Alaska’s state primary elections are less than two weeks away, and except for the incumbents, most of the names on the ballot probably aren’t familiar to most Alaskans.
In these last days before the primary, the Empire will be introducing you to the men and women appearing on the Aug. 16 ballot. This is the first of six stories devoted to the topic.
When it comes to the U.S. Senate, Alaska’s two Democratic primary options have had unusual political careers. Both — at one point or another — ran for political office as Republicans.
Edgar Blatchford, a former mayor of Seward, has repeatedly run for the Alaska Legislature. So has Ray Metcalfe, who abandoned the Republican Party in the 1990s to found the Republican Moderate Party, a group “moderately conservative on fiscal issues and moderately liberal on social issues, with a twist of Libertarianism,” he said at the time.
Now running for office as a Democrat, he’s promoting the idea that Alaskans need a candidate to push reforms to campaign finance laws.
“The public views that as corrupt, but they also have an attitude that there’s nothing you can do about it, and I disagree with that,” Metcalfe said.
In fact, he disagrees so much that he’s led two ballot-measure campaigns in the past few years to do something about it.
In 2014, Metcalfe organized the “Yes on 1” campaign to overturn Senate Bill 21, a measure passed by the Alaska Legislature to cut taxes paid by oil and gas producers.
After that measure failed at the ballot box, he organized another ballot measure that would have criminalized conflicts of interest in the Legislature. That measure failed to garner enough signatures to reach a vote.
Now, Metcalfe says he’s a supporter of Bernie Sanders.
“I’m a big fan of Bernie, and I’m a fan of Bernie for one reason: his integrity,” Metcalfe said. “He came out with such great disdain for the influence-peddling system that dominates politics today. … That’s my main issue.”
Metcalfe has strong positions on other issues as well.
“I think he’s nuts,” Metcalfe said of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but that doesn’t mean he’s a big fan of Hillary Clinton.
“When she erased emails, I don’t see a lot of difference between that and Nixon’s erasing 17 minutes of tape,” he said. “She doesn’t take responsibility for her mistakes. She makes excuses for them and tries to push the blame onto someone else or evade the full responsibility. That, to me, just bothers me.”
With regard to a national response to mass shootings, Metcalfe believes that “if you’re on the no-fly list, then you should be on the no-buy list,” an approach promoted by Congressional Democrats.
In regard to the American strategy toward ISIS, “I generally agree with the way Obama’s handled it,” he said.
Metcalfe said his deep concern is ISIS’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon.
Blatchford, a newspaper publisher and owner of the Tundra Drums (Bethel) and Seward Phoenix Log, takes a jobs-based approach to domestic and international issues.
With regard to settling international turmoil, he believes the United States should “work with those countries to create opportunities for local people.”
Doing so would create an alternative to extremist organizations.
“They’re looking for a little bit of hope, a little bit of opportunity,” Blatchford said.
He agrees with Metcalfe that big money in politics is a key issue. His No. 1 priority used to be stopping the influence of big money in American politics, but he now has a different goal: foiling the actions of Donald Trump.
“I am flabbergasted that he still has strong support, and I am flabbergasted that Alaska’s Congressional delegation has not distanced themselves,” he said. “This series of statements about religions, about ethnic groups, about veterans … Isn’t it time to un-endorse him? To walk away from him?”
Blatchford said he’s concerned that Alaska’s Congressional delegation, and particularly Lisa Murkowski, are toeing the party line too closely and costing Alaska opportunities.
When President Barack Obama visited Alaska last year, it was an opening to address Alaska issues in Washington, Blatchford said. Instead, it was squandered.
“So what if he’s a Democrat? Work with his administration,” Blatchford said.
Blatchford worked as a commissioner under governors Wally Hickel and Frank Murkowski. He also served on the board of directors of Chugach Alaska Corporation, the regional Native corporation for Prince William Sound.
Both positions ended in 2005, when Blatchford was accused of having a conflict of interest between his roles as commerce commissioner and a Chugach board member.
“I learned a hard lesson” from the experience, he said.
Blatchford, who was born and raised in Alaska, is the only Alaska Native or American Indian running for the U.S. Senate in the United States this year, according to Mark Trahant, a professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota who tracks Native participation in politics.
Blatchford believes that Alaska Native corporations should be less focused on dividend amounts and more focused about job creation in the regions that they serve.
“I would require that they become more committed to rural Alaska. I would require that they step up and … emphasize a commitment to public service, not just service to the bottom line,” he said.
Blatchford said his experience on a corporation board and his status as an Alaska Native give him a position that incumbent Lisa Murkowski does not have.
“I don’t think a lot of people would give her a lot of credibility with Native corporations,” he said.
