Bob Bird: Who should re-register with the renamed ALASKAN PARTY?

By BOB BIRD

The Alaskan Independence Party has been lost. Blame it on an ignorant set of party officers with a despairing understanding of our beloved state’s history and problems, as well as the usual difficulties that a bureaucracy creates.

But it is being reconstructed with an improved name, to drop the naïve independent and undeclared voters who signed up, thinking that the AIP was a party for those who don’t like any party. This will also purge the list of those who have died or moved away, an action long overdue for the entire state’s voting registry.

The old AIP’s by-laws have been kept largely intact, and are now approved by the Division of Elections. Allow us to clarify what the ALASKAN PARTY [AP] stands for.

1. Our statehood vote was flawed in 1958. The primary purpose of the AP is to get the people and the state government to recognize this. It is not, and never has been, to secede. It is to claim the same rights that are still honored today, for Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other Non-Self-Governing Territories. The 1945 U.N. Charter, in Section 73, listed both Alaska and Hawaii as NSGTs, but we were offered only statehood or remaining as a territory. Commonwealth and independence ought to have also been options. The Philippines did not secede in 1946, they merely exercised their treaty rights, and wisely arranged to continue U.S. military protection, along with their citizens’ ability to join the U.S. armed forces, to be posted in Pacific Rim assignments.
2. The AP believes that federal ownership of 65% of Alaska’s land mass violates the federal government’s own Constitution, found in Article I, Section 8, clause 17 and the 10^th It stifles our economic development and forces Alaska to remain, as it did during its territorial days, a ward of the federal government, along with federal dependency and control. All efforts to tinker with improving our economic livelihood will largely fail unless and until we claim what rightfully belongs to us, yet honor the obligations to ANCSA and native properties, which are 10% of our state.
3. The AP also wants to improve our locally distorted state laws and 1955 constitution, which is ineffectively addressed by other parties. This includes Ranked-Choice Voting, Grand Jury rights, abortion and its funding, various stifling provisos within our state constitution that yield property to the federal government, voting integrity and others too numerous to mention. It is why the AP will call a convention to address the issues of the day within a viable and reasonable party platform.

The AP knows that voters who want limited government and constitutionally recognized rights, whether they be Republicans or independent voters, have long sympathized with the old AIP. However, they refrained from joining because to do so would make it legally impossible to vote in the Republican primary.

That reasonable excuse no longer exists, as long as RCV remains. Thus, a big reason to refrain from joining the AP has not existed since 2020.

Libertarians, who understand that their party has alarmingly turned towards Leftist social issues, might also consider joining the AP.

If you were a previous member of the AIP, and understood why, we ask that you re-register under the re-named AP. If you never joined, but believe this would be the right fit for you, then please re-register. You can do this in 5 minutes, by going online, using this link: https://voterregistration.alaska.gov/. If you cannot find the ALASKAN PARTY, the drop-down box will have the new option available soon.

Once we reach a threshold of 5,000 voters, we will call a statewide convention, elect officers, debate issues, and do all other acts and things which recognized political parties do.

The time, place and date will be determined when the threshold is reached.

I also wish to point out that while I will initially chair the proceedings, and ask to be named permanent chairman, that is a question for delegates to decide.

And, I will be asking that a younger generation begin to step forward, who know that the ALASKAN PARTY will always exist as long as there is a spirit to fight for our long-denied rights as a full-fledged state and a free people. They should contact me for discussions in this matter.

Our motto will remain the same: “Alaska First, Alaska Always.”

Conservative talk radio host Bob Bird anchors the “Talk of the Kenai” show for KSRM, and was named the 2025 Broadcaster of the Year by the Alaska Broadcasters Association. He was chairman of the former Alaskan Independence Party.