Perhaps it’s because it wouldn’t have made a difference about who controls the House of Representatives nor the Senate; perhaps it’s because the election was a few weeks ago; perhaps it’s because it’s the inexplicably late Thanksgiving holiday in the US; and perhaps it’s because it’s Alaska, a state most Americans only notice when Steven Seagal has blown it up.
But I’m still a little bit surprised how little attention that state’s ranked-choice election results are getting, especially the one for the House seat:
ABC News reports that Alaska's incumbent senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, is projected to win reelection against another Republican opponent, Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka, and that Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, is projected to win reelection to her at-large House seat against Republican challenger Sarah Palin.
The projections come after the Alaska Division of Elections on Wednesday night revealed the results of the state's new ranked-choice voting system and are some of the last outstanding races of the 2022 midterm elections.
Even with the Murkowski projection, power in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate remains at 50-49 since the last remaining Senate candidates in Alaska were both Republicans. The final outcome of the seat count in the Senate will be determined by a Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker.
With Peltola's projected win, Democrats have 213 seats in a Republican-controlled House.
[…]
Peltola, reelected as the first Democrat to occupy the seat since the early 1970s, faced a rematch with former Republican vice president nominee Palin -- and all the races were determined through a lengthy ranked-choice voting process because none of the candidates in the Alaska Senate or House races received 50% of the vote on Nov. 8.
First off, never let it be said that there’s such a thing as a 100% safe seat for either party. Alaska is a GOP stronghold now represented in the House by a Democrat and in the Senate by the RINOest of the RINOs. (That’s a compliment.)
It also might1 be the last nail in the coffin of Sarah Palin’s political career, and the end of one of the strangest phenomena in recent American history. Well, actually, the rise of Sarah Palin seems downright normal compared to what’s happened since 2015. But you see my point.
Indeed, one could argue that Palin’s style, which reveled in its ignorance and faux populism, anticipated the MAGA movement by a few years. It’s not the last bit surprising that she jumped on the anti-vaxxer train a while back. (You won’t believe what happened next.)
So, yeah, I’m not gonna miss her. And yet, while most of the criticism of Sarah Palin was justified - I know, because I made a lot of it - much of it said more about her critics than about their target.
If Palin previewed the rise of Trump, the mad scramble to falsely blame her for the Gabby Giffords shooting was an early-access sneak peek at very online journalism circa 2022. Her political career was one of these situations in which pretty much everyone involved, whether for her or against her, became (or finally revealed themselves to be) a truly awful person.
I also find myself wondering what she might have become had she licked her wounds after the 2008 defeat, acknowledged that she’d been thrown into the political deep end while still learning how to swim, and just gone back to being Governor of Alaska.
A job that Alaskans, at least, seemed to think she was pretty good at. Her image took a serious hit after the 2008 disaster, but she could have gotten re-elected, taken a few more years to actually work, and maybe built up enough experience to become if not a Presidential contender, at a credible enough candidate for federal office.
But the lure of conservative celebrity was just too great. Most Americans might not have liked Palin, but those who did like her really liked her. And once you’ve tasted that, it’s awfully hard to give it up and go back to the minor leagues.
Hence the TLC reality show. And the heavily remaindered books. And what I assume were very well compensated speaking tours and rallies. Governing is boring. This was intoxicating.
And then Trump came along, and she was basically Warrant when Nirvana’s Nevermind was released.
For diehard Republican populists, she was yesterday’s news. For normie Republicans - the kind of people who’d vote for, well, Lisa Murkowski - she as an embarrassment. Now she can’t get elected in a state she once politically dominated, and this time around, it’s probably the name recognition that hurt her.
Sarah Palin started out as a politician and then became famous for being famous. Her populist-right successor, the Facebook to her MySpace, would start out famous for being famous and then become a politician.
In a world where Donald Trump can be elected President, anything is possible. I could see Palin abandoning Alaska altogether and parachuting into some Trump +65 seat in the rural South.
A sociology professor once told me that there is one actual for-real example out there in the world for every slur you can come up with.
Sarah Palin is the epitome of "dumb airheaded bimbo." So stupid she believes she's a genius.
Even her husband finally figured out the smart move was divorce.
RE: Your footnote about Palin parachuting into a seat in the rural South.
I'd much prefer that she be 'gifted' to Canada while airborne to show our appreciation for Cananda gifting us with Ted What's His Name.
Nothing personal.