Is There Something Strange Going On Up In Alaska?

Mike Dunleavy-- does he also have a thing for drag queens?

Last week I went to two Ted Lieu fundraising events for California candidates. And he mentioned Alaska with times, asserting that Independent Alyse Galvin was starting to close the gap between herself and forever Congressman Don Young. 538 gives her a 29.3% chance to win (2 in 7) and there are no polls showing her ahead. The most recent poll, from Lake Research gives Young a 48-44% lead. Yesterday, Cook moved their prediction from Likely Republican to Lean Republican. She outraised him in the 3rd quarter-- $643,000 to $236,000-- but as of the September 30 FEC report, he still had $312,351 cash on hand to her $274,505.

Galvin stresses her Independent affiliation and is listed as an "Undeclared" who is the "Alaska Democratic Party nominee" on the ballot. She's hoping to attract independent and third-party voters, who were a big reason President Trump only won Alaska 51 percent to 37 percent in 2016. However, her ads against Young's healthcare and tax votes mirror Democratic ads across the country, and Young is arguing she's a liberal Democrat in disguise.

At 85, Young is the oldest House incumbent seeking reelection in 2018, and Galvin argues he's served past his usefulness and is in the pocket of lobbyists. But he isn't shying away from a fight, and his ads warn that Galvin would vote for Nancy Pelosi and enable a crackdown on Alaska's energy industry. Young is still the favorite, but Gov. Bill Walker's last-minute exit and endorsement of Democrat Mark Begich adds an additional layer of uncertainty.

OK, so that's a little interesting but not "strange." The gubernatorial race is where to look for "strange." You may have read in theist few days that the incumbent governor of Alaska, Bill Walker, an independent, suddenly pulled out of the race and then said he did it to help Democrat Mark Begich beat far right Republican Mike Dunleavy. "Walker," wrote Becky Bohrer for the AP, "said Friday he could not win a three-way race and that Alaskans deserve a choice other than Dunleavy. There are a lot of things he and Begich don't agree on, but Walker said Begich would be better for Alaska. Whether Begich can overtake the presumed front-runner remains to be seen with two-and-a-half weeks before the election. Begich, who said his campaign was "inundated" with calls after Walker's announcement, thinks he can win. Some Democrats and independents had long worried Walker and Begich would split the vote, handing the race to Dunleavy. Walker, a former Republican, was elected in 2014 with Democratic support. The clincher for Walker's decision to leave the race, it appears, was his lieutenant governor's abrupt resignation days earlier over an inappropriate overture to a woman."

OK, that seemed a bit odd, but not strange. There are no reports of "strange" anywhere in the media. But sources on the ground tell me a pretty shocking story. Back on primary night, Mike Dunleavy's watch party was in a ballroom at the Aviator Hotel in Anchorage. One of the Democrats' watch parties was at Mad Myrna's, Anchorage's best known gay bar. Were they trolling Dunleavy?

Dunleavy has been an ardent, even hysterical homophobe for his whole political life, not so much someone with a hatred of the LGBTQ community as someone with something to hide. You know what a drag queen is, right? As opposed to a transsexual? A drag queen has a penis. And that, we're hearing from several sources, is how Dunleavy, a former state senator from-- where else?-- Wasilla, likes it. At least 2 drag queens have claimed to have had sexual relationships with the homophobic Dunleavy. I was hoping to present this news along with a tape-- but I don't have it, at least not yet. I'm not going to discuss this topic again until I do though.

 I should mention that one of my best Alaska contacts told that "We should do an action where we send in folks in drag to one of his events." In the drag community he's known as "Prometheus."