Correction: The initial version of this article misstated the birthplace of John Wayne Howe and Nick Begich. The article has been updated.
In the final week of Alaska’s closely contested U.S. House race, supporters of the two leading candidates are urging some Alaskans to consider a third option.
With incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in a tight election against Republican candidate Nick Begich, her campaign has begun running ads favorable toward Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe. A pro-Peltola political action committee is also running online ads in support of Howe.
Howe, chair of the AIP, finished fifth in Alaska’s top-four primary election, but advanced to the general election after two higher-ranked Republicans withdrew.
The ads, listed on the disclosure website of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, are targeted principally at middle-aged Alaska men — a demographic that favors Begich, according to public opinion polls conducted during the campaign.
The strategy, as outlined in a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee document, is to get non-Peltola voters to pick Howe instead of Begich, then rank no one as their second choice in the ranked choice election.
That would sap potential votes from Begich, boosting Peltola’s chances.
“It is important that people who vote for John Wayne Howe rank him first and do not consider other choices,” the DCCC said in a website post dated Oct. 23.
One of the ads, from a pro-Peltola committee called Vote Alaska Before Party, was published starting Oct. 21, shortly before the DCCC post. The other three ads, run by Peltola’s campaign, were published starting this week.
All three say Begich was not raised in Alaska and suggest that voters should vote for someone who was. Begich was born at Providence hospital in Anchorage but spent some time as a child in Florida. The ads say that Alaskans should “vote for a real Alaskan.”
On the Republican side, the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an Oct. 9 post on its website that “liberal Democrats with a college degree under 35 in urban and suburban Anchorage and Juneau need to hear that Democrat Eric Hafner supports Medicare for All and Defunding ICE.”
Hafner, the fourth candidate in Alaska’s top-four general election, is running as a Democrat but is imprisoned in New York state and is likely ineligible to serve as Alaska’s lone member of the House if he were elected.
If a Democrat were to vote for Hafner as their first choice and decline to pick Peltola second, it would reduce Peltola’s odds of victory.
No ads with the NRCC’s suggested message are listed in the Meta ad library or in the political ad disclosure files of KTUU-TV, the state’s largest TV station.
Earlier this month, Begich noted on a podcast with former Republican U.S. Senate Kelly Tshibaka that Hafner supports Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Peltola has declined to endorse Harris to date.
Begich’s statement, coupled with the NRCC’s message, prompted a harsh message from the Alaska Democratic Party, whose director accused Begich and the NRCC of using “dirty tricks.”
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
