Why a lifelong Democrat is voting for Click Bishop

By Stuart Cohen

Though I have voted for Democrats in every election since 1976, in this year’s primary I am voting for Click Bishop, a lifelong Republican.

Sen. Bishop comes from a labor background in Fairbanks and worked and served with construction unions for decades. He was commissioner of labor during the Palin and Parnell administrations, and served as a senator from Fairbanks. There is much I disagree with him on. If he becomes governor, I may be writing him some angry letters. At the same time, there are many important issues on which we do agree, and these are more important than our differences. 

Sen. Bishop is serious about solving our state’s budget crisis, while the other Republican candidates are smash-the-state anti-taxxers who promise ever-larger dividends. He is in favor of developing hydropower to deal with Railbelt energy woes, and in implementing renewable energy at remote locations. He is in favor of ranked choice voting, in favor of a woman’s right to choose, and he is deeply skeptical of a gas line, having worked on three previous failed attempts that had better economics than the current one. He recognizes the importance of education. He’s smart, he has an open mind, he’s a problem solver and he works across the aisle. He’s been privately endorsed to me by several prominent Democrats. 

Alaska has two kinds of Republican politicians: those who believe in a modern state and the funding it requires, and those who inhabit a fantasy world where taxation is theft and revenue shortfalls just mean we need to provide more incentives to oil companies. The reality of our state is that it’s very possible that a Republican will be elected, no matter how bad they are. We’ve had eight years of stagnation due to Gov. Dunleavy’s lack of ability and his anti-government stance. While he pretends to be a fiscal conservative, he’s presided over continual deficits and the draining of our reserve funds. The leading Republican candidates are stamped from the Dunleavy mold.

We will soon choose four candidates for the final election. At the moment, the two far-right Republicans in the lead are the vacuous ideologue Bernadette Wilson and the proven-incompetent former mayor of Anchorage, Dave Bronson. Neither is a problem solver, both selected Donald Trump as the greatest Republican president ever (Click Bishop selected Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower). It’s critical that a reasonable, forward-thinking Republican candidate like Click Bishop be a choice among those final four. Otherwise, the choice might once again come down to a Democrat vs an extremist Republican, with the extremist as the victor. This is not a comment on the Democratic candidates, but on the Alaskan electorate.

It took great effort improve our system with ranked choice voting, but to utilize it fully, we need middle-of-the-road candidates available in the final election. Sen. Bishop needs Southeast votes in the primary on Aug.18 to get into the final round. I am definitely giving him mine. I encourage my fellow citizens think strategically and vote for Click Bishop; there is plenty of time to reassess after that. Ranked choice voting is a privilege people fought hard for. Let’s use it wisely.

• Stuart Cohen is a novelist and former businessman living Juneau since 1982.