Friends, meet another member of the intrepid Alaska Dem team, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who is the frontrunner in the race to be the next governor of Alaska.
From our conversation:
I ran for the legislature against an eight-year Republican incumbent. We built a really high-energy, grassroots campaign and hopscotched a region the size of Connecticut. Pulled off an upset win by 32 votes back in 2012. And then I served in the Alaska legislature for the 10 years after that. While I was in the legislature, I was a part of what in Alaska is this unusual and very important model of coalition building, where you have Democrats, independents and also moderate Republicans caucusing together, serving together, power sharing together. In my last six years in the House of Representatives, I was a part of that bipartisan majority.
Jonathan was a leader of the tri-partisan House majority that banded together to isolate extreme Republicans and work together to get things done.
He enters the final week of the campaign as the only Democrat on the four person general election ballot, and with cross-over appeal to independents and Republicans in a state Trump won by 13 points:
There are a lot of idiosyncrasies up here in all sorts of ways. Our election system, we have an open primary. It's just like Washington or California. Unlike Washington, California, as you said. The top four advance and then there's a ranked choice vote general election. So I'm in the general election with three other Republicans and they are promoting, ranking each other, and sort of forming a block. I think the strength of our campaign, the energy we're generating, the appeal we've been able to cultivate with independents and moderate Republicans –– we're still in a strong position.
In fact shortly after we completed this interview yesterday Jonathan was endorsed by sitting Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski:
In a newly released poll Jonathan has a seven point lead in the final round of ranked choice voting:
To support JKT (as he’s known) and help his fellow Dems win next week please consider supporting our Winning Alaska Fund which splits your donation evenly among Mary Peltola for U.S. Senate, JKT for Governor, and the Alaska Democratic Party. We’ve been all in for Alaska Dems this cycle, and need to do everything we can to help them close strong!
We also talked about the efforts by Trump and the DOJ to interfere in the US Senate in Alaska. Jonathan thinks it will hurt Dan Sullivan and help Mary Peltola win:
It's disturbing, just incredibly disturbing that there would be a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn what is otherwise a free and fair election happening in Alaska. And I can't say I'm overly surprised given some of the steps this administration has taken. The Department of Justice has also sought out voter rolls for sort of unknown criminal prosecution reasons. But the reaction I've heard in Alaska, including from Sullivan's supporters, is just disappointment and disgust that the federal government would try to meddle in Alaska's elections. And it's a close election.
There shouldn't be this political interference. And if elected, and my running mate, Zac Johnson, who oversees the election system in Alaska, if he is elected, [we] are going to protect the integrity of our elections.
I mean, if I'm Dan Sullivan, which I'm not, to be clear, but I have to think that this is a real net negative. I mean, it nationalizes the race. Alaska voted for Trump by 13 points, but also right now in Alaska, at least the polling that I'm seeing, Trump is net unfavorable in the eyes of Alaskans by a double digit margin. So, having Trump sort of blast into the race in the last week+ and in such a heavy-handed, anti-democratic way, I think just really works to Sullivan's disadvantage.
For more on our opportunities to win in Alaska:
Friends, this community has really rallied for the Alaska Dems this cycle. Now we need to help them finish the job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Simon
From JKTforAK.com:
I was born and raised in Sitka. Like a lot of kids in Southeast, I spent most of my time playing in the woods getting dirt under my fingernails. My dad kept the freezer full of venison and halibut and my mom worked as a family doctor in the local hospital. I graduated Sitka High School as an Eagle Scout.
I went to college on the East Coast where I got my first taste of traffic jams and 90-degree weather. I was starting my final year before graduation when a few friends from home called. Southeast Alaska’s long-time representative in the Alaska Legislature was running for reelection — unopposed.
The incumbent had voted to give oil companies a massive tax break, shortchanging Alaskans and leaving our schools and infrastructure crumbling. So I left college, without a degree, and came home to kick off a scrappy, grassroots campaign, traveling by ferry and floatplane to knock on nearly every door across Southeast Alaska. I won — by 32 votes.
That was 14 years ago. Since then, I’ve won five elections fighting for working families, a strong economy, and a government that works for regular people. In Juneau, I worked across the aisle to reduce trawl bycatch, protect public schools, invest in basic infrastructure like roads and harbors, revitalize Alaska Native languages, and protect the $85 billion Permanent Fund.
Since I left the legislature three years ago, I’ve seen the same thing we all have: a distracted and dysfunctional state government that isn’t working for Alaskans. Prices keep rising. Small businesses struggle to keep the lights on. Roads and bridges deteriorate. Schools close.
Alaskans deserve better. That’s why I’m running for governor: to work with others, including across party lines and geographic divides, to solve Alaska’s problems and get our state back on track.
