grassroots organizer in Alaska in Patricia Faye-Brazel, a longtime resident of Houston, who moved to Alaska in 1997 from Sanders’ home state of Vermont.

Back in Vermont, Faye-Brazel not only worked for Sanders, she headed Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition in Burlington, and when not working for such icons of the left, she’s devoted her time in Alaska to working for workers, unions and Native tribes.

These bona fides may sound like anything but that in the Mat-Su, where self-reliance and small government rule the roost. But politics in Alaska aren’t exactly so predictable as politics in the lower 48. Up here, it’s not so easy for conservatives to deny global warming when glaciers are melting all around them, and likewise, liberals can’t maintain their usual abhorrence for firearms when a bear could jump out and maul them at any time.

Though I doubt she could actually win the seat, Faye-Brazel could wind up coming off so far left she’s just right, much the way Sanders did when he wildly over-performed in the presidential primary.

On day one as the candidate, she’s already on message, hitting the populist tones that Sanders rode to runaway victories in states like Alaska.

“(Alaska’s economy) can’t be all about oil companies, big interests,” she said. “Big money has run this state for quite a long time and has bought our legislature. This has to stop; ordinary people have to stand up.”

But rather than trying to read the political tea leaves, Faye-Brazel is instead staying focused on saying all the right things.

“I really want to step away from the right-left paradigm — this isn’t about right or left — I’m really running as a grandma,” Faye-Brazel said. “This is about us as a people, what we leave this world. It’s gotten to a point where the common voice is not there.”

Also boding well for Faye-Brazel’s hopes is quirky Houston. With its fireworks and promise to house recreational marijuana shops — even if Wasilla and Palmer don’t — being a prominent part of the district.

Faye-Brazel probably doesn’t have a realistic shot at making it Juneau, but how well she performs could tell us just how disenchanted Alaskans are with their state representation.

And it could be a whole lot of fun.