Tshibaka sets up campaign group to attack ranked choice voting as anti-democratic
Kelly Tshibaka, who may run against Rep. Mary Peltola for Congress, is trying to keep herself in the public eye with a new nonprofit she has started called “Preserve Democracy.”
She will portray herself as a victim of ranked choice voting, while raising money and generating publicity Outside, trying to preserve her political options in Alaska and claiming that ranked choice voting is an “emerging threat” to democracy.
She is also claiming her new group is nonpartisan and seeks to increase voter turnout.
The purpose of her new group is “To preserve the fundamentals of our democracy--election systems should be simple to understand and accessible to all Americans,” according to the document Tshibaka filed with the state in December.
It’s simple to understand what happened to Tshibaka. The new system is accessible, despite her claims to the contrary. And the new system came about because of voter approval. Voters found it easy to cast ballots under the new system once they had an introduction to it.
She did nothing to try to win the votes of Alaskans who are not right-wing conservatives. She did not get a majority of the votes and lost when the second-choice votes were counted.
Tshibaka and others have been slow to learn the lessons of ranked choice voting and prefer to complain about it, a tactic that they seem determined to cling to. The Republican Party is right there with her, even though it put a pause on the fatwa against Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
The main lesson is to recognize that people have different opinions and that there is great value is mastering the art of compromise, which is essential for those who want to accomplish things in government.
A former Tshibaka campaign aide, Heather Gottshall, is a director and incorporator of Tshibaka’s new group. The others are Simcha Weed of Brownsville, Texas, and Stuart Gates of Lakewood Ranch, Florida. Gates was a contributor to Tshibaka’s campaign.
Tshibaka has started to use her social media accounts to attack Peltola on gun control, statehood for Puerto Rico and other issues. On the latter question, Tshibaka may not have known that the late Rep. Don Young was a long-time backer of statehood for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Right-wing Republicans have proposed an initiative to create an “easily understood election system” and repeal ranked choice voting, but it remains to be seen if the backers will collect enough signatures to get it on the ballot in 2024.
Tshibaka’s claims that she lost the 2022 election to Sen. Lisa Murkowski because of an election system that is anti-democratic is a convenient ruse. She lost because she did not come close to getting a majority of the votes.
Tshibaka spent $5.8 million on her senate campaign, leaving a balance of $136,000 in her campaign account in late November. Her husband, Nikki, remains a public employee, serving as human resources director for Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, whose administration has been plagued with human resource problems.