Lisa Murkowski dons her warpaint, backs ‘Just Keep Taxing’ Democrat JKT, while Aleut Bernadette Wilson stands strong against income taxes
By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 29, 2026 – Sen. Lisa Murkowski has made her choice for Alaska’s next governor: Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the Democrat recently seen donning a woman’s headscarf and goofy heart-shaped sunglasses while playacting the role of a Native auntie.
Meanwhile, Bernadette Wilson, an actual Alaska Native woman, is running for the same office. Murkowski could not be bothered with a real Alaska Native.
Wilson is Aleut, born in Kenai, with ancestral roots in Naknek, where her grandmother was born. She is a member of the Naknek tribe. Her connection to Alaska Native life comes through family, community, but she does not lead with this piece of her biography, because she is interested in serving all Alaskans. She doesn’t do the cosplay like Murkowski and JKT.
The contrast is stunning.
Let’s remember that Kreiss-Tomkins began his legislative career by dropping out of college and defeating an Alaska Native Republican for Alaska House. In 2012, he beat Bill Thomas of Haines, a Tlingit fisherman, Vietnam veteran, and incumbent state representative. After a recount, the margin was 32 votes. JKT took out a Native from the Legislature.
Now he is running against another Alaska Native Republican, this time for governor. And Murkowski has stepped forward to help him beat a Native.
A senator so closely associated with Alaska Native causes should expect questions when she passes over an Aleut businesswoman to support a Democrat who has had no real job in his 37 years and whose “Native auntie” performance, to my eye, reduced a respected role to campaign dress-up.
Suzanne Downing: JKT says ‘remain curious.’ Alaskans should be curious about his actual judgment
I found the JKT performance insulting. I find Murkowski’s endorsement even more revealing.
Alaskans have seen Murkowski embracing Joe Biden. They were hugging pals. Alaskans have watched her oppose Donald Trump. Time and again. Now she has explicitly endorsed a Democrat for governor. The Republican label is looking increasingly like a family heirloom rather than a statement of political conviction.
Look past the scarf and sunglasses, and there is a consequential connection between Murkowski and Kreiss-Tomkins: Both voted to impose a state income tax on Alaskans.
In 2002, while serving in the Alaska House, Murkowski joined the majority that approved a proposal to restore a personal income tax. That proposal died in the Senate.
That was the same year her father, Frank Murkowski, won the governor’s office and appointed his daughter to the US Senate seat he had vacated.
Twenty-four years later, Alaska still has no state personal income tax. If there had been, a person making $100,000 a year would have paid over $25,000 to the State of Alaska in that time. That’s real money.
There have been budget fights, difficult choices, and recurring arguments about spending, savings, and the Permanent Fund dividend. But the state has continued operating without the tax Murkowski voted to impose.
The prediction that Alaska must eventually tax its residents’ incomes has had a remarkably long shelf life.
Kreiss-Tomkins has his own recorded vote.
On April 15, 2017, he voted for House Bill 115, an income-tax measure that passed the House 22-17. That bill also failed in the Senate.
Different years. Different bills. The same willingness to send Alaska workers a state income-tax bill.
For a household, that means less money available for groceries, heating fuel, a mortgage, or getting the kids to their activities. For a business owner, it means another claim on income earned by taking risks and keeping the doors open.
Wilson opposes an income tax. Murkowski has preferred the candidate who voted for one, like she did.
There could not be a more concrete policy difference for voters to weigh. They can talk about working across the aisle all they want, but if it means to reinstall an income tax, no thanks.
JKT’s auntie accessories and Murkowski’s Native regalia are cosplay — costume play — for them.
Wilson’s roots in Alaska, in business, in parenthood require no costume.
On income taxes, Lisa Murkowski and “Just Keep Taxing” JKT have already shown Alaskans something they share besides costume play.
The real Alaska Native woman in this race? Bernadette Wilson, who stands for all Alaskans.
Suzanne Downing is founder and. editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan. Not an Alaska Native, however.
25 thoughts on “Suzanne Downing: Will the real Alaska Native please stand up?”
Is this a preview of his dress if he becomes governor? What is his dress like for MLK day? Princess and Just Keep Taxing- your wallets are getting thinner by the minute with all those taxes for them to spend, spend, spend…
Did you say ” dress”? Or did you mean ” attire”?
I refuse to cede the linguistic, not to say the moral, high ground to radical leftists in every instance, as should every non-radical-leftist. For example, always refer to them as “totalitarians” rather than “progressives” (what is “progressive” about reactionary tyranny?), and always call them “radical leftists” rather than “liberals” (they are today completely ILLIBERAL). Both favorite words of the neo-Bolsheviks are precisely contrary to their true agenda and their true nature.
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In the same way, I categorically refuse to acknowledge both the inane three-letter acronyms so beloved by leftists in place of, you know, an actual NAME, as well as the pretentious leftist dog-whistle of the hyphenated surname. Stop with this “JKT” bullshit already! His name is “Johnny Tomkins”, and he should NEVER be referred to by anything else.
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Do not let yourselves be bullied and controlled by the linguistic Stalinists of the left!
Here. Hear. Do not cede anything to these broken, corrupt people- including and importantly langauge.
