The new Legislature is a dose of hope

Can Alaska make progress on issues that have dogged the state for years?

Happy Friday, Alaska!

In this edition: The session is set to get underway next week, the day after President-elect Donald Trump will take office. While there are many unknowns about the years ahead, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the incoming bipartisan coalitions in the House and Senate, which have made addressing working-class issues like education and retirements a key part of their platforms. Alaska’s election system may have allowed more results-focused candidates to run and win, but it’ll now be up to them to show that it was worthwhile. Also, the reading list and weekend watching.

Current mood: 🤞

Pre-session stuff: As we’re heading into the session, let me know what you’re interested in seeing this year and what areas you’d like me to keep an eye on! As always, I read all the comments on these posts and emails (even if it sometimes takes me a while to respond)!

The new Legislature is a dose of hope

Over the past few months, I’ve worked on a series of stories trying to understand what the combination of Alaska’s multipartisan coalitions and Trump’s return to office might mean for issues like reproductive rights, labor and education in Alaska.

To put it simply, on the Trump front, there are a lot of world-weary shrugs of “here we go again,” “who knows,” “the best we can hope for is the incompetence will outpace the cruelty,” and, perhaps most cynically, “I guess this is what America voted for.”

There has been much navel-gazing and finger-pointing about another unthinkable, yet totally unsurprising, Democratic loss to Trump and the MAGA movement. Some pundits have wondered if Democrats should push more to the right despite broad evidence that progressive issues like raising the minimum wage and reproductive rights are winning issues when put on the ballot. One of the most interesting takes in understanding this political moment I’ve seen comes from Michael Podhorzer, former political director at the AFL-CIO, who wrote in a post crunching the numbers from the past election, “The results are best understood as a vote of no confidence in Democrats, not an embrace of Trump or MAGA. … America didn’t swing rightward, but couchward.”

In it, he noted that much of the “red shift” we saw throughout the country was more a product of voters staying home than a real boost in MAGA support. He, in part, blames this on Democrats’ gestures toward a milquetoast corporate centrism that won few votes and alienated far more working-class voters. As we all contemplate what’s next in a new era of Trump, he argues that the traditional political analysis of right versus left is an overly simplistic view of politics and that we should also consider a third axis of politics: People who choose neither party.

“When we use the wrong tools, we might not just fail to diagnose an illness – we might misdiagnose it, and prescribe a treatment that is actively harmful to the patient. When Flatland analysts argue that America “moved right,” the prescription tends to be that Democrats should also move right, or at least play nice with Trump to avoid alienating the Americans who supposedly granted him a decisive mandate. The same prescription will be dispensed to civil society and the media. … But that diagnosis completely misses the life-threatening illness America is really struggling with: a billionaire-captured system that doesn’t work for most people, and justifiable disaffection and anger at this system. Americans are fed up, and people are perpetually in the mood to throw the bums out, whoever the bums in charge are.”

In Alaska, non-MAGA legislators won in nearly every competitive legislative race, setting up majority coalitions organized around values of public education, stable budgets and worker rights.

Alaska’s fledgling political system of open primaries and ranked-choice voting—which Alaska voters narrowly protected in the November election—helps provide that much-needed dimension to the ballot. Alaska voters are no longer bound by the top-down politics of the national two-party system and the baggage that comes with it but are allowed to express their views with nuance.

We saw that play out in several races over the last two regular election cycles. Voters in reliably Republican districts such as Eagle River, Kenai and South Anchorage are still, by and large, electing Republicans, but they are supporting moderates who broke from the party to support increased education funding and public pensions to slow the state’s revolving door of workers. Those victories were critical for the coalitions to take hold, and a big reason why far-right legislators focused on divisive culture war issues are already pledging to take another run at repealing the measure in 2026.

Which brings me to Alaska’s Legislature and the session ahead.

With coalitions of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans set to control both chambers (albeit quite narrowly), there’s buzzy optimism that the state can make progress on problems that have dogged it for years. Issues like a decade of outmigration, dire teacher shortages, rising costs and energy instability have festered while the state has struggled to get its fiscal house in order. Education funding and public worker pensions—one of the favored solutions to stem the ongoing exodus of teachers and other public sector workers—are unifying policies for the coalitions.

And, yes, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto pen still looms large over the entire legislative process. Without the votes to override him on bills and budget vetoes, it means some issues like the restoration of pensions for public employees or a permanent boost to education are likely still at least two years away (perhaps sooner if a spot in the Trump cabinet opens up). He’s also suppressing a salary report that legislators funded to help guide work this session.

But judging by the several pre-filed pension bills, a bill to increase the per-student funding formula and other bills like Rep. Maxine Dibert’s universal free meals bill (which I wrote about here), they’re not going to let the process be hung up on whataboutism and hypotheticals.

“That’s what I tell everyone who tells me they’re bummed out about national politics,” Rep. Dibert told me, “Well, at least we’re in Alaska. Good things are happening.”

Stay tuned.

Reading list

Mat-Su Sentinel: School board to consider Mat-Su Central shake-up as district faces $22 million funding shortfall

ADN: Hard work and hope: Ukrainians in Alaska ponder an uncertain future

Alaska Public: Biden's Interior Department, as a last act, proposes subsistence protection in NPR-A

Alaska Beacon: Alaska governor, ally of Trump, will keep flags at full-staff for Inauguration Day

Weekend watching

In a world of pie-in-the-sky Alaska inventions, the Alaska Freight Lines’ experimental Sno Freighter really stands out. Check out this cool video talking about the history of the machine as well as a tour of where it rests off the Steese Highway.

Have a nice weekend, y’all.