Alaska Congressional Debate: Let's Watch Rep. Mary Peltola End Sarah Palin's Career AGAIN

Why yes, Peltola was just sworn in. Now she has to win a full two-year term.

Rep. Mary Peltola (D), the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, was sworn in on September 13 after winning an August 31 special election to serve out the term of the late Don Young. Young had been Alaska's sole member of the US House of Representatives since 1973 — which for historical perspective was just five years after oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay. So now Peltola is running again for her first full two-year term, and tonight she'll be debating the two candidates she beat in that August special election: Republican Nick Begich, and other Republican Sarah Palin, who quit partway through her term as governor to become the biggest reality TV star in history. That didn't happen and we have been laughing at her ever since. OK, to be accurate we laughed at her before, too.

We still have the commemorative T-shirt for that big drunken brawl that almost her entire family was in, a long time ago (2014). The Thrilla in Wasilla, although we don't really remember if the fight was actually in Wasilla. Good times. We might even wear it for the debate tonight.

Oh, yes, the election and the debate tonight. That's why we're here, after all!

Like August's special election, the general election will use Alaska's fun ranked-choice voting, so Palin will probably complain about that tonight. Peltola won the special election after lots of Begich voters chose Peltola or left their ballots blank rather than pick Palin as their second choice.

If nobody gets 50 percent plus one in the first round of vote counting following the general, then Peltola would need enough voters whose first choice was Palin or Begich to have marked her as second to win. She might even pull off a first-round win, but the polling suggests it'll have to go to a second round of counting — which is likely to go to Peltola, since polling still has Palin running third, behind Begich.

 As Evan noted the other day, Begich has been making at least a token gesture of partisan unity for the general election, urging voters to "rank the red" — that is, vote for Republicans as their first and second choices, whether it's him or Palin. Palin doesn't seem too interested in that strategy, saying she expects to beat Begich no matter what: "I’ve thumped Nick three times now, and I’ll thump him again," she said in a recent interview, adding, "he should have supported my candidacy." Aw, she's gracious as ever, we hate her.

Debate starts at11: 00 PM Eastern,which is only 7: 00 Alaska Daylight Time, or 8:00 Pacific, etc.

 youtu.be 

In the unlikely event the YouTube don't work, you can also watch the stream atAlaska Public Media. 

Also too, join us tomorrow night at the same time for the Alaska Senate debate, with incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski and her batshit crazy MAGA challenger Kelly Tshibaka , plus maybe a Kodiak bear and a caribou, we don't know. Maybe even a libertarian.

As is traditional, when tonight's debate is over, your Open Thread will once more be Evan's Ron Johnson Litter Box story, and I will do things that will direct you there, capisce? 

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