Democratic Party of Alaska
|
Alaska Democratic Party
|
|
|---|---|
| Chairperson | Casey steinau |
| Senate leader | Berta Gardner |
| House leader | Chris Tuck |
| Headquarters | Anchorage, Alaska |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Progressivism Social liberalism |
| National affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Colors | Blue |
| Seats in the Upper House |
6 / 20
|
| Seats in the Lower House |
17 / 40
|
| Website | |
| www.alaskademocrats.org | |
The Alaska Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Alaska, headquartered in Anchorage.
It is one of the two major parties in Alaska. At the federal level, Democrats hold no federal seats. At the state level Democrats hold 6 of the 20 seats in the State Senate and 17 of the 40 seats in the State House.
Currently there are over 71,000 registered members of the Alaska Democratic Party.
In the 2014 Election the Unity Ticket of Bill Walker and Byron Mallott defeated incumbent Governor Republican Sean Parnell and his running mate Dan Sullivan. U.S. Senator Mark Begich lost by 6,000 votes to Republican Dan Sullivan. U.S. Representative Republican Don Young defeated challenger Democrat Forrest Dunbar despite Young's series of missteps regarding comments he made about suicide. In the State Senate Democrats failed to keep the open seat vacated by former State Senator Hollis French and lost 1 seat in the State Senate reducing the number of Democrats in the State Senate to 6. In contrast to the State Senate, Democrats picked up 3 seats in the State House in districts 21 Matt Claman (West Anchorage), 5 Adam Wool (Fairbanks), and 36 Dan Ortiz (Ketchikan).
In 2015 Former House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz made a late entry into the race for Mayor of Anchorage. Berkowitz received the most votes in the April 7th Anchorage Mayoral Election but failed to secure enough votes to avoid a runoff against Amy Demboski. In the May 5th runoff Election Ethan Berkowitz defeated Amy Demboski by more than 20%.
In 1949, the Young Democrats of Alaska was established as a group. Except in U.S. Presidential elections, the Alaska Democratic Party was very successful in the early days of statehood and the late territory days (pre-1959), featuring such characters as territorial governor and later national senator Ernest Gruening. Gruening was one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized an expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Bob Bartlett, also a democrat, and erstwhile secretary of the territory, was the first senator from Alaska, and remained a senator until his death in 1968. William A. Egan, also of the Alaska Democratic Party, was elected the first governor of the State of Alaska. Until the election of current governor Bill Walker, he was the only governor of Alaska (this notably includes former governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin) of either party to have been born in Alaska. In the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Ted Kennedy, Representing Senator Robert Kennedy (of Massachusetts), in the presence of Senator Gruening, gave a historic speech on the island-community of Sitka, Alaska Democrat Mike Gravel was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1969, and stayed in for two terms. In 2008, he was a Democratic candidate for president of the United States. Following the oil boom in Alaska, and the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, many Americans from outside the State came to Alaska to live, this correlated with and possibly caused by (following a national trend ) a slow but distinct rightward shift in State politics. Particularly in the last two decades, however, it is not the Democratic party per se that has lost power, but the range of shifts in the due to "swing" votes. In a further confusion of the recent degree of authority of the Democratic Party in the State of Alaska, a plethora of registered democrats voted for (ideologically Republican) incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski during her write in campaign of the 2010 elections, presumably with the goal of defeating the Republican standart bearer and Tea Party candidate Joe Miller. Democrat Barack Obama won the Alaska Democratic caucuses, 2008, by a margin of more than three to one over Hillary Clinton, a higher percentage than any State in the union except Idaho. He then received 37.89 percent of the total statewide vote in the general election, and so lost the state to Republican John McCain, who selected former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. In 2012, President Obama lost the state to Republican Mitt Romney yet increased his percentage of the statewide vote to 40.81%. This was later used as evidence in a high-profile New York Times article detailing the complexity of Alaska politics and the difficulty in predicting the influence and elect-ability of Democrats within the State.
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