Alyse Galvin, a registered nonpartisan candidate for Alaska’s U.S. House seat currently held by Republican Don Young, was dealt a legal blow last week following her challenge regarding the information provided to voters on general election ballots. The Alaska Supreme Court decided that general election ballots will continue to not identify Galvin as nonpartisan, but rather, as “Democratic nominee.” A letter to Alaskan voters, paid for by the Alaska Democratic Party on Galvin’s behalf, has raised eyebrows about the transparency behind her qualms regarding party affiliation.
Galvin initially came out on the favorable side of the legal battle when Judge Jennifer Henderson decided that almost 800,000 ballots would need to be reprinted to display candidate’s registered affiliation, rather than merely the method by which they were added to the ballot. The following day, in an emergency hearing, it was decided by the state’s highest court to be too problematic for the state to execute.
In Galvin’s case, despite the fact that she is registered nonpartisan, she won Alaska’s Democratic / Alaskan Independence primary for the House seat. That led the Division of Elections to list her as the Democratic nominee. This compares to other candidates who opted not to run in a major party primary, but gained ballot access via petitions. These candidates will be listed as “petition candidate.” Similarly, incumbent Don Young will be listed as “Republican nominee,” with no mention of his Republican affiliation.
A letter, obtained by KSRM-AM, was sent to some Alaskans on Galvin’s behalf where she made her case to earn votes in the general election. She focused two of the five paragraphs to the validity of her being an “independent.” The bottom of the letter, however, says that it had been paid for by the Alaska Democratic Party, despite Galvin’s claims of being an independent candidate.
During a Tuesday morning appearance on KSRM-AM, Galvin said that she did, in fact, write a letter that was mailed by the Democratic Party. “The Democratic Party said that they wanted to send a letter out. I wrote the letter. The Democratic Party sent it out, and I wrote it. Yep.”
She added that her allegiance with the Democratic Party has had more to do with ballot access than with the party’s members or values. She referenced a 2018 Alaska Supreme Court ruling that said, in-part, that “On the general election ballot, the State could simply print the nominating party’s name next to the candidate’s name.” This judgment allowed independent candidates to enter Democratic primaries, to stand a better chance of receiving major-party backing during elections.
Galvin noted, “I did not join with the ‘blue team’ [Democratic Party]. The Democratic Party sued to allow independent candidates to run in their primary. I’ll tell you what, I got in six months earlier and if anybody is unseating a 47-year incumbent, I can’t imagine any other way to do it. I was given the chance to take on three other Democrats and I beat ’em fair-and-square. In fact, I got 85% of the vote. I think that says something. Alaska is really independent.”
In 2018, when Galvin last ran for the U.S. House, she was listed on the general ballot as both the Democratic nominee as well as an independent, via a letter next to her name. That layout was changed by Gail Fenumiai of the Alaska Division of Elections.