Why I’m supporting Mary Peltola in US Senate race

The U.S. Capitol. (National Park Service photo)

By Rich Moniak

For far too long, bipartisanship and compromises have been dirty words in American politics. It may be part of the reason why Congress’s approval rating recently fell to an all-time low while the percentage of independent voters is at an all-time high.  

It’s also why Alaskans should send Mary Peltola to the U.S. Senate. 

Right now, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the rare Republican who values working across the aisle. 

Sen. Dan Sullivan likes to make believe he does. For instance, he celebrated the Senate’s passage of the Fish Act in March, which he cosponsored alongside Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. But the fact that it passed unanimously is proof that it took no effort. And he hasn’t convinced the Republican controlled House to take it up.

Late last month he took his second shot at sponsoring a bill to reduce bycatch and damage to seafloor habitat caused by trawlers. Murkowski was the only cosponsor last year. And has yet to add her name to the revised bill.  

Factory trawling has been controversial for years. Peltola, who wants to ban the practice entirely, argues that her entrance into the race forced Sullivan to pay attention to an issue he ignored for 12 years. 

Some fishermen are calling for “environmentally safe fishing gear standards,” protecting “ecologically sensitive areas,” and “creating a pathway toward fully sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management,” all of which sound a lot like the jargon of left-wing progressives. 

But that’s not the caucus Peltola resided in during her two years in the House. She has a pragmatic approach to resource development and environmental protection. And she’s a proud owner of a lot of firearms.

None of that means Sullivan and the big PACs backing him won’t eventually stoop to associating her with the democratic socialists who recently won Democratic primaries in New York and Colorado. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they repeat President Donald Trump’s extrapolation that those elections indicate “a resurgence of the communist menace” that presents a greater threat than “World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11.” 

It’s all nonsense. And to some degree, so are the statements Trump made during another recent speech implying America alone defeated the Nazis.

We had allies in World War II. The Soviet Union was one of them. 

President Franklin Roosevelt understood that the US and its European allies might not succeed without the help of a strong Soviet military challenging Hitler on the Eastern Front. It’s why America sent a communist country $11 billion in aid. It included approximately 8,000 war planes that were flown out of Fairbanks. 

My point here is not to defend communism in any way but rather to introduce the political dilemma Matt Lewis described this week in NOTUS. 

A conservative who supported Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign in 2016, Lewis and many like him became political orphans after Trump emerged as the Republican frontrunner. Looking ahead to 2028, he said the possibility of Rubio running for President again “poses something of an existential headache.”

On the one hand, he has trouble resolving “Rubio’s complicity in Trump’s administration — and the lack of clarity surrounding his motives.” And the recent democratic socialist successes “suggest the Democratic Party isn’t a viable permanent home for mainstream conservatives who opposed Trump on principle.” 

But just as Roosevelt never expected the U.S.-Soviet Union alliance to live beyond the end of the war, the never-Trumper alliance with Democrats isn’t supposed to be permanent.  

Despite their objections to the influence of democratic socialism in the Democratic Party,  principled conservatives have proven during the past ten years that their main focus is defending the pluralistic values we celebrated last week on Independence Day against the illiberalism of Trump’s MAGA movement. 

But instead of trying to unite the country from the middle by strengthening that temporary alliance, most Democrats seem intent on keeping a fragile peace with the illiberal elements on their left flank. 

That will affect how many conservative-leaning independent voters and some Republicans decide who to vote for in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. But they should recognize that while Sullivan’s approach to bipartisanship is just a façade, Peltola has proven she’s serious about building bridges across party lines. Which means she’s prepared to defend the ideals America’s liberal democracy was built on even while she’s fighting for Alaskan values. 

• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.