Skip to content

EricN Publications

Publications by Eric Niewoehner

Menu
  • Non-Fiction
    • A God Thing
      • Rachel’s Prairie
      • Adolescent Meditations
    • Oakland
      • Old Buildings Can be Creepy
      • Food for Thought
      • Dust in the Wind
      • The Arc of Travel
    • Iconium
    • Thinking Out Loud
      • Is Juneau Running Out of Diesel?
      • The Volkmer Effect on Alaska’s Congressional Representation
      • The Tragedy of Russia
      • Are We In A Recession?
      • Where Does Inflation Come From?
      • The Mail-In Ballot Experience
      • The Debt We Owe
      • The Solution to Paying Off Student Debt
      • Student Debt: Are Colleges to Blame?
      • The Problem of Student Debt
      • Fighting Inflation – A Trip to the Grocery Store
      • Ukraine – Poland 1939 All Over Again
      • Broken: Is Public Education Beyond Repair?
      • Transparency and Critical Race Theory
      • The New Wave
      • The Pro Act and YouTube
      • Almond Abstract and the Pursuit of Happiness
      • Open Letter to Major League Baseball
      • Tribute to Rush Limbaugh
      • Why Parler?
      • Adults in the Room
      • The Invisible Hand
      • Transparency
      • Fake News Update
      • Solution to Fake News
    • Old Friends
      • The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
        • Sources and Traditions
        • Power and Liberty
        • The Logic of Rebellion
        • A Note On Conspiracy
        • Transformation — From Reaction to Revolution
        • The Contagion of Liberty
      • The Road to Serfdom
        • Introductions — Or Before You Begin
        • The Road Once Traveled
        • Are You A Nazi?
        • Are You A Socialist?
        • Individualism
    • The Pandemic Journal
      • When Does Ten Percent Matter?
      • Federalism — Or Intentional Chaos
      • Faith (Part II)
      • Faith
      • The Big Surprise
      • Teleworking
      • The Invisible Hand
      • Unbelievable
      • Rethinking Education
      • Perception
      • Selfie and the Mask
      • China
      • Strategic Globalism
      • Risk
      • Media
      • Unknowable
      • Home Schooling
      • Grocery Chronicles
    • When Few Were Watching
    • The Advent Conspiracy
      • What’s Missing
      • Cash Only Please
      • Worship Fully
      • Give More
      • Christmas — It’s a Tide, not a Day
  • Fiction by Eric Niewoehner
  • Technology Publications
    • Technology Blogs
      • A Play on Words
      • Spam Update — How to Avoid Spam
      • Facebook — A Sickening Feeling
      • Can PayPal Be Trusted?
      • Are You Ready to Rumble?
      • The Alaskan Congressional Rodeo
      • The Gift of Gab
      • Facebook – What Say You?
      • What’s Up with Parler
      • Out of Control? – Security Vulnerabilities in Control Systems
      • The Case of Lorie Smith
      • Facebook — Impersonated Accounts
      • The Case of Josh Renaud
      • SHAKEN, But Not STIRred
      • Can GoDaddy Be Trusted?
      • Ransomware and the Mechanical Pencil
      • Tracking Scams in Phone Messages
      • Disaster Recovery — The Case of Parler
      • CVS Update
      • Why Parler?
      • Computer Vision Syndrome
      • Passwords – the Gremlins of Cyberspace
      • Spam Filtering: Mastering Your E-mail
    • The Facebook Safe Space
    • Technical Documentation
      • Welcome to DOGland
      • Windows 10 and Computer Vision Syndrome
      • Sustainable Printing
    • The Tech Community
    • Introducing Substack and Locals.Com
  • Contact
  • About
  • Lessons Learned
Menu
Harold Volkmer

The Volkmer Effect on Alaska’s Congressional Representation

Posted on October 24, 2022December 27, 2022 by Eric Niewoehner

Who is Harold Volkmer and why should it matter to Alaskans?

Mary Peltola
Congresswoman Mary Peltola

Last August, in a special election completed through a new ranked voting system, a Democrat was elected to be our representative in Washington. This, in a state, that has elected nothing but Republicans for the past generation with only one exception when Mark Begich served one term as senator. This, in a state, that has routinely voted Republican in Presidential elections. This, in the most recent election, where the first round vote indicated almost 63% of the vote cast for a Republican. But, alas, who was #2 in the people’s preference mattered. Sarah Palin, who nominally had more votes than her Republican colleague, was not the #2 choice for many of the people who voted for Nick Begich. Mary Peltola, the Democrat, won out. Several thousand Republican voters only voted for one choice.

So in this day and age of “election integrity,” mail-in ballots and presumably unassailable electronic voting systems, we throw in “ranked choice voting.”

