Political history and voting patterns of Alaska's Fairbanks North Star Borough

¶ … Voter -- Researching Your Congressional Delegation

WHAT IS THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF YOUR DISTRICT AND STATE?

The county of Fairbanks / North Star Borough is an area situated in the state of Alaska. When the 2010 census came out, the population was 97,581. (Fairbanks North Star Borough, 2014)The borough seat is Fairbanks. (The State of Alaska, 2014) The region's land area is to some extent slighter than that of the state of New Jersey. The borough assembly involves nine members. Members are chosen at-large (borough-wide). Members work three-year periods. Also, the borough functions under a "strong mayor" type of arrangement. The mayor, alongside his chief of staff, execute a lot of the job duties usually linked with a city administrator. The county of Fairbanks / North Star Borough is run with an elected Surveilance Commission, which is supervised by the executive system of the administration of the country. Also, a Professional County Manager is selected by the council, so as to take care of the independent state agencies. The Congressman Tammie Wilson represents the county in the House of Representatives. William J. Howell represents the county in the Alaska House of Delegates, nonetheless, the job of Speaker if the House of Delegates is performed by the delegate Mike Chenault, on behalf of the of Fairbanks / North Star Borough (The State of Alaska, 2014).

HOW HAVE THEY VOTED IN RECENT PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS?

Presidential Elections

All through the 2008 presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney won from of Fairbanks / North Star Borough, on the other hand, with 56.8% of the vote against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, carrying on the tradition election for Republican Candidates (Fairbanks North Star Borough, 2014).

ARE THE PARTIES RELATIVELY EVEN OR DOES ONE PARTY DOMINATE THE ELECTIONS?

Looking at the election results originated from this state in the past, it can be mentioned that the Republicans have always had the upper hand when it came down to ruling it over the Democratic Party in the state of Alaska. Republicans are the ones that hold one United States Senate seat and have been able to hold onto Alaska's At-large congressional region in the United States House of Representatives for somewhere around 40 years. The Alaska Republican Party has likewise significantly assisted GOP presidential applicants in the state and has altered the Last Frontier into one of the greatest loyally Republican states in the country. Furthermore, all Republican presidential candidates have won Alaska in current elections; the last (and only) Democrat to carry Alaska was won by Lyndon B. Johnson and that took place all the way back in 1964 (The State of Alaska, 2014)

In 2008, Republican John McCain was able to win Alaska with 60.42% of the entire statewide vote over Democrat Barack Obama who received 32.89%, a 20.43-percent boundary of victory for the senior United States Senator from Arizona (Barone, 2104).

Does your district have a long tradition of supporting one party or has it been changing in recent years?

Fairbanks / North Star Bourough has always been a district that went towards the republican side. In fact, Fairbanks / North Star Bourough is the most Republican-leaning area in the state of Alaska. House District 11, in 2008 which comprises the Fairbanks / North Star Bourough part, gave John McCain 8,736 votes (76.3% of the whole) associated with 1,935 elections (18.4%) for Barack Obama. During the gubernatorial election, Republican Sean Parnell received, in the 2010 6,000 votes (75.7%) to Democrat Ethan Berkowitz's 1,300 votes (18.4%). Republican Joe Miller pulled in 56.2% of Fairbanks / North Star Bourough's vote in his failed bid against mandatory Lisa Murkowski's write-in movement (Alaska Federation of Natives, 2014).

How did your representative and senator come to power? (Thoroughly describe their backgrounds.)

Alaska Representative David Guttenberg, at the early age of 60, after 8 years in the Alaska Legislature I and then leaving from a career as a construction laborer (Laborers Local 942, Fairbanks) decided to became a farmer. However, before all of this his rise to power goes all the way back when he represents House District 38 in the Alaska House, and then also became a member of five committees, which then led to him becoming the most important sponsor of 81 bills. When it comes to the senators, Lisa Murkowski rose to power even before she became member of the Republican Party. Murkowski was selected to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski (Barone, 2104). After not winning a Republican primary in 2010, she turned out to be just the third individual ever to win a United States Senate election by means of what is called the write-in votes. Murkowski was chosen to the United States Senate in 2002 and chosen to an entire term in 2004. Her 2010 re-election grew stormy when previous judge Joe Miller crushed her in the Republican primary (Barone, 2104). Murkowski then came back with a longshot write-in campaign, becoming successful with the general election; the campaign made national captions (Alaska Federation of Natives, 2014).

Ever since winning re-election, her voting record has turn out to be more reasonable when compared to her preceding years in the Senate. (Fairbanks North Star Borough, 2014). She is normally pro-choice on abortion and supports non-federally sponsored embryonic stem cell research, even though she has cast important pro-life votes, as well as ones to veto partial-birth abortions. Murkowski is also an associate of the Republican Majority for Choice, The Wish List (Women in the Senate and House) and Republicans for Choice, which is a group of pro-choice women Republicans.

How do the interest groups (ADA, ACLU, ACU, CC or FRC) rate your representative and senator?

When it comes to the ADA score for Alaska they were 48% for the representative and 5% for the senator. After looking over the scores for the ACLU, it was discovered that for the senator it was 50% and the representative was 30%. Looking even further into interest groups, it was discovered that ACU rating for the senator (Lisa Murkowski) was 70% (Don Young) for the representatives have 76%. Christian Coalition of America or the (CC) for the senate was 90% and for the representatives was actually a perfect score of 100%. For Environment America (EA) the senators (Lisa Murkowski) 0% and the representatives have 0%.

ADA

ACLU

ACU

CC

EA

Lisa Murkowski (senator)

48%

30%

70%

90%

0%

Don Young (representative)

5%

50%

76%

0%

Based on these ratings, would you classify your representative and senator as conservative or liberal? Justify your answer.

According to the scores it appears that the senator Lisa Murkowski is a conservative for ADA and she welcomes the commitment of the Department of Justice when it comes to engaging with tribal governments so as to improve voting admission in our Nation's tribal communities. She is a conservative because she made the point that "Through better communication, problems to casting a ballot can be identified and addressed." She is a conservative because she made the point that the right to vote is fundamental, and she felt that all Americans should be able to exercise this right.

Don Young is a conservative especially when it came to ACLU because he supported a package of bipartisan bills that were aimed at protecting victims from worldwide predators included in trafficking of people and the illegal trade. Young is a conservative because he supported the series of anti-human trafficking bills, which were passed the House with awe-inspiring support, work to keep victims safe from the human trafficking, chase after and hold buyers and sellers that are accountable for taking part in exploitation, and then making some kind of improvement upon existing law enforcement processes. He is a conservative because the bill permits the Justice Department to give out grants to develop or enlarge efforts in order to deter things such as a domestic child trafficking. Don Young was a conservative because he believed in the bill encourages states to enact "safe harbor" laws that would treat minors involved in trafficking and commercial sex as victims, instead of criminals. Privileged deliberation will be provided for definite federal grants if a state indorses a law that meets the bill's standards.