The Only Caucus that Ever Mattered
By In response to the least-asked question of the primary season — “So what the hell is happening in Alaska?” — the answer is clear.
People in Alaska are still rug-chomping crazy.
With Super Tuesday looming, many presidential candidates are battling over delegate-rich states like California and New York. Ron Paul is making it big in Alaska.
“I think Ron Paul is awesome,” says Schaeffer Cox, a 23-year-old who leads an unofficial group supporting the Republican presidential candidate here. “He’s not the most dynamic, rock-star kind of guy — but he’s got ideas.”
. . . . While there have been no official polls in Alaska, local pollsters and officials say Mr. Paul could garner at least 10% — and possibly upward of 20% — of the vote. That compares with 4% to 6% of the national vote, according to polls of Republicans.
“Alaska is a very, very limited-government state — they aren’t even embarrassed to use the word ‘libertarian’ up there,” Mr. Paul, 72 years old, said in an interview.
That much is true. But people in Alaska are not prone to be embarrassed by much. We have three former state legislators — Tom Anderson, Pete Kott and Vic Kohring — who are either already behind bars or are preparing to serve lengthy sentences for accepting bribes in office; we’ve got several other former legislators who are also likely to spend significant time breaking rocks; and if all goes as expected, Sen. Ted Stevens and his son Ben will be getting shivved in the prison laundry room before too long. Meantime, Rep. Don Young has apparently spent a lot of money on lawyers over the past several months, which is fantastic — if still a bit vague — news.
So no, people here aren’t easily shamed. Least of all, they aren’t embarrassed to call themselves “libertarians” in a state that owes everything it has to federal assistance. I’ve been unable to find the latest data on this [but Milo in comments found it here], but as of several years ago, nearly $2 of federal money flowed into this state for every dollar in taxes that flowed out. If memory serves, this made us only the second-greatest moochers in the nation (I think Nevada, with all its military sites, ranked first.) We’re third, behind Mississippi and New Mexico. When news of this broke, I was predictably flooded with e-mails from friends and family who wanted their money back.
I’ll tell LGM readers what I told everyone else: You’re not getting your damn money back. We robbed you fair and square.