Randy Ruedrich: Don’t vote for Paul Bauer for Republican Party vice chair. Here’s why.

By RANDY RUEDRICH

April 29, 2026 – Paul Bauer was elected to the Anchorage Municipal Assembly in 2005.  Bauer only served a single 3-year term in that East Anchorage Assembly seat, defeated in his 2008 re-election bid. Another conservative recaptured this East Anchorage Assembly seat in the 2011 Muni Election.

Bauer has served as an East Anchorage Republican District Chair for most of the last quarter century. He ran and lost East Anchorage State House Races in 2020 and 2022.  Rather than working jointly with Jordon Harary as a Republican team to win this District 22 election, Paul encouraged Harary to terminate his campaign. Bauer only got 25% of district vote in 2022.  Republican District Chairman Bauer did not even recruit a 2024 Republican District 20 candidate.

When asked about retaining his district chair position whilst running for office, Paul replied that retaining that chairmanship would assist his candidacy.  He could not explain how this assistance/support could develop.

No other Alaska Republican District chair has retained his position whilst seeking a state office. A candidate has a full-time job engaging voters, media and the community. How can diverting candidate time and energy from that focus to a political district activity be a better use of a candidate’s energy?

Currently Bauer is chairman of District 20 Republicans. Assembly Districts 4 and 5 overlay District 20 in the current municipal assembly map.  Neither Bauer individually nor his District 20 organization endorsed either Anchorage District 4 David Donley or District 5 Cody Anderson in the 2026 Spring election.

The Assembly District 4 race was highly contested.  After the vote tabulation David Donley lost by 26 votes. The recount on April 24 reaffirmed the same 26 vote margin of defeat.

Where was District Chairman Bauer, who is howling about his intent to provide strong leadership to win future elections?  He never responded to David Donley calls and messages. Bauer was AWOL during this entire 2026 Anchorage Municipal campaign.

Bauer’s District 20 turned out 31% of its Republican voters in this Muni Election.  Nearly 37% of all Republican voters throughout the Municipality voted on this spring’s Muni Election.  A minor 2% turnout improvement generates more than the 26 votes required for David Donley to become an elected member of the Anchorage Assembly.  Even with a significant 4% District 20 under performance when compared to the Republican municipality turnout, Bauer would be joining Donley in claiming victory.

Finally, Paul Bauer is now running for Republican Party Vice Chair at next week’s Republican State Convention in Soldotna. Each District elects its delegates to the state convention. District 20 is authorized to send six delegates and six alternates to the State Convention. Any candidate needs supporters and votes at the state convention. Yet Bauer is the only District 20 delegate going to Soldotna.

Bauer again fails completely as a leader to organize his district delegation.  Instead of going to State Convention with a loaded 6 shooter, Paul Bauer is going State Convention with his musket.    He continues to demonstrate no leadership skills and should not be the Alaska Republican Party vice chair. No informed state convention delegate should vote for Paul Bauer.

Randy Ruedrich is the former chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.

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