Eyes on Alaska and Wyoming

A play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news

Aug 16, 2022 View in browser   By Katherine Tully-McManus A campaign sign supporting Rep. Liz Cheney is posted outside the Mead Ranch in Jackson, Wyo., Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. Wyoming holds its Republican primary election Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) | AP INTO THE WILD — The two states with big primary races today are proud of their wild landscapes and they've delivered a wild political ride ahead of today's election. We'll see if voters deliver surprises in Wyoming and Alaska. The ranked choice wilderness: Alaskans haven't sent a new face to the House in 49 years but today there are three candidates angling to replace Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who died in March, as Alaska's sole member of the House. That race, between Democrat Mary Peltola, Republican Nick Begich III and Republican Sarah Palin, is the only ranked-choice race on today's ballot (it gets its own side of the paper ballot!) Peltola is a former state legislator and would be the first Alaska Native member of the state's delegation on Capitol Hill. Palin jumped into the race just an hour before the April deadline, to run her first election since her unsuccessful 2008 vice-presidential bid alongside Sen. John McCain. She stepped down as Alaska's governor a year later.  Begich co-chaired the Alaska Republican Party Finance Committee and Rep. Don Young's 2020 re-election campaign. He's also a grandson of former Democratic Rep. Nick Begich, who held the seat until 1972. The elder Begich was presumed dead in a plane crash along with then-House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, a Democrat from Louisiana. Young won a special election to replace Begich.  Timeline: It will be at least two weeks before we know the winner of the House special election, because every ballot must be counted before ranked choice tabulation can begin. Alaska leans Republican and in the ranked-choice system we could see conservative votes split between Begich and Palin, giving Peltola the most first-choice ballots. But that doesn't guarantee a win. The winner won't be finalized until the last-place candidate is eliminated and the second-place votes are redistributed among the remaining candidates. Senate scene: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is facing Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka and the race is just another barometer of how influential former President Donald Trump is in these midterm elections. Murkowski is one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict him after his second impeachment following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. She's faced uphill odds before, having fought off a Tea Party primary challenger and famously winning a 2010 write-in campaign. But there's little question that she'll advance in today's contest, where she is expected to have a comfortable place in the top four of the all-party primary. Tshibaka and Democrat Pat Chesbro are also expected to advance. The fourth spot is less clear and there are 16 other candidates. What about ranked choice? That comes into play in November when the top four will be ranked by voters. Loss or launchpad: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who came into Congress as a minor celebrity and quickly rose up the GOP leadership ranks, is likely to be ousted today by Republican voters dominated by fealty to former President Donald Trump. Wyoming Democrats have switched parties in order to vote for her, but it is unlikely to be enough in a deep red state. Trump-backed GOP candidate Harriet Hageman is expected to come out on top. But this is unlikely to be the end of the line for Cheney. She is poised to lead anti-Trump Republicans, whether in a presidential bid or as a vocal critic. Our own Olivia Beavers is on the ground in Wyoming for primary day. Follow along with her insights. More on today's primaries from Zach Montellero: Two wings of the GOP confront their political futures in Tuesday's primaries   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, August 16, where we're watching the polls but also… the bear cam. WHAT TO DO WITH A WINDFALL — The Internal Revenue Service is looking at $80 billion and deciding what to do with it. The IRS has for years been unable to provide basic services like processing taxpayer returns on time or answering questions. So it tracks that staffing up across the agency could improve its basic operations. Republicans are framing the plus-up as a band of thugs ready to smack the tax dollars out of innocent Americans. The agency and the Biden administration say they need more personnel to crack down on tax cheats, and deliver the dollars that have been slipping through the cracks. And they're promising not to increase audit rates for those with incomes under $400,000. What are the tax collectors to do? Brian Faler digs into how the IRS plans to distribute the new dough. SWEET SUMMER SPENDING THREAT — Oct. 1 is when the new fiscal year begins and — spoiler alert — Congress is not on track to pass the 12 annual appropriations bills to fund the government. The need for a bipartisan stopgap spending bill is expected to float the federal government. At this point it's not clear how long that short term bill would last. The House Freedom Caucus has a recommendation. It wants to see current spending levels frozen until the 118th Congress is sworn in, banking on a GOP majority to legislate federal funding. In a Monday letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the group urged GOP leadership to reject any spending talks or proposals during the post-election "lame duck" session. Read more from Nancy. ESSENTIAL ENDORSEMENT IN INDIANA — In Indiana there has been a scramble to see who will run for the House seat left vacant earlier by the sudden death of Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski. Her husband has weighed in on who he'd like to see continue her legacy. Dean Swihart, Walorski's husband, announced Monday that he'd support Rudolph Yakym in the Nov. 8 special election to fill the rest of her term and the general election for the 118th Congress. Yakym is a former finance director for Walorski's congressional campaigns. The district is a GOP stronghold. "Rudy has spent years working in public service alongside my beloved wife and will fight for our district to protect our faith, families and communities," Swihart said in a statement issued from Walorski's campaign. "Rudy is a political outsider who has what it takes to stand up to the Pelosi-Biden agenda. He will fight to do the right thing, just as Jackie did every day of her career." BOYS CLUB — Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) wasn't surprised by Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) endorsement of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in their wild member-on-member matchup in Manhattan. "It doesn't surprise me. The old boys network is very, very close and they support each other," she told NY1. Marianne has more on the somewhat unexpected endorsement from the Senate majority leader, who is the first member of New York's congressional delegation to weigh in on the heated race between two influential House chairs.   INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     HUDDLE HOTDISH TIKTOK TICKED OFF — TikTok isn't happy with the warning that was sent to House employees last week about the popular video social media app. In a letter addressed to House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor and obtained by POLITICO, the company rebuts the memo's warnings about data collection, sharing and security practices. The CAO warned House employees against downloading or using the app. Michael Beckerman, TikTok's vice president and head of public policy for the Americas said the memo included "false and misleading" allegations, including that the company stores U.S. user data in China, where ByteDance, the app's parent company, is based. Read the rebuttal for yourself. QUICK LINKS  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee recounts Sunday drive-by shooting scare, from Benjamin Wermund at The Houston Chronicle TRANSITIONS  Nate Evans is now director of communications and spokesperson at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. He most recently was deputy chief of staff for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Jean Roehrenbeck is now deputy assistant Transportation secretary for legislative affairs. She previously was chief of staff to Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.). Brendan Conley is now a director at Hamilton Place Strategies. He most recently was Iowa comms director for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and is a Bruce Poliquin alum. TODAY IN CONGRESS The House convenes at 1 p.m. for a pro forma session. The Senate convenes at 8 a.m. for a pro forma session. AROUND THE HILL Looks low-key. TRIVIA MONDAY'S WINNER: Drew Cantor correctly answered that on March 4, 1825 John Quincy Adams became the first president sworn in wearing long trousers. (Prior to this, presidents wore colonial-era breeches and stockings.) TODAY'S QUESTION from Drew: What was Ulysses S. Grant's given name at birth, giving him the initials, H.U.G., something he was ridiculed for growing up before it was changed? And what was the reason for the change to U.S. Grant? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com. GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning. Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus   Follow us

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