Suzanne Downing: While Peltola rails against billionaires, the billionaires line up to back her

By SUZANNE DOWNING

April 27, 2026 – There’s something oh-so familiar about the network now lining up behind Mary Peltola’s run for Senate. Alaskans don’t know it yet, but they have seen this before.

The same constellation of national money, political nonprofits, and billionaire-backed “reform” groups that reshaped Alaska’s election system with ranked-choice voting in 2020 is back. This time under a new banner: The Bench, it’s called. They are the Peltola pushers behind the scene.

And at the center of that web are James and Kathryn Murdoch.

Alaskans may not recognize the name “The Bench” yet, and may not even be able to place the Murdochs in the Alaska political scene, but they certainly know the results of the Murdochs’ last major project in the state.

Through Unite America and closely aligned efforts, millions of dollars flowed into Alaska to pass Ballot Measure 2 in 2020—the initiative that imposed top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting on the state.

The primary vehicle for that campaign was Alaskans for Better Elections, which benefited from an enormous influx of Outside money. Unite America alone contributed roughly $3.4 million to the effort, with total support tied to the Murdoch-backed network reaching into the $5 million range. Kathryn Murdoch herself directly boosted the campaign with contributions in the neighborhood of half a million dollars.

That ranked-choice voting system is now the subject of a second repeal effort headed back to Alaska voters this November. It remains one of the most divisive election changes in state history, all engineered and financed by national interests rather than homegrown demand.

And now, those same national interests are reappearing as The Bench.

New Democratic ‘party-within-a-party’ machine emerges nationwide — and Mary Peltola is part of it

Alaska voters are considered politically gullible by the big players, and national groups backed by the billionaire liberal class take advantage of that. Alaska is the cheap date on the political map.

Peltola has made a point of criticizing billionaires and wealthy political influence. She does so repeatedly. It’s practically a mantra — working people against rich people. You know: Rich People Bad. Eat the Rich. The same old class warfare of the socialists who don’t believe a person should benefit from his or her own hard work.

But the financial and organizational reality surrounding her campaign is a whole other matter: The billionaires she criticizes are the same ones funding the infrastructure now working to support her quest for power.

Does the rhetoric about opposing billionaire influence still hold when those billionaires are on your side?

Voters will have their say in November and not just on ranked-choice voting. The Peltola pushers will put millions of dollars on the line as they continue to try to colonize Alaska politically. Many will fall for it. This will be the most expensive campaign Alaska has ever seen in its short 67-year history.

For all the talk about local control and working families, the fingerprints of Outside money are hard to miss.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan (circa 1969).