With the torrent of political messaging coming at us at election time, apologists for the swamp can sometimes slip things by us that they never could otherwise. One such idea being floated out over the last month is the idea that the swamp really doesn’t mind conservative legislators and is just as willing to pass their bills as anyone else’s. [Reality Check: Conservative legislators who have been sent to Juneau to drain the swamp do not step off the plane and have someone hand them a hose to start the draining process. That’s not how the swamp works.]
Maybe you’ve picked up on the subliminal messaging of the past view weeks: “Go ahead, elect a conservative to go to Juneau and the swamp will welcome them with open arms and show them the same level of courtesy and respect afforded to every other legislator.” It sounds great—until you remember that Juneau hasn’t been anything like that for at least the last 15 years, and probably a lot longer.
- Was that the experience Eagle River had when Lora Reinbold was removed from her committees and had her staff fired after siding with her constituents on the budget in 2015?
- Was that the experience my constituents in Wasilla had when Mike Dunleavy had his staff fired and was booted from committees after siding with his constituents on the budget in 2017?
- Was that the experience that voters in Anchorage had when their senator, Mia Costello, was stripped of her position as Senate Majority Leader in 2019 simply for following the law?
- Was that the experience Mike Shower’s constituents in the Mat-Su have had…ever?
If you get down to Juneau and start voting like a conservative, be prepared to start being treated like one.
- Conservatives prefer smaller government. The swamp wants it to grow.
- Conservatives prefer lower taxes. The swamp wants to maximize the amount of money flowing through the capitol building every year.
- Conservatives tend to be wary of human nature and its propensity towards corruption. Corruption is the muck the swamp calls home.
- Because of the corrosive effects of power, conservatives tend to prefer a diffusion of power, and the use of checks and balances. From the swamp’s perspective, checks and balances are simply an impediment to accomplishing their agenda.
- Generally speaking, conservatives prefer transparency and the use of sunlight as a disinfectant. The swamp likes the dark and smoke-filled rooms (but it will settle for a room with copious amount of alcohol if a smoke-filled room isn’t available).
- Conservatives generally tend to have greater respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. The swamp values legislators who are willing to look the other way when such things are an obstacle to “getting things done”.
When someone wants to talk about how many bills the swamp has allowed a conservative legislator to pass, just realize they are talking about something the swamp has done, not the legislator. This would probably be intuitive at any other time of year, but with the swamp currently dispensing the Kool-Aid like there’s no tomorrow, a small dose of reality may be needed to counter the sweet nothings currently coming out of Juneau.
- Lora Reinbold represented Eagle River in the legislature for ten years, beginning in 2013. In 2015, she sided with her conservative district on the budget and the swamp refused to pass any of her bills since that vote took place.
- Mike Dunleavy represented Wasilla in the senate for five years. He authored sixteen bills. All were blocked by his peers from less conservative parts of the state. He had to become governor to get his first bill passed.
- Mia Costello represented Anchorage in the legislature for twelve years. On July 8th, 2019 she upheld her oath to the Constitution by attending the special session that Governor Dunleavy proclaimed in Wasilla. Simply stepping foot in the building was so intolerable to the swamp and to her Republican peers in the senate majority that they retaliated by removing her as senate majority leader and replacing her with a Democrat. They didn’t even wait 24 hours. From that day forward her peers in the senate refused to pass any of her bills. That was over 5 years ago. She is now running for the house.
- Mike Shower has represented Wasilla in the senate for the last seven years. He has authored 29 bills. All 29 have been blocked by his peers from less conservative parts of the state. Most of his amendments have been blocked as well. Does that mean he should sit quietly in the corner and shouldn’t have offered them unless he had permission from his less conservative peers? It comes down to this, is Shower in the senate to represent his constituents and put forward the proposals that they desire, or is he there to only put forward proposals that the swamp wants to hear?
There is always an easy way for conservatives to get more bills passed. It’s simple; be less conservative.
Of course, that’s exactly what the swamp wants, and do you want your legislator to be representing the interests of the swamp, or the interests of their constituents?
Another quip from the swamp at election time is this notion that you should only elect legislators that other legislators like, because if they don’t like your legislators they won’t do them personal favors, like voting for good policy. No surprise here, the swamp wants you to choose the candidates that best align with the interests of the swamp (because these are the candidates that will best represent YOU…um, yeah).
Let’s step back into the fresh air for a second. You elect conservative legislators because you want to see conservative policies. If you didn’t want to see conservative policies, you would elect someone else. The thing about conservative policies is that they are not popular among the political class. There are over a hundred registered lobbyists doing business in Juneau. How many of them get paid for convincing legislators to vote more conservatively? To protect the PFD? To reduce taxes? To spend less from the public treasury? To shrink the size and scope of government? To expand school choice? I can’t think of a single one. There’s not enough money in it to pay their fee.
Unlike other types of legislation, you don’t pass these types of unpopular conservative policies by collecting personal favors, or by hiring lobbyists and sending legislators big checks for their campaigns. No legislator is going to risk their re-election by voting to pass a conservative policy just because a lobbyist was kind to them or because they owe you a personal favor. The only way these controversial policies get passed is because a large enough portion of the public demands it. Don’t blame your conservative legislators when they do their best and get outvoted in the legislature. Blame the legislators who voted against good policy. And if you ever have the misfortune of having a legislator who puts petty squabbles ahead of voting for your best interests you know what to do at election time.
Bottom line: The swamp should never be in a position to make decisions over who will represent you in the legislature. If how the swamp treats your legislator, or how many bills Juneau lets your legislator pass, or which committees the swamp lets your legislator sit on, are the metrics you use to determine how effective your legislator is, you are giving Juneau all the power. You will never control these things, and neither will your legislators. They will always be solidly under the control of the swamp.
Of course, any talk about a legislator’s effectiveness begs the question “to what end?”
In Juneau, effectiveness is not measured in conservative policy successes. There are never enough of those to make it a credible metric.
The more typical way to measure the effectiveness of a politician is the length of their donor list. Are the right people donating? If special interests are knocking down your door to give you money, that’s a sign that you are an effective politician, at least in the way that Juneau measures effectiveness.
There is, however, an inverse correlation between how conservative a legislator’s voting record is and how much money they rake in from special interests. All things being equal, the more conservative your voting record, the less special interest money will come your way.
Don’t take my word for it. Here is a list of all of the campaign donations that Alaska legislators received during the 2022 election cycle. Legislators with the most donations are listed first, and those with the least donations are listed last. Examine the data and draw your own conclusions.
