The Alaska Republican Party has a new chairman: Tuckerman Babcock, of Soldotna. While Republicans nationally are divided for and against Donald Trump, the fault lines at the state convention in Fairbanks this weekend had a more local flavor.
When he pitched himself to the state convention on Saturday, Babcock recalled his days at Steller Alternative School, in the 1970s, not a place known to produce conservatives.
“I’m a Republican down to my boots. I went to a small high school in Anchorage with Mark Begich, Andy Josephson, Charles Wohlforth. I know what it’s like to do battle with the Democrats,” he said. “In college, I graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. I think we had one Republican professor. She taught PE.”
Babcock is said to be the mastermind of the Republican redistricting plan of the 1990s, as Gov. Wally Hickel’s reapportionment director. Babcock says the prior map had been drawn for Democrats.
“And oddly enough, ever since 1994, Republicans have been in charge of the (state) House and Senate,” he said. “That’s hard work. That’s winning!”
The convention was a mostly calm affair. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only member of the congressional delegation to appear at the event, enjoyed a standing ovation, although some at the convention aren’t happy with her moderate views, especially on abortion, and remained pointedly sitting.
Other tensions, too, weren’t far below the surface. Much of them were centered around long-time party chairman Randy Ruedrich, who critics say kills off the grassroots by focusing too much on the establishment and the oil industry. Babcock called for wiping the slate clean.
“Now, in this room there are some bitter hurts,” he said to a few hundred people gathered in the largest meeting hall of the Westmark Fairbanks. “There are grudges. There’s resentment and frustration. In the past, there have been harsh words among fellow Republicans. My friends: let it go. Forgive one another and build a stronger party.”
Anand Dubey, a convention participant from Spenard, says the party has operated as a “good ol’ boys’” club for a long time.
“The Alaska Republican party, for many, many years, has driven new people away, and
consistently backed their favorite candidates,” said Dubey, who was born in India. “I mean, I have personally felt that as a minority candidate.”
Dubey ran twice for the Alaska House. He won two Primaries (one uncontested) and lost in the General in 2012 and 2014. Dubey says he’s optimistic Babcock won’t continue practices that left some Republicans out.
“The idea is now, with new leadership, that all hopefully will go away and we’ll just be a more open, transparent party,” he said, adding that “time will tell” if his optimism is well-placed.
Convention delegates ditched the party’s nine-month transition period, so Babcock took over Saturday from Peter Goldberg. That means Babcock will be a delegate to the national convention in Cleveland. Goldberg, though, was elected national committeeman and will be a delegate to Cleveland anyway.
The vote for an immediate transition seemed more to be a dig at Ruedrich, a powerful
strategist and fundraiser, who critics say has been the power behind the throne, despite giving up the chairmanship in 2012. Delegates voted to strip him of an honor by removing Ruedrich from the list of Republican electors. (Those are the people who will cast Alaska’s three votes in the electoral college, assuming a Republican presidential candidate wins the state.) Ron Johnson of Palmer, who describes himself as a “hard-right” Republican, made the motion to demote Ruedrich to alternate elector.
“My opposition to Mr. Ruedrich is he has done damage to this party,” said Johnson, to loud applause and some booing. “He’s been a divider. I oppose him. I do not want him to see this jewel in his crown.”
The demotion passed overwhelmingly. Ruedrich looked grim and had little to say afterward, but he suggested the decision was more about the woman voted to replace him as elector — Carolyn Leman, whose youngest child died in a hiking accident.
“I think Carolyn had a tremendous loss last year. And in recognition of this, I find that’s reasonable consideration,” he said.
Ruedrich, though, did win on one big score: Tuckerman Babcock was his top choice for chairman.
Babcock will go to the national convention in July as one of five Alaskans pledged to former candidate Marco Rubio. The Rubio delegates will be released to vote as they like after at least two rounds of ballotting. Babcock says he doesn’t know whether he will ultimately vote for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, (assuming the balloting goes beyond two rounds) but he says he won’t support a “dark horse,” meaning any candidate other than Trump or Cruz.
See the full list of Alaska delegates to the Republican National Convention
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
