A pattern emerged when the two leading candidates for U.S. Senate vied for industry support Thursday at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s annual conference in Anchorage.
Again and again, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan tied former Congresswoman Mary Peltola to her fellow Democrats in the Senate, the people he said she’d empower if elected.
“My opponent talks a big game in terms of supporting oil and gas,” he said, “but when you look at her actions during her two terms as a congresswoman, she consistently voted with Lower 48 liberal allies of hers, against our interests.”
Sullivan said the phrase “Lower 48 liberal allies” 15 times in the hour-long forum, with slight variations. (Peltola served in Congress one and a quarter terms.)
Sullivan’s point was that Peltola’s election to the Senate would help those who want to block oil and gas development and also projects like the King Cove road.
“You can't have it both ways,” he said. “You can't empower the people who want to shut us down and then say ‘I don't want to shut you down.’”
The event was billed as a “forum.” Moderator Michelle Egan, chief of communications for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, said it was not a debate. But the candidates have a lot at stake and the discussion turned tense at times.
Peltola portrayed herself as a different kind of Democrat. Rather than defend the actions of the Biden administration that Sullivan tried to saddle her with, Peltola skewered Biden’s Interior secretary — and pinned blame on Sullivan.
“My opponent, he voted yes to confirm Deb Haaland, who was one of the biggest stumbling blocks Alaska’s ever seen,” Peltola said.
Both Alaska senators voted to confirm Haaland, who also had the late Congressman Don Young’s support. Haaland became the first Native American to lead the Interior Department, a year before Peltola became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.
Peltola emphasized her support for ConocoPhillips’s Willow project and other lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. She said her Democratic House colleagues helped her get a key meeting with President Biden
“And I was nice enough to bring our senators along,” she said. “And I was able to use arguments that were compelling. ‘You're interested in social justice? Well, that's great because all the Native groups in Alaska, all of the Alaska Federation Natives, every union in the state want this project, want Willow to go forward.”
Sullivan scoffed at her account.
“My opponent, you know, claims one meeting with Joe Biden, which was actually an embarrassment,” Sullivan said. “He was clueless. And then she went out and said he was the smartest, sharpest guy in D.C.”
Peltola praised Biden’s mental acuity in a December 2023 interview. Her words came back to haunt her after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Peltola later told reporters he seemed sharp when she spoke to him some 10 months before the debate but aged a lot in the intervening time.
At Thursday’s forum, she tried twice to pin the performance of Haaland’s Interior Department on Sullivan. The second time gave Sullivan pause, literally.
Peltola began the jab by saying the federal agencies need to be “listening to people, and working with people. Not what we had when we saw Deb Haaland — confirmed by Dan.”
“Okay,” said moderator Michelle Egan. “Senator?”
A silence of five full seconds hung over the convention hall. Sullivan’s response didn’t mention Haaland.
“So, agency accountability is a critical thing, and oversight is a critical thing,” he began, then pivoted to “my opponent’s liberal Lower 48 allies.”
Despite being the sitting senator, Sullivan came to the forum as a bit of an underdog. Peltola's share of the primary vote reached 49% Thursday night, when the state updated its ballot count in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race.
That put the Republican incumbent seven percentage points behind his Democratic challenger.
