KSRM was home to a Wednesday joint Kenai / Soldotna Chamber candidate forum featuring the two leading candidates for U.S. Senate: incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Independent Dr. Al Gross. The forum was moderated by Merrill Sikorski.
All questions were submitted by chamber members, but the two spent much of the time sniping back and forth with Sullivan repeatedly claiming that Dr. Gross is “anti-Alaska” and an “outside liberal,” with Dr. Gross claiming that Sullivan has family making billions from Chinese interests. These topics were often interjected when not relevant to the questions.
Sullivan used his introductory statement to present the Senate’s accomplishments since he was elected for his first term, while accusing Gross of not communicating a vision for Alaska’s future and prosperity, rather just attempting to flip the state ‘blue’: “The Cook Inlet energy renaissance, ANWR, rebuilding our military after the reckless Obama / Biden cuts, new facilities, VA facilities in Soldotna and Homer, and protecting our 2nd Amendment rights with hundreds of new conservative judges. We have a great opportunity to build on this strong record with more jobs and a brighter future for our kids. My opponent and his liberal lower-48 allies have dumped almost $25 million into this Senate race. None of this is from Alaskans, it is from the far-left who don’t care about Alaska, but one thing: the power to make Chuck Schumer Senate Majority Leader.”
Dr. Gross responded by saying that he can relate to the plight of many people on the Kenai: “I don’t just understand your issues, I’ve lived them and I know and respect the value of hard and physical work, which is what so many of you do every day. That’s what drives a big part of the economy down on the Kenai. It’s why I’m running for the U.S. Senate, because Alaska needs a Senator who they can trust to stand up for them when it matters the most. We need jobs here in this state, and Dan Sullivan has just not delivered.”
With regards to broadening the growth of the economy on the Kenai Peninsula, Sullivan said that it is vital to work in a bipartisan way to work on measures such as the Federal CARES Act. Dr. Gross said that there are new opportunities to improve the economy, saying that Sullivan is making false claims regarding Gross’ endorsements instead of worrying about his own actions in the Senate: “My opponent keeps saying I support the Green New Deal, which is an absolute lie. I’ve never supported that because of the carbon taxes and the timeline. He also keeps talking about who I am going to empower, and he should think more about who he’s empowering. He’s presided over the worst economy in Alaska’s history. He’s right there in Washington D.C. trying to dismantle our health care system, take away the Medicaid expansion, take away insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions. He’s empowering people who want to privatize the Post Office, and destroy our Social Security System. He’s been enabling the Pebble Mine for nine years.”
When it comes to priorities impacting Alaskans that can be worked on upon entering the Senate, Dr. Gross said that the COVID-19 public health emergency is his first priority. Sullivan responded by saying that his priorities have not changed since he was first elected: “They’re the same issues that I ran on in 2014, when we had a federal government that was shutting down our state, killing our jobs, gutting our military, and not allowing access to our federal lands. I promised Alaskans when I ran that we would work together to reverse all of that. We did reverse all of that!”
The two were asked about Pebble Mine, and Sullivan said that it needed to pass the bar based on data and science, rather than politics, and he admonished Dr. Gross’ campaign for spending so much time focusing on it. Dr. Gross said that he has been against the Pebble Mine from the beginning, noting the infamous captured conversation in which Tom Collier, former CEO of Pebble, said that Sullivan was under-his-thumb: “Tom Collier was caught on-tape only three weeks after Dan came out against the Pebble Mine, finally, saying that they had him in a corner and that he was hiding and would be quiet and ride out the election. The Pebble Mine is still very much alive and Dan has not done anything to stop it. When I get to the U.S. Senate, I will.”
Dr. Gross said that Ballot Measure 1, the increase in taxes on the oil industry, should be left up to the people of Alaska. Sullivan outright confirmed that he is against the measure.
The full forum can be heard here.
