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Q&A
Scott Kendall on how Alaska's election system impacts candidate emergence
2:11:26
·
103 sec
Commissioner Julie Samuels questions Scott Kendall about his statement that Alaska's election system helps younger candidates no longer feel they have to wait in line.
Kendall explains that the open competition model allows candidates like Mary Peltola, who was not the party-backed favorite, to run and succeed based on their quality and appeal to voters. He notes that the system discourages parties from handpicking successors or discouraging challenges to incumbents, as the focus shifts to wide-open competition in the November general election rather than being decided in a low-turnout primary.
Julie Samuels
2:11:26
Scott, this is for you.
2:11:28
Something you said just now kind of resonated with me, and I just wanted to ask you to expound on it a little bit.
2:11:33
You talked about how younger candidates no longer feel they have to wait in line.
2:11:38
And I'm curious if you could just dig in a little bit on kind of candidate attraction or kind of what you're seeing in the pool of candidates.
Scott Kendall
2:11:47
Yeah.
2:11:47
It's it's open competition.
2:11:49
So for example, there was an urban taking the, Mary Paltola for an example.
2:11:56
There was an urban democrat who was sort of formally supported by the party.
2:11:59
He was from Anchorage, the largest city in the state with half our population.
2:12:04
Mary Paltola was a former state rep from a a village of 3,000 people in rural Alaska, and she didn't care that the party had a favorite.
2:12:13
She ran anyway.
2:12:14
And because of her quality as a candidate and the way she sort of electrified folks, you know, she'd made it into the top four, and, again, that trajectory continued.
2:12:23
So, you know, there's a lot of that.
2:12:25
I'm sure you see it in New York.
2:12:26
We see it here where the party sort of nods at the person they'd like to run next, or they would discourage strongly people who challenge incumbents.
2:12:35
They discourage people, you know, quote, unquote, primarying them.
2:12:39
Well, primarying is no longer a verb here.
2:12:41
You know?
2:12:41
If you're a if you're a decent incumbent, that's the other thing.
2:12:44
You you probably are going to make the top four and get back on the ballot and face all, your constituents.
2:12:50
So the whole focus of the system is wide open competition, but also pushing that competition to the November election, not the primary election.
2:12:59
In most states, that's where the, races are decided.
2:13:03
85% of races are decided in the primary.
2:13:06
Now our competition's pushed to November when everyone shows up.