Name: Alaska has a new election system. Could it protect Murkowski from pro-Trump backlash?
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Alaska has a new election system. Could it protect Murkowski from pro-Trump backlash?

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Of the seven Republicans who to convict former President , only Sen. (R-Alaska) is up for reelection in 2022. But a new Alaska election system with an open primary and ranked-choice voting may protect the incumbent.Murkowski voted to convict the former president on Feb. 13 for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Murkowski reporters after her vote that she stands by her decision regardless of its possible detrimental effects on her 2022 chances.&nbsp;“This was consequential on many levels, but I cannot allow the significance of my vote to be devalued by whether or not I feel that this is helpful for my political ambitions,” Murkowski said.The Senate Trump, falling 10 votes short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to convict. Murkowski was the first Repubican senator to publicly that Trump should resign, telling the that he “has caused enough damage.” She also told the paper that she blames Trump for in Georgia.Murkowski was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and was reelected in 2016, when her campaign more than $6 million. She her father, former Sen. (R-Alaska), after he concluded a nearly 22-year career in the Senate. In 2010, she famously lost the GOP primary election to conservative Tea Party candidate and lawyer Joe Miller but the general election by around 10,000 votes as a write-in candidate.&nbsp;Her campaign $4.7 million during the election cycle compared to Miller’s $3.4 million and Democratic nominee Scott McAdams’ $1.3 million. She was the first person to win an election as a write-in candidate since former Sen. (R-S.C.), who South Carolina’s general election that way in 1954.Currently, all eyes are on Murkowski and whether she’ll President ’s budget chief pick Neera Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress and past aide for Hillary Clinton’s and former President ’s campaigns. Murkowski’s vote could make or break Tanden’s appointment, as Sen. (D-W.Va.) and Republican moderates said they’ll vote against Tanden. Tanden’s past tweets about key Republican figures — Murkowski — have made her a target of the party, which could make it even more difficult for the senator to vote in favor of Tanden.Alaska is a red state, with its two senators and one at-large representative all members of the Republian Party. Trump handily won Alaska in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections.&nbsp;On Jan. 28, the Alaska Republican Party’s District 12 unanimously to censure Murkowski for her impeachment vote and rebuked her statement about her future in the Republican Party. Two weeks later, the statewide party Trump’s impeachment trial in a Feb. 9 statement signed by Chairman Glenn Clary. Officials in District 12 have said they believe the state party might also denounce Murkowski, according to . Republicans who have been by their state parties for their impeachment votes include Sens. (R-S.C.) and (R-La.) as well as Reps. (R-Wyo.) and (R-S.C.)The Alaska paper also reported that Homer Republican district chairman Jon Faulkner said that Republicans in the state were already upset with Murkowski for “a spectrum of issues,” such as not being pro-Trump and her 2017 not to move forward with a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Murkowski has said she believes there are Alaskans “dissatisfied” with her vote, but there are also those who support it.She is more moderate than her conservative Republican colleagues and no stranger to ruffling feathers in her party. In 2018, she voted “present” when the Senate cast votes on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination despite from fellow Republicans including 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.&nbsp;The senator already had a fraught relationship with Trump even before the impeachment trial. The former president in June of last year to campaign against Murkowski in 2022 after she former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ of Trump and his response to protests over George Floyd’s death. More recently, Trump directed his aides to get election challenges ready against Murkowski and other lawmakers who opposed him, according to .But Murkowski might not need to worry about potential backlash from her colleagues or her state. Alaska’s new election system changes how primary elections take place in the state and could Murkowski from the ire of pro-Trump Alaskans, potentially paving the way for a successful 2022 election cycle.&nbsp;Last November, Alaska passed — by a slim 1 percent margin — a ballot initiative that will make Alaska the second state after Maine to use a ranked-choice voting system, and the only state to have a primary election system that chooses four top picks.Ballot Measure 2 will the election system to have one primary election instead of two with the four candidates receiving the most votes earning a spot on the general election ballot, regardless of party affiliation. Alaskans will then rank the four candidates in the general election. This voting method will take hold for legislative and statewide races but not city and borough races. Future presidential elections will use the ranked-choice system but will not ask voters to choose their top four candidates in the primary.&nbsp;In an effort to combat “,” the measure also stipulates that groups who donate to candidates in state legislature and governor races must be more transparent with their financial disclosures.According to , advocates of the initiative spent almost $7 million on a year and a half long campaign. Opposing groups raised less than 10 percent of that. In December of last year, a group of Republican, Libertarian and Independent Alaskans filed a lawsuit the passing of Measure 2., a nonpartisan federal super PAC focused on political reform, supported the that pushed to pass Ballot Measure 2. Kathryn Murdoch, left-leaning daughter of news tycoon Rudolph Murdoch, is co-chair of the PAC and extensively to it.“With the passage of Measure 2, when facing choices about what’s best for their state, leaders no longer have to question whether they can survive a primary challenge with low, often partisan turnout,” Unite America’s policy manager Beth Hladick on the organization’s website.&nbsp;The campaign to pass Measure 2 was spearheaded by lawyer Scott Kendall, who has worked for Murkowski’s campaigns before. While Kendall denied he worked on the measure to boost Murkowski’s chances, Alaska Republicans including Faulkner are still suspicious that the senator was involved.“Everyone I talk to on the Republican side thinks it’s idiomatic — meaning, you know, A follows B, it’s about as proven as it needs to be,” Faulkner told . “I think that if you’re reporting on it, her fingerprints are all over.”Alaska’s election landscape differed from that of other states even before it passed Measure 2: In 2020, Democrats chose not to run in some elections, instead independents including public education advocate Alyse Galvin, who lost to incumbent Rep. (R-Alaska) in the state’s at-large district election for the second time. Young’s campaign approximately $1.9 million dollars while Galvin received about $5.2 million. Galvin previously against Young as a Democrat in 2018.In a Feb. 18 interview with , Alaska Survey Research pollster Ivan Moore said that while Murkowski would likely lose in a closed election because “on the conservative side, she’s now a pariah,” her impeachment vote could help her win under the new election system, since Democrats are now more likely to choose her as one of their top two picks while voting.&nbsp;“Just on name ID alone, she’s bound to come in in the top four, just absolutely no doubt about it,” Moore said.Murkowski told that she believes Measure 2 will help her election chances.“I actually, after giving it a fair amount of study, I like that this will put forward, hopefully, a process that is less rancorous,” she said.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:Read more OpenSecrets News &amp; Analysis:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you.OpenSecrets is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. 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Of the seven Republicans who to convict former President , only Sen. (R-Alaska) is up for reelection in 2022. But a new Alaska election system with an open primary and ranked-choice voting may protect the incumbent.Murkowski voted to convict the former president on Feb. 13 for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Murkowski reporters after her vote that she stands by her decision regardless of its possible detrimental effects on her 2022 chances.&nbsp;“This was consequential on many levels, but I cannot allow the significance of my vote to be devalued by whether or not I feel that...

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Krystal Hur

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Alaska has a new election system. Could it protect Murkowski from pro-Trump backlash?

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