When I got to Alaska in 1969 the smell of money was in the air. Prudhoe Bay’s oil had just been discovered. People didn’t know how big it was, but everyone thought it would be big, really big. A poor Democratic state was going to get rich, and Republican, and I wanted to be part of it.
By the time I hung out a shingle and started my law practice in 1974 the boom was on. In the blink of an eye my wife and I had three kids and I got started in politics. In 1978 I worked on the reelection campaign of Gov. Jay Hammond, and his victory assured the future of the Permanent Fund.
Hammond, a Republican, wanted some of the oil money in the Fund to go directly to he people, but most of the Democrats in Juneau were opposed. He strong armed the legislature into approving a dividend, and the first $1,000 checks went out in 1982. Democrats didn’t like the dividend then, and they still don’t. They are the party of , by, and for government. They want the government to spend the money, not the people.
Most Alaskans like their PFD’s, and that’s one reason 2024 is going to be a good year for Republicans. There are others. This is a Presidential year, and voter turnout could be 100,000 higher than in 2022. Among those Alaskans who only turn out in presidential years are a whole lot of people who know that Republican Presidents are good for Alaska’s economy, and Democrats are not.
Alaska’s economy is stagnant, and people think the boom times of 50 years ago are just a memory. We’ll never see them again.
Or will we ?
Regardless of what you may think of him as a human being, Donald Trump would be good for Alaska. Trump doesn’t believe in distributing wealth, he believes in creating it. He doesn’t want energy independence, he wants energy dominance. That means full speed ahead on development of Alaska’s vast natural resource wealth. If Trump wins, and gets his way, Alaska’s economy, and its people, could get rich again. There’s talk of Gov. Mike Dunleavy as Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, and that would be icing on the cake. This just might be a very good time to invest in Alaska real estate.
One of the first things I learned about politics is that people vote in their own self interest. What’s good for me, and my family? This year, more than any other, in Alaska that means voting Republican.
So to all the Republicans running this year I have a little advice. Campaign with Trump, as a solid Republican, with the hope, and expectation, of boom times ahead.
Let the good times roll.
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