Following each election, the ideologues slightly more victorious than the others jump up and down and scream "mandate!" to announce their belief the voters have spoken and want their own agenda addressed.
Across the nation on Election Day, the Republicans pronounced their victory to be a mandate against Obamacare -- which, in large part, it was. However, in Alaska, voters sent a much different message, one that leaves many confused.
Alaska's message, however, was clear.
Most American voters sent a strong message about many of Obama's policies including Obamacare and development projects such as the Keystone pipeline. However, the mandate from Alaskans was a bit different -- we voted for change.
Regardless of the fact that Alaska is doing its best to replace Florida as the election laughingstock of the country by still counting ballots from people who voted weeks before the election, the results are clear, those defeated have conceded and, barring some drastic vote swings, we know that Dan S. Sullivan, Bill Walker and marijuana have all emerged victorious.
Alaska removed an incumbent Democrat senator, an incumbent Republican governor, legalized marijuana and voted for an increase in the minimum wage and in favor of a Bristol Bay mining ballot measure that nobody really understood and that is probably unconstitutional.
The only consistent message to come from the Alaska voters is that we want something different than the status quo.
On the hit show "Mad Men," Madison Avenue ad man Roger Sterling once said about clients, "The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them." The same can be said for Alaska voters in recent years. The idea of something different is exciting for a lot of people. When someone new appears to run for a particular office, their popularity surges but eventually the polling comes back to reality as voters run back toward the incumbent.
It's also human nature to run toward what is comfortable. We give it names like "the devil we know" to make ourselves feel better about it, and then we run away from change into the welcoming arms of what we've always known. In this election many political pundits expected that to happen -- and to an extent it did.
Bill Walker had always trailed in the polls before the formation of the unity ticket; however, Parnell's consistently poor polling numbers showed that he was vulnerable. When Walker and Byron Mallott announced their merged ticket, the ensuing polls showed Walker with anywhere between a 4 and an 8 point advantage.
The unity ticket represented change -- something voters in Alaska were definitely craving in the governor's office but weren't willing to completely embrace until Walker and Mallott came along.
Voters eventually began to run back to what was comfortable but it wasn't enough -- Walker's victory over Parnell was by less than 2 percent.
Just as remarkable as electing a nonpartisan governor, Alaska replaced our junior senator with former Natural Resources Department commissioner Dan Sullivan, who had been plagued by questions about how long he'd lived in Alaska. One of the most difficult elections to win is against an incumbent senator. In 2012, 91 percent of incumbent senators were re-elected. Alaska now has voted out an incumbent senator in 2008 and the same seat in 2014. Also, let's not forget that Alaska Republicans originally opted for Joe Miller in the primary for that Senate seat in 2010.
Also, in one of the largest changes possible -- we legalized weed. Alaska is only the fourth state to legalize marijuana amid a growing movement around the country. The District of Columbia also passed a legalization ballot measure, and a measure allowing medicinal marijuana in Florida garnered the popular vote but failed due to a 60 percent requirement for constitutional amendments. Alaska had voted on the issue twice before: In 2000, legalization got 40.9 percent of the vote and gained some ground in 2004, bringing in 44 percent.
One thing rings true about Alaska -- we aren't ideologues. Regardless of outside opinion, we never have been. Somewhere between Paul Jenkins and Shannyn Moore is where most of us find our ideological home. We aren't sitting at home watching the election results like NFL scores between team red and team blue; we are searching for the best person for the job, and hoping for a bright, Alaska future.
To outside observers, Alaska's election results may look a little off. But while most state voting trends carry all the way across a ballot based on which side does a better job getting out the vote -- Alaska's way is better.
Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late '90s. Email him at michaeldingman@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.