OPINION: What does Mary Peltola stand for?

Few can question the success of Mary Peltola’s 2022 campaign. Amongst a crowded field, she was an underdog who won using populist messaging that was light on specifics. When she won, many Alaskans, including myself, wondered how she would translate those lofty messages into representation. Two years in, it’s still unclear what she stands for.

On the policy side, the representative has recently unleashed a sloppy Christmas tree of messaging bills — bills that have no chance of passing out of the House — designed solely to sow anger and resentment needed to energize her base. While her office has downplayed the negative impact of these bills since they do not expect them to pass, these bills have very real consequences for the industries and companies that they are aimed at. These bills are based on misleading statements that undermine regulatory processes and markets, directly harming companies that invest significantly in Alaska. Destabilizing legislation and rhetoric that Peltola has embraced as her ticket to re-election is bad for the Alaska economy and the communities that depend on private sector investment for their tax revenue and economic survival.

On a substantive level, it’s hard to pick through the incoherence found between her various messaging bills, campaign statements, and policy positions. Take her Pebble mine bill, for example: Why are the risks from Pebble mine — which she opposes — inherently different than those from the proposed Donlin gold mine that she has publicly supported? Is it simply that the representative used to work for Donlin mine, or is it that she is heavily influenced by groups like SalmonState, whose policy objectives are often in lockstep with her own?

Her “pro-fish” efforts are just as confounding. She was instrumental in getting the Biden administration to help Alaska seafood companies deal with unfair Russian competition yet has spent significant efforts undermining the reputation and brand of Alaska seafood, using inaccurate and off-base attacks on state and federal fisheries management to energize a small but vocal group of advocates, again echoing the exact platforms pushed by groups like SalmonState. For example, she conflates issues regarding bottom trawling with salmon bycatch reductions, even though the two have no connection; in doing so, she claims unwarranted credit for advancing bills for her constituents in Western Alaska, when in reality this issue has been spearheaded by Washington interests. She also criticizes managers for ‘doing nothing’ despite significant efforts by the State of Alaska and North Pacific Fishery Management Council to deal with bycatch and bottom trawling. She has publicly characterized the National Marine Fisheries Service’s data reporting and science as ‘trickery’ and ‘deception’. These efforts significantly undermine Alaska businesses and the value of Alaska seafood.

In trying to make sense of this all, it’s relevant to look at her staffing. She’s received a fair amount of attention for the high level of turnover in her office, but there’s one long-term staffer who is clearly shaping her representation: her chief of staff, who was her campaign director during the election. This, combined with the type of messaging bills coming out of her office, suggests that her representation is nothing more than perpetual campaign mode.

We knew that recalibrating after more than 40 years of strong representation from the late Don Young would be hard, but it’s clear that Alaska and Alaskans deserve more than a representative who is only focused on getting re-elected, no matter the costs to Alaska businesses and communities.

John Connell is an Alaska resident who has spent nearly 30 years fishing in Bristol Bay.

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