Suzanne Downing: When it comes to Mary Peltola, it’s all about what’s in it for Mary

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Oc.t 21, 2026 – Alaskans declined to renew Mary Peltola’s employment contract in 2024. Now, barely two years later, she wants a promotion with a six-year guarantee.

Somewhere between losing her House seat to Nick Begich and asking voters to send her back to Washington, Peltola found time to collect a substantial paycheck from the influence industry, with a $400,000 a year job at Holland & Hart.

It is a familiar Washington career path: Win public office, acquire connections, turn those connections into private employment, then return to the voters asking for another turn.

Rinse and repeat.

In March 2025, just after leaving Congress, Peltola joined Holland & Hart, a law and lobbying firm, as its Anchorage-based “senior director” of Alaska affairs. Her former chief of staff joined the firm, too. Washington’s revolving door apparently had room for both of them.

Her Senate financial disclosure lists $342,400 in income from the firm between March 2025 and January 2026. She was not a registered federal lobbyist, because she had just left Congress, and her campaign describes her work as strategic advice. Politically, we still have to ask what made her advice so valuable immediately after Alaskans voted her out.

My view is that the sequence tells us something about her priorities. Public office keeps opening the next door for Mary Peltola.

Shortly thereafter, Sen. Chuck Schumer came calling. Axios reported in January that he had been encouraging her to challenge Sen. Dan Sullivan since the previous summer. Alaska offered national Democrats a possible Senate pickup, and Peltola offered them a recognizable name. They did polling. They did focus groups. They settled on Mary.

Now we are supposed to believe that the senator she worked alongside — Sen. Sullivan — is the obstacle standing between Alaskans and a better life?

Peltola herself recently said she worked well with Sullivan during her time in the delegation. Voters should remember that when evaluating the campaign’s effort to portray him as a failure. He was a useful colleague when she held the House seat. Now she wants his job.

What changed: Sullivan’s record, or Mary’s career plans? Maybe things were going sour for her at Holland & Hart.

Her own congressional record deserves considerably more attention than her campaign’s carefully packaged personality.

GovTrack’s figures, cited in reporting on her attendance, show she missed 235 of 1,370 roll-call votes during her congressional service, or 17.2%. None of the bills she sponsored became law.

Six years is a long time. A senator votes on judges, spending, Cabinet appointments, and, should the House impeach a president, whether to convict.

Alaskans should consider that authority carefully.

Even Lisa Murkowski, who previously supported Peltola, has endorsed Sullivan in this race. That should get the attention of voters who remember the bipartisan embrace Peltola enjoyed from Murkowski in earlier elections.

Meanwhile, public broadcasting has found a discouraging angle on President Donald Trump’s visit to Wasilla.

The Alaska Public Media story carried by KTOO emphasizes conservative worries that the rally may have hurt Republican candidates. It quotes concerns about Trump’s criticism of Treg Taylor and Dave Bronson, and whether that might discourage voters from ranking Republicans for governor.

I disagree with the gloomy framing. A president traveling to Alaska to campaign gives supporters a reason to gather, pay attention, and get involved.

Trump is not on the ballot this year. Conservatives who voted in 2024 have to make the effort again without a presidential contest at the top of the ticket.

The encouraging news for Sullivan is that this race remains competitive. Data for Progress’ latest survey puts Peltola ahead 51% to 49% in a simulated final round, down from 53% to 47% in its August survey. Within that pollster’s results, her advantage has narrowed. And Data for Progress is a Democrat operation; although accurate in the past, it has a client and an agenda.

Alaskans already reviewed Mary Peltola’s performance once and chose Nick Begich instead. Her subsequent success in landing a lucrative job is just Mary being Mary and looking out for … Mary.

Before giving her a six-year promotion, voters should ask a straightforward question: What did Alaska receive from the last job it gave her?

It got someone who quickly became a de facto lobbyists.

Mary’s next opportunity is clear enough. She deserves six years, all right. But not in the Senate.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a long-time Alaskan.