Candidates for Alaska’s sole congressional seat agree on one issue

(The Center Square) – The four candidates for Alaska’s sole congressional seat agree that inflation is a problem but have differing views on how to solve it.

Republicans Nick Begich and Sarah Palin, Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola and Libertarian Chris Bye participated in a debate Wednesday night. The late Republican Rep. Don Young held the seat for 49 years until his death in March.

Palin repeated her infamous quote “Drill, baby, drill,” that she first said during the 2008 vice-presidential debates, and said the country needed “clean domestic USA oil.”

“Energy costs are the driver of inflation, energy costs which affect absolutely everything we do in America,” Palin said.

Peltola, who won a special election to fill Young’s unexpired term in August, said she agreed the county was in a recession.

“We have astronomically high inflation rates across the country,” Peltola said. “I do believe that getting our energy prices under control are a huge piece of this puzzle.”

Peltola said she is working on moving forward the Willow Project, which will boost domestic energy production. The plan from ConocoPhillips would restore throughput in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil per day, according to information from U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Begich said high inflation is hurting working families.

“If you are going to fix the problem, you are going to have to understand the root cause of the problem,” Begich said. “And the root cause of inflation today is government spending financed by a Federal Reserve that’s built a $9 trillion balance sheet. We also need to make sure that government spending is in control, the government is put back in its lane and the private sector is not vilified as it has been under Democrats and the Biden administration.”

Bye also blamed inflation on what he called the “dysfunctional” energy policy of the Biden administration but also said government spending and regulation are to blame.

“If we don’t get this under control, we are going to leave a larger debt than $31 trillion for our kids,” Bye said.

The elections will be decided by ranked-choice voting. In the August special election, Peltola won 40% of the vote in the first round in a contest with Palin and Begich. Begich’s first-place votes were redistributed, and Peltola won with 51.5% of the vote over Palin’s 48.5%.

The debate was sponsored by Alaska Public Media, Alaska’s News Source and KTOO.