It appears that Republican supporters have thrown in the towel as fund-raising has almost dropped to nothing. Of the three Congressional candidates, about the only visibility I am seeing is Mary Peltola. So let’s assume that Peltola wins the general election in November, earning the right to represent Alaska in the coming two years. What Alaskans will see is what I call the Volkmer Effect.

Harold Volkmer
Harold Volkmer, Missouri Congressman from 1977-1997

The Volkmer Effect is named after Harold Volkmer. He served as my Congressman when I lived in Missouri. He was a Democrat. I grew up a Democrat and my father campaigned for Harold Volkmer. So even though I digressed into being a Republican, I still maintained connections with many Democrats, including Harold Volkmer. On a couple of occasions I was asked to join advocates by arranging meetings with Congressman Volkmer. I learned a lot from the man. He was not charismatic. He was quite pragmatic and very approachable. He taught me that one of the main reasons a representative can get re-elected over and over again is that he must be available to everyone. Regardless of our politics, he was our advocate in Washington and he did his job well.

So it was with some irony that I got pulled into the orbit of a group of Republicans who thought they could dethrone Harold Volkmer. This was going to be a gargantuan undertaking, attempting to win in a Congressional District that had elected Democrats for the past 122 years ( Republicans snuck in for three separate two year terms ). The list of representatives is a commendable roster: James Rollins (major contributor to the University of Missouri), Judge Isaac Parker (of True Grit fame), Champ Clark (Speaker of the House), Clarence Cannon and William Hungate (Watergate Trial). This was a congressional district where people voted Democrat by birthright!

But Harold had an Achilles’ Heel. His own party. On all the hot-button issues, Volkmer seemed to be on the right side. He was pro-life and pro-gun. Yet he was well-entrenched in his party, a party that was year-by-year moving further and further from the values of people in his district. It would take about six years, but we eventually pulled it off. The key to success was that Volkmer’s party seemed to have an elitist perspective on the inheritance tax, failing to realize that the people the Left branded as “rich” were the average farmer. The tax, which had not been reformed for some time, had exposed many young farmers into the sad situation of having to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off inheritance taxes, and this during the 1980’s and 1990’s when interest rates were quite high. Once prosperous farms were on the edge of bankruptcy. Many did fail. Family farm ownership declined.

Volkmer understood this problem. But he could nothing about it – because of the party. He was increasingly marginalized. He was a stalwart pro-life advocate, stood strong for the 2nd Amendment, and persistently advocated a reform of the inheritance tax. But who was listening? It eventually cost him the election in 1997. Republicans have not only held that district since, they have dominated.

So now Alaska has its own version of Harold Volkmer. Mary Peltola, like Volkmer, has a reputation for being an approachable individual. But she is about to step into a snake pit, aligning herself to a party that has historically not favored the interests of Alaska. Her party is decidedly anti-oil, and she comes from a state that lives on oil. She says she is pro-union, but she resides in a state where the costs of goods shipped from Seattle are significantly inflated because they have to be shipped on American carriers (the Jones Act). The state’s future is in mining, especially in rare earth minerals. Yet her party has been the primary barrier to exploration and development. Southeast Alaska desperately needs to develop a road system, yet her party has been the primary barrier to road maintenance in US national forests. Like Harold Volkmer, she will find herself marginalized. I recommend she look up Tulsi Gabbard as a more recent example of Volkmerization.

As for Alaskans, it is clear that their instinctive 1st vote was for a Republican by almost a two-to-one margin. But due to the colorful nature of Sarah Palin, many people did not find her an attractive 2nd choice. While some people decry the ranked voting system, lessons can be learned from the most recent tally. First, Peltola does not have a mandate with only 37% of the vote. Second, voters in Alaska are not into talking points. They want politicians that can pull them together, not tear them apart. But Peltola, if she wins in November, will have to prove to Alaskans that she is not another Harold Volkmer. Good luck with that!

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

EricN Publication Logo
  • Facebook page for EricN Publications
  • LinkedIn page for EricN Publications
  • Twitter page for EricN Publications

Recent Posts

  • Why The Facebook Safe Space
  • Facebook — Impersonated Accounts
  • Individualism
  • A Play on Words
  • Spam Update — How to Avoid Spam

Categories

  • A God Thing
  • Advent Conspiracy
  • Alaska
  • Bernard Bailyn
  • Documentation
  • Economics
  • Education
  • FA Hayek
  • Facebook
  • Faith
  • History
  • Life
  • Missouri
  • Non-Fiction
  • Oakland
  • Old Friends
  • Pandemic Journal
  • Politics
  • Security
  • Social Media
  • Tech Blogs
  • Technology
  • Thinking Out Loud

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
Copyright Notice

All articles are copyrighted material from Eric Niewoehner.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
© 2023 EricN Publications | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme