It would appear that the Democrats in Alaska are once again attempting to pull off some shenanigans in the upcoming congressional primary and they're doing it with some big-dollar help from Washington, particularly from Hakeem Jeffries. The Alaskan political group Vote Alaska Before Party is pouring at least a million dollars into campaign ads specifically attacking three different Republican candidates for the House seat currently held by Democrat Mary Peltola. At first glance, that may not sound all that unusual. After all, they're "attacking" the Republicans, right? But there is much more going on here than meets the eye. The "attacks" focus solely on the GOP candidates' opposition to abortion. And they aren't just going after Republican Nick Begich, the anticipated frontrunner. They are also focusing on two other Republicans, Nancy Dahlstrom and the vastly underfunded Gerald Heikes. Why would they do that? It all comes down to our old nemesis, the insane "ranked choice" voting system that Alaska instituted a few years back. (Politico)

A group with close ties to House Democrats is spending nearly $1 million to wade into the top-four primary for Alaska’s at-large congressional district — a gambit that could help protect incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola.

Vote Alaska Before Party, a group that last cycle was funded primarily by Democrats’ top congressional super PAC, is airing TV, radio and digital ads that will elevate three GOP candidates with conservative voters and better position them to win top slots in the state’s Aug. 20 primary. The ads make an abortion rights-centered attack on Republican frontrunners Nancy Dahlstrom, Nick Begich — and also an underfunded, frequent candidate named Gerald Heikes.

Alaska’s esoteric electoral system sends the top four primary vote-getters to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. The general election is conducted via ranked-choice voting, a system that helped propel Peltola to Congress in 2022 via a special election.

Almost all of the money for this campaign is coming from House Majority PAC, one of the Democrats' biggest super PACs, closely tied to Hakeem Jeffries. Under Alaska's misguided ranked-choice voting system, the four candidates receiving the most primary votes move on to compete in the general election regardless of their party affiliation. There are a dozen candidates currently in contention, more than half of which are independents or members of the No Labels party. But Vote Alaska Before Party isn't going after any of them because they don't want to raise the profile of those candidates, many of whom are centrist and could draw votes away from Peltola later.

Instead, they are basically pretending to attack three Republicans specifically to raise their profiles among voters opposed to abortion. If they can drag all three of them over the finish line while keeping out all of the moderates and independents, the idea is that they would split the Republican/conservative vote three ways in the fall, allowing Peltola sneak through for the win again. That's how she defeated Sarah Palin last time. They split the vote in a state that Donald Trump carried handily in both 2016 and 2020. It's sneaky, but it already worked for them once. Why wouldn't they try it again?

There is a way to work around this Democratic strategy, but it would require some discipline and cooperation among the Republicans. Nick Begich has already brought up the first phase of what that strategy would look like, even if he did so unintentionally. He vowed that he would drop out of the race if he received fewer primary votes than Peltola. Of course, that's not likely to happen. What we really need is for Begich to meet up with Nancy Dahlstrom and Gerald Heikes to make an agreement. Whichever Republican pulls the most primary votes will move on to the general election. But after the four primary winners are declared and they are preparing to print the general election ballots, the other two Republicans need to agree to drop out. That would force Peltola to run against one of them head-to-head in November, a race she should almost certainly lose.

Sadly, the odds of the GOP getting their act together in a smooth fashion that way do not look good. The only real solution would be for Alaska to dump this insane ranked-choice voting system which is toxic and, frankly, antidemocratic. They need to go back to allowing each party to hold its own primary with the winner going on to the general election. Unfortunately, no such proposal is on the ballot and it looks like that won't be happening any time soon. So we'll be stuck with more hijinks like the circus currently playing out in the primary.