FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Republican Party has convened in Fairbanks for its biennial convention, where it will pick new party leaders and select delegates to the party's national convention in Cleveland in July to choose a presidential candidate.
The possible successors to current party chairman Peter Goldberg include Ann Brown, a Fairbanks attorney, and Tuckerman Babcock, an adviser to former Gov. Sarah Palin, a former official in Gov. Wally Hickel's administration and the former assistant manager of Matanuska Electric Association.
Party members will also pick 28 delegates to the national convention, who will help select the GOP presidential nominee.
The Alaska Republican Party said last month that those delegates would be split evenly between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz after Marco Rubio announced he was suspending his campaign. But the party later returned five of those delegates to Rubio when the Florida senator asked for them back, which was seen as an effort to help stop Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination.
The current split leaves Cruz with 12 Alaska delegates, Trump with 11 and Rubio with five — results based on the party's Super Tuesday presidential preference poll in March.
The party leadership vote and delegate selection will occur Saturday. Friday's convention schedule includes speeches by party leaders, committee meetings and a reception with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's up for re-election this year.