Nice to see you back J.
How about we try focusing on the candidates’ history and policies, and not on their racial and ethnic backgrounds?
It goes to their veracity, if they claim to be something they arent. , just for political advantage
While not an Alaska Native, I AM a native Alaskan. I happily punched my ticket for Bernadette, Sen. Dan, and the wonder kid, Nick III. I voted Yes on Two and I wrote in “Steaming Pile of Bovine Pooh” where my state senator was uncontested.
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All with a smile, knowing I had done the right thing.
Did you rank all 3 or just vote for the near bankrupt Wilson? If Wilson doesn’t win I can see things unraveling for her. This is a last ditch effort.
I ranked all three. I even sent a photo of my completed ballot to Suzanne.
Actually it’s her “First Ditch Effort” as she’s never run for an office before. While I’m not excusing her past financial faux pas, I do know that running a business can be challenging and, I give her credit for actually having a real job as opposed to many politicians who rule over us. Well, Assemblyman Felix does drive for Door Dash. In Bernadette’s case and IMHO… Grace received should evolve to Grace given.
I doubt today’s Alaska Native political community would recognize Ms Wilson an Alaska Native just by her maternal grandmother is Alaska Native. Nor that she is the first Governor who had a Grandmother Alaska Native. They’ll resist her Tagging herself that title if she is elected.
People today in the Alaska Native community don’t recognize You per se being Alaska Native unless they say you are. Despite whatever your BIA blood quantum says.
You know before ANCSA was passed, there were lot’s of Native Alaskans who left the community because it wasn’t envogue to be Native and lots of Natives either just came out of Indian boarding schools or they attended a local integrated high school (plus too I think family members were distancing because of alcoholism and tribal member behavioral problems). Then they returned suddenly came back to claim their Nativeness and enroll as Shareholders in the regional and tribal corporation. Meaning they came back for money or suddenly being Native was envogue.
The betrayal has complicated how the community Sees who is Native and who is not. Now DEI ideas has entered into the mindset of Alaska Native identity, and further complicating how you see who is Native. DEI has taught Native peoples you aren’t Native if you don’t have brown skin or at least a prominent tint and brown hair and brown eyes. That’s how today’s Native would see Ms Wilson. They don’t doubt nor not recognize her grandmother as Alaska Native. But In today’s world she’d be a stranger just like me i become a stranger to my own Tlingit community and every person I known died is one more lost connection to my maternal ancestry.
Tina, nobody here can help with the bigotry shown by Natives toward their own, but ancestry does not lie. Bernadette is of Aleut ancestry, Period.
My daughter, the pro-abortion Catholic. Elton Johnathan, the little gay fellow who dropped out of college and lives at home. And Wally Hickel’s neice, who picks up and deposits others people’s refuse and hauls it away. The real Alaskan is Bernadette. What a gal.
So glad you straightened out, Frankie. That little visit to see Dr. Dan really helped. I may go and visit him too.
Go Bernadette!
The entire Family is effing crazy. Frankie just walks around the house naked playing Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock,” and Nancy brings out her old tea set and places it around the coffee table waiting for her Republican lady friends to show up. And Lisa is on the phone alternating discussions with Mary Peltola, Dan J. Sullivan, and Dan S. Sullivan. Sometimes she forgets which one she is talking to. And now I’m dealing with all this shit. Does Dr. Dan give discounts for Family group therapy?
Sorry House Husband. I think Frankie, Nancy, and Lisa are all ready for assisted living. 47 years of rule and crowned authority has driven them all insane. Get out while you can.
These episodes are like a tv sitcom.
Don’t Frankie and Nancy both have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia? If Lisa has early on dementia, then the whole bunch of them should live in the same facility and have their food fights in the lock down wing.
Funny stuff. Like the British Royals. Chaos everywhere at the expense of the subjects. I always wondered why the Murkowskis moved to Wrangell. A strange place to live for multi-millionaires who still think that everyone loves them. If Frankie is running around in his house naked, wearing his crown and listening to old Elton John songs, rest assured that the end is near. At least in Wrangell, their isolation has got to be pleasing to the neighbors.
JKT’s choice to impersonate an Alaskan native auntie and not an uncle is… interesting. 🙂 He could have added a berry bucket and moss mat to complete the stereotype.
How is play-acting like a Native any different from blackface? Either you are, or you are not. And in what way does play-acting as a Native advance any agenda other than “look at me!”
Tamra. So right. We must all stay in our lanes. You, dressed in your DIY floor length ticking dress and bonnet. Me in a tight black Tshirt showing the results of gym discipline, gold necklace and designer shades. To vary from those images is BIGOTRY! and will be punished before the courts and god.
Evan, has there ever been any time when you weren’t a complete ass? It’s your leftist asshats who scream any time anyone appears in blackface, and yet, you are all in on a bunch of white folks play-acting at being Native. Own it, idiot.
Tam, don’t argue with a commie idiot, it is a fools errand.
You have much better things to focus your talents on.
I was honestly hoping those pictures were AI. That is so depressing.
Little Johnny wears a 9 inch oosik around his neck like a piece of jewelry. He never knows when it may come in handy as a foreplay instrument.