On a gloomy late spring day, the parking lot at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge was very full. There were probably more Priuses than one would normally expect to see at a statewide Alaskan gathering, and many of them bore bumper stickers for local, statewide, and national candidates from years past and present.
Inside, registration desks held name tags and schwag bags for party members.
After a short wait, Democratic Party Chair Casey Steinau, walked up. Steinau, who lives in Big Lake, is very energetic, and it seems like someone stops her to ask a question every few steps.
As far as voting trends go, the Talkeetna precinct often looks like an island of blue in a sea of red in the Northern Susitna Valley. Casey Steinau says the Democratic Party likes to hold its conventions both in places where they have strength, and where they are outnumbered.
“We want to be sure we bring Democrats to [places where] sometimes there are Democrats, but sometimes we want to show support.”
Outside of Talkeetna, House District 10 is considered very conservative, but Jay Parmley, Executive Director for the Alaska Democratic Party, says overcoming being outnumbered in an area isn’t the first step to winning elections. Rather, he says you simply have to be in the race in the first place.
“You can’t win if you don’t have a candidates, so it doesn’t matter how red a district is or how blue a district is, the first goal is to have a candidate. The second goal is to run as hard a campaign as you can. Voters right now, I don’t think are really interested in party labels. I think they’re interested in change.”
Nationwide, the talk of a “blue wave” that might sweep Democrats into office in areas won by Republicans in 2016 has taken over much of the talk of this year’s election. Jay Parmley is hopeful that momentum could carry into Alaska as well, and he says the number of candidates the Democrats are seeing come forward is encouraging.
“We’ve already seen a good number of candidates stepping up in seats you would think are competitive or seats…in some really Republican areas. I think that gives you this indication that there’s an opportunity for big Democratic wins across the state in November.”
Not all of the candidates running in the Alaska Democratic Party primary are, themselves, Democrats. After a ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court, independents are now allowed to be part of the party system. That’s a move that Alaska Democrats backed. Casey Steinau says part of the reasoning is that more than half of the state’s registered voters are either non-partisan or undeclared.
“Our goal was to be as inclusive as possible. We wanted to get the best candidate, and when fifty-six percent of the population is already registered that way, to limit their ability to run and not have a mechanism to run behind to help them get elected, it’s just unconscionable…I’m glad we did it.”
Since the Alaska Legislature was still in session for the convention, there weren’t many incumbent candidates present last weekend, but we were able to talk with some statewide candidates, and you’ll hear those interviews in the coming weeks.
