Contributed by Karen Perry
I'm sick and tired of the way that politicians look down on everyone else. Campaigns started 13 months ago when candidates started filing for office. A lot of new candidates have filed. With all the ridiculous things the current batch has been doing in Juneau, I hope that many of the new candidates get elected. It takes a lot of work to get elected. A good number of candidates have been hard at it since last year, and all you have to do is look at last year's fundraising report to see which candidates those were.
Some incumbent politicians think that they can pull one over on the voters through last minute tricks like switching races just before the deadline for new candidates to file for office. Last election, Sen. Huggins and Rep. Lynn Gattis decided to try one of those tricks by Sen. Huggins withdrawing from the race just before the deadline and Rep. Gattis taking his place at the last minute by switching from her House race to running instead for Senate. It left everyone confused and more than a little bit annoyed at her for trying to steal a senate seat through tricks. I'm sure it had an effect on her losing her race for the senate.
Since that happened only last election, I was shocked when Rep. George Rauscher decided to do pretty much the same kind of thing by switching races just before the June filing deadline. After telling everyone he was running for senate, and filing his paperwork for the senate seat, he waited until the last minute and then switched from running for the Senate to running for the House. Of course, since he was off running for the Senate, a principled new candidate decided to run for the House, and has been working and campaigning hard since last year! Rauscher didn't even meet with her to discuss what he was thinking about and come to a consensus on what was best for the voters. The voters!
He didn’t put the voters above selfish ambition!
He pretty much acted like a bully and said, “I've changed my mind - back off.” So, now he's trying to bully that candidate into getting out of the race, because he knows he can't win unless she does.
Well, why should she back down to a bully like Rauscher? He shows up, like too many arrogant politicians, acting like he's heaven's gift to the voters, and like it’s her job to be thankful that he is willing to run, even after she has been putting in all of the work for the past year. Nope! No way should she back down. In fact, I think she owes it to her supporters, and to the people of her district to stay in the race and remind arrogant politicians to stop being bullies and trying to get elected through last-minute tricks and manipulation.
We saw how Walker got elected. Politicians should be more honest with Alaskan voters. No more last-minute tricks. If Rauscher wants to know which candidate should step down, he needs only to look in the mirror.