Overview:
The piece argues that political campaigns should focus more on substantive policy differences than personal controversies, using reporting about Mary Peltola’s treatment of staff to examine congressional workplace accountability, double standards between parties, and the broader need for stronger ethics and human-resources rules in Congress.
Native Vote 2026
One of these days, it would be wonderful to see campaigns debated on ideas instead of personalities. There are substantive differences in how Republicans, Democrats and Independents think about government, taxes, and, well public policy. But then there would be less theater.
To read more articles by Mark Trahant, go to: Marktrahant.substack.com
Yesterday was a case in point. The New York Times published an expose about how Mary Peltola, Yup’ik, treated her staff.
The headline from the Times exclusive:
“Angry Outbursts, Slurs and Firings: Tumult Rocks a Key Senate Campaign
“Democrats hope that Mary Peltola can flip a Republican Senate seat in Alaska. Former aides describe a campaign and congressional office marked by chaos.”
My immediate thought, when reading the piece, was about how hard a year she had: She lost her husband. Perhaps this story shows, more than anything else, a bit about her humanity.
“At the time of their passing, Mary was parenting kids through their own grief, serving full-time in the U.S. House of Representatives thousands of miles from home, and running a competitive re-election campaign — all while shouldering the enormous burden of grief,” said the spokesman, Harry Child. “Like any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief.”
Then later in the day the Times posted another piece (an attempt at balance?) This headline read:
“In Alaska, Rowdy Members of Congress Are a Tradition
“Revelations about the conduct of former Representative Mary Peltola may not faze voters who have long elected abrasive and sometimes violent figures to represent them.”
The piece went on to explain:
“Alaska’s representatives on Capitol Hill have long brought a special brand of coarseness to Washington, part of a frontier mentality and a rough-and-tumble political tradition that comes with a bare-knuckled approach to securing federal resources for their remote state. They often seem to operate with a chip on their shoulder, arguing that their state’s distance leads to its getting short shrift.”
I have my own story about that oddness. When I was the editorial page editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I was asked to speak to a Native youth group at the National Museum of American Indians in Washington. It was a lunch. I was half-way through my talk, when Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, walked up to the podium, rudely grabbed the mic in front of me, and began his own speech to the young people. The funny thing is that he predicted from that mic that he would be replaced by an Alaska Native.
Of course Young’s prediction was spot on. Mary Peltola won the special election after his death.
Jonathan Chait, writing for The Atlantic today makes another key point: “Staffers working for Democrats—but not for Republicans—now commonly use the national media as their human-resources department.”
And, indeed, there is a public policy issue there. Congress has a terrible human resources track record. It has essentially exempted itself from laws that apply to other employers. But the solution is to have a HR policy that applies equally, not just to Democrats.
Last month the House ethics committee considered allegations of domestic violence and sexual impropriety for two Republican congressmen. Men. One, North Carolina Representative Chuck Edwards gave up on a re-election bid, while the other, Ohio Representative Max Miller is running another term. The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he still supports Miller.
“He has been a great member of Congress,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “He has some issues in his personal life he’s working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any implications it may have.”
Meanwhile we have a president and members of Congress who are brazen about public corruption. Or worse, legal trading of stock as public servants.
The Alaska Current says incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan, has done well for himself.
“In total, Sullivan has made an estimated $2 million in stock trades during his time in office. According to his financial disclosure reports with the US Senate, the value of Sullivan’s assets have also grown and now range from $4.1 million to $12.3 million. Federal disclosure reports allow candidates to give a range of value rather than precise figures.
“Sullivan is also the busiest stock trader in Alaska’s Congressional delegation over the past decade, well ahead of Republican US Rep. Nick Begich, who has reported up to $550,000 in transactions under the STOCK Act rules during his first term in office, including up to a $500,000 investment in a venture capital fund.”
Mary Peltola says it’s time to ban stock trading by members of Congress or their families.
But the tone is set from the top. According to public disclosures, Donald Trump carried out more stock trades than all members of Congress.
From The Guardian:
“Donald Trump made more than a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July, according to a Guardian analysis of his latest financial disclosure released Tuesday.
“His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, sold from $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.
Overall, he made more than 700 sales that totaled between $35m and $137m, and made more than 440 purchases that totaled between $43.5m and $134m. Financial disclosures, which presidents and vice-presidents are required to file by law, only include a date and a range of the transaction amount.
Both Peltola and Sullivan are expected next month at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. There will be a lot to talk about, no doubt. But here’s the cool thing: Many of those watching will then walk across the street from the convention center and vote. End of story.
