Political clout of Natives gaining notice

The top Democrats -- Ernest Gruening, Bob Bartlett, Bill Egan and Ralph Rivers -- courted the Bush and flew into villages, including those as remote as Wainwright, to campaign. If the weather turned sour after the distinguished visitor arrived, he slept on a villager's floor and ate a villager's food until the sky cleared and flights to Fairbanks and Anchorage resumed.

Bush Alaskans -- Native Alaskans -- were reliable Democrats half a century ago.

Not any more.

Maybe they haven't changed their registration, but, under the guidance of their regional corporations, they have become, like some of their urban brethren, strategic voters.

This was made stunningly obvious by the write-in votes Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, received in Southwest and Western Alaska. She probably would not have defeated tea partier Joe Miller without the overwhelming margin she ran up in villages from the Pribilof Islands to Barrow at the same time that villagers split their tickets and returned Democrats to the Legislature. These Democrats, however, will caucus with the Republicans when they reach Juneau.

The Native regional corporations, through their umbrella group Alaskans Standing Together, spent more than a million dollars on behalf of Murkowski, and it's absurd to believe she won't be beholden to the corporations. This is transactional politics at its most elemental. What's in it for me, what's in it for you? What's in it for the corporations, for starters, is protection of 8(a)minority-contractor privileges worth tens of millions of dollars.

It can be argued that Alaska Natives were similarly guarding their interests 50 years ago when they voted for Gruening, Egan and other Democrats. After all, the Democrats were expected to deliver through federal funds and the state budget.

But federal funds were much more difficult to obtain if they weren't for the military or construction projects, and the new state, like the territory, was struggling to pay its bills before Prudhoe Bay oil.

Imagine this: There was a time when if an old-timer received financial aid from the government, the administrator of his or her estate was expected to pay it back after the old-timer died and the estate liquidated. (Many old-timers died broke, but the government recovered funds when possible.)

The corporations have figured out that under today's campaign expenditure rules, as recently articulated by the Supreme Court, Alaska Natives can be the difference-makers in close statewide elections. This guarantees them influence with Sen. Murkowski and other elected officials but comes at a price.

You can't spend more than a million dollars politicking and expect your fellow Alaskans will fail to notice that you are affluent, not disadvantaged as you often present yourself. Having noticed, an increasing number of Alaskans are likely to become cynical -- when not indifferent -- to Natives' pleas they need special understanding because of the poverty in rural Alaska. In other words, Alaska Natives are on a path to win friends in high places -- and lose them elsewhere as their corporate campaign expenditures become the subject of public discussion.

Michael Carey is the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He can be reached at mcarey@adn.com.