Opinions

Alaska GOP should let primary voters decide fate of Musk Ox reps

The Alaskan GOP is falling prey to the same tribalism and hypocritical purity tests we have seen sweeping the United States in the last couple years. On Monday, Republican chairman Tuckerman Babcock asked state election officials to bar three moderate Republican "Musk Ox Coalition" representatives — Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage, Paul Seaton of Homer and Louise Stutes of Kodiak — from running as Republicans in the 2018 primary because they caucused with Democrats with the stated aim of solving Alaska's fiscal crisis. The move signals a troubling overreach by party officials and even the most hardline Republicans should proceed with caution in supporting the move.

The GOP state central committee voted unanimously on Saturday to block Babcock's so called "turncoats" — Babcock's antipathy to these three lawmakers is well known and deep seated. He announced over a year ago that the Republicans would be making every effort to unseat them, and if the effort proceeded in an above-board manner by encouraging challengers in the primary, few could take issue with their methods. However, by imposing a party line purity test, in which lawmakers must fall lock step in all things or be blocked entirely from a democratic process within their preferred party, Babcock's committee signaled clearly that "party above all else" stands as the mantra of 2018.

Alaska spans sharp political divides, even more so than many other states. Strongly conservative areas vie with predominantly liberal areas to determine the way ahead for both internal state issues and wider national policies, while leaning definitively Republican. The fiscal crisis has thrown into sharp relief the urgent need for bipartisan coalition and compromise — these three members were widely hailed last November for being willing to work for the good of all Alaskans in proposing wide fiscal reforms to cover budgetary shortfalls and shore up our shaky savings. Stonewalling by Republicans in the Senate continued the limbo in which Alaska balances uneasily … and yet Babcock remains more concerned with burning bridges built by moderate members in the House.

[Musk Ox revolt: How Republicans lost control of the Alaska House for the first time in two decades]

Perhaps you as a voter agree that LeDoux, Seaton or Stutes don't represent your interests adequately in Juneau — why won't Babcock allow you to make that decision in the voting booth in the August primary? What should concern voters the most is the imposition of an oligarchic committee between them and prospective candidates. Babcock is clearly signaling he doesn't trust the voters to determine the best fit for their party values; the GOP according to Babcock would become rule by fiat. Alaskans should absolutely take offense to party leader paternalism limiting their choices in the primary. The GOP as a whole (and the Democratic Party to a lesser extent) has moved toward categorical purity pledges and tests for its adherents. Babcock and his committee have leaped past even that critically divisive measure to disenfranchise their own party voters — a breathtaking hypocrisy by a supposedly populist party.

Ironically the same categorical eliminations don't apply to the ethical conduct of its party members. In May, after Rep. David Eastman offered his racially charged and misogynistic remarks about abortion "incentives" in Medicaid, Babcock offered a weak commentary, excusing Eastman's conduct as a first-term mistake for which he should apologize, while condemning an official censure as an action by "thought police." Yet Eastman remains in the good graces of the state Republican Party … apparently denigrating women, and particularly Alaska Native women, is acceptable conduct by House Republicans, while crossing the aisle to seek sensible consensus for a budgetary crisis is not. Sen. David Wilson allegedly slapped an ADN reporter last May, and party leadership remained publicly silent. The Alaska GOP is at risk of being so dogmatically wedded to ideological purity that they cripple their own voters' rights while excusing all manner of problematic behaviors, thereby alienating principled moderates. "Thought police" indeed.

I myself was a registered Republican until this last year. The increasing moves toward an ideological shibboleth of impossible proportions have alienated people like me, who considered themselves more independent than not and chose to vote on issues first rather than party. The Democrats are moving toward allowing Independents to run in their primaries, while the Republican committee is trying to use the same judicial ruling to cling even more tightly to party demagoguery and remove true freedom of choice from their voters.

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Call these lawmakers RINOs if you like, bombard their offices with calls and emails if you disagree with them as their constituents, visit their town halls to find out why they vote the way they do … but don't allow party leadership to narrow your choices before you even know what they are.

Erin Freel is a former U.S. Air Force officer now living in Anchorage. She homeschools her two children and devotes her time to volunteer nonprofit work.

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser.

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