This political season will end — eventually

MATT NEVALA

June 12, 2008 at 3:05PM AKST

As you watched, you wondered when it would conclude. The back-and-forth action, the competitive nature of the main combatants — it all served the fans well. Would it go on forever? Could it go on forever?

Early last week, well into the third overtime period of an already-long game, one shot ended Game 5 of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Final with a Pittsburgh Penguins’ victory over my beloved Detroit Red Wings. The series ended two days later June 4 with Detroit hoisting the famed silver chalice, representative of hockey supremacy.
Oh, yeah, the day after Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, Sen. Barack Obama ended the Democratic primary season against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in what felt like the 300,000th overtime period. Obama won enough delegates and preferences from superdelegates June 3 to cross the threshold he needed to claim the party’s presidential nomination.

By some accounts, the political battle between Obama and Clinton raged on for more than 17 months. It fed well the beast that is the 24-hour cable news networks, kept talk-radio squawkers humming, filled many a hole in the blogosphere and consumed its share of newsprint.

For Jody Malus, the process played out much as expected. As one of 11 Bethel residents to attend last month’s Alaska Democratic Party convention in Palmer, she watched and read about the primary season coverage with a proverbial grain of political salt.

“The primary campaigns and elections have been a giant circus in this country for decades,” she shared in an e-mail exchange. “No other country has election campaigns as protracted and expensive as ours.

“Instead of reporting a candidate’s public service record, we are treated to slander, innuendo, outright lies and attacks on personality.

“By the time the elections arrive, citizens are disgusted.”

Malus was one of four Alaska House District 38 delegates to support Clinton at the state Democratic convention. Sharon Vaska, who first volunteered for Obama’s campaign in January, traveled to Palmer along with six other House District 38 delegates to back the Illinois senator.

“It’s nice to feel like you’re on the winning team,” Vaska said.

Obama won 11 of Alaska’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention chosen May 24. Clinton received three delegates. When combined with the state’s four superdelegates selected earlier, the total vote for the state’s 18-member delegation to the national convention is 14 for Obama and four for Clinton.

Both Malus and Vaska said much of the infighting and the mean-spirited aspects of the Democratic primary season witnessed on the national level didn’t reach the relative outskirts of Alaska’s scene. In fact, political participation might very well have reached new heights in the Last Frontier and more specifically the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

“The turnout for the (House) District 38 Democratic Caucus (in February) was tremendous,” said Malus, who except for a short time when she registered independent has been a registered Democrat since 1971.

“In 2006, we may have had, at most, 20 people. This year, we had more than 100, with 99 certified to vote in the caucus. People attended despite temperatures around 25 below zero and felt very much a part of the system of democracy. This occurred all over rural Alaska.”

Vaska described a cordial vibe at last month’s party convention, but for some confusion over which candidate’s supporter would give a speech at a certain time and the passing out of a pro-Clinton/anti-Obama flyer.

“Both sides were actually pretty good and vocal in support of their candidate,” said Vaska, who has lived in Bethel for 28 years.

While the contentious nature of the primary season nationally has continually been front-page news, like always, we do things a little bit different in Alaska.

“I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s we’re one big party — we’re Alaskans,” Vaska said. “Some of the heckling and screaming you saw doesn’t bode well for anybody.”

Barring some unforeseen circumstance, it’s nearing time to turn attention to November’s general election and a contest between Obama, Republican Sen. John McCain and the usual cadre of lesser-known, smaller-party candidates.

Vaska learned a lot at last month’s convention and expects better organization in House District 38 moving forward. Malus said now is the time for the state’s rural residents to mobilize and make it clear what they want from elected leaders.

“We will not stand by while our rural areas are depopulated because folks cannot afford to heat their homes and buy food,” Malus said.

Regardless if we can stomach six more months of political fun and frivolity, Y-K Delta delegates like Vaska and Malus said Western Alaska residents should be pleased with what’s transpired so far.

But the end of the political season is near, sort of.

“I lived in Europe for five years and have observed first hand how sane campaigning and electioneering can be,” Malus said. “Since our national campaign coverage is distracting attention from problem solving and what our legislators are doing right now, I’ll be relieved when August and November arrive.”

Tundra Drums news editor Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2480 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 480.