The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes by Nick Troiano

Author:Nick Troiano [Troiano, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2024-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

A CONSERVATIVE GOVERNOR WINS REELECTION

As we saw earlier, former governor Bill Walker learned firsthand that a pragmatic Republican could not make it through a GOP primary, nor could an independent survive the “spoiler” charge in a three-way general election. Under Alaska’s top-four primary and instant-runoff general election, however, there would finally be a level playing field. “I would not be running if it was not for the new voting system,” he said.60 Walker sought a 2022 rematch against incumbent Republican governor Mike Dunleavy, a conservative who was endorsed by Trump.

Alaskans had a full range of choices in their ten-way gubernatorial primary, which ended with Dunleavy in first place with 40.4%, Democrat Les Gara in second with 23.1%, Walker in third with 22.8%, and another Republican, Charlie Pierce, taking the fourth spot with 6.6%. In the four-way general election, Dunleavy won outright with 50.3%, meaning that no redistribution of second-choice votes was necessary.

Some opponents of election reform had noted that Scott Kendall, the driving force behind Ballot Measure 2, had previously worked for both Murkowski and Walker, implying that he might have explicitly designed the new system to help those candidates. This made Dunleavy’s clear victory in the governor’s race especially instructive, as a demonstration of how candidates beyond self-identified moderates could still win under the new system. Because Dunleavy was able to win broad support against a broader field of competition, his reelection represented the will of the voters.

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