Suzanne Downing: Alaska’s candidate in a box? Bill Hill came straight out of Mamdani agency central casting

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Oct. 4, 2026 – Find someone who looks the part. Build the campaign around him. Sell the public an outsider while the professionals assemble the production backstage.

That’s the cynical political formula revealed remark attributed to Morris Katz, the media strategist and co-founder of the  Fight Agency, whose consulting work has connections reaching into Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign for Alaska governor.

Politico reported that Katz discussed the Graham Platner candidacy at a dinner in fashion designer Tory Burch’s Manhattan apartment.

According to one attendee, Katz described finding “a guy that looks like he’s a union working-class guy” and putting him forward. The account rests on that attendee’s recollection of a private conversation.

The operative words are “looks like.” That’s Bill Hill in Alaska’s congressional race. He looks the part.

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Working-class voters, most of whom in Alaska are not members of any party, have become a marketing demographic. A candidate becomes the face selected to reach them. Democrat-aligned political consultants find the prospect, shape the presentation, and offer voters an apparently spontaneous uprising against the establishment.

Candidate in a box. Some assembly required.

Platner, the Maine oyster farmer recruited to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, was supposed to demonstrate how well this formula could work. His advisers promoted his rugged appearance and outsider appeal. Then the campaign collapsed amid scandals, culminating in a sexual assault allegation that Platner denied. He withdrew in July. Politico’s subsequent reporting raised serious questions about the advisers’ vetting and their handling of warnings from campaign staff.

A compelling launch video and then a candidate face plant.

Alaskans should recognize the broader strategy. We have been watching versions of it for years.

In January 2018, Politico published “How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required).” Its account highlighted Kreiss-Tomkins, Forrest Dunbar, and John-Henry Heckendorn recruiting outsiders, persuading them to run, and supplying the campaign expertise and connections needed to win. They’ve been at this for years.

I wrote about that Democrat strategy at the time. The machinery included candidate recruitment, advertising, fundraising relationships, and coaching. The objective was to expand progressive power through candidates whose identities could reach beyond the traditional Democratic electorate.

Today, Kreiss-Tomkins’ own gubernatorial campaign has a financial connection to the very consultant network behind Platner and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

A review of campaign disclosures showed that Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign paid Debra Schommer Media Group $165,725 and listed another $93,050 still owed to the company.

The Fight Agency was a subcontractor on expenditures involving Schommer and another consulting firm. Schommer handles substantial media work for Mamdani, whose successful mayoral campaign also used Fight Agency.

Morris Katz is an ad maker and strategist with Fight.

The same political consulting world that helped package Platner is doing business with the campaign of a man long associated with Alaska’s red-state-to-purple strategy.

Then there is Bill Hill. The ultimate candidate plucked out of thin air.

Hill’s candidacy is Alaska’s version of the Platner sales pitch: emphasize the working background, present a relatable outsider, and invite voters to see personal biography as proof of political independence.

On Sept. 15, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added him to its “Red to Blue” program, even though he is an “undeclared” candidate. Its announcement emphasized his fishing, construction, and education background while promising organizational help, fundraising support, staff resources, training, and strategic guidance. The party’s congressional campaign arm is helping build the campaign of a candidate it repeatedly calls independent.

We’ve revealed here at The Alaska Story just how bad his education background is — he ran the Bristol Bay School District into the ground during his 10-year tenure.

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Voters deserve to weigh that Democrat Party backing alongside the independent label.

Recruiting candidates is usual, but the way Democrats are doing it is unusual Take Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, entered the progressive recruitment pipeline after her brother nominated her. Organizers reviewed and vetted prospective candidates at a speed-dating type audition.

A fisherman like Bill Hill can have genuine experience on the water, but how does he arrive with an entire professional campaign apparatus suddenly behind him, and supplant the actual Democrat, Matt Schultz, who had am ample supply of baggage?

The voters should understand the stagecraft behind the scenes.

Katz’s remark offers a glimpse of how consultants discuss the candidates as a product: Find someone who looks convincing. Put forward someone straight out of central casting. That’s Bill Hill, Graham Platner, and even AOC.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.