{"id":22198,"date":"2022-04-28T12:40:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=22198"},"modified":"2022-04-28T12:40:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T19:40:17","slug":"sarah-palin-faces-formidable-opponent-in-congress-run-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/28\/sarah-palin-faces-formidable-opponent-in-congress-run-santa-claus\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin faces formidable opponent in Congress run: Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The bearded city council member in North Pole, Alaska, backs Bernie and champions child welfare. Could his new workshop be in Washington?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Portrait
Santa Claus \u2013 yes, that\u2019s his legal name \u2013 is in the running for Alaska\u2019s only House seat. Photograph: Courtesy Santa Claus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Cantor<\/a>@CantorMatthew<\/a> Wed 27 Apr 2022 (TheGuardian.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S<\/strong>arah Palin announced her candidacy for Alaska\u2019s only seat in the House of Representatives this month, entering a race<\/a> with dozens of candidates. She certainly brings name recognition to the contest \u2013 but another contender may have her beat in that department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His name is Santa Claus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SarahFILE -Sarah Palin leaves the courthouse in New York, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. Sarah Palin on Friday, April 1, 2022 shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, filing paperwork to join a field of at least 40 candidates seeking to fill the seat that had been held for 49 years by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig, File)”\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He lives, of course, in North Pole \u2013 a town of about 2,000 in Alaska<\/a>. He has a big white beard and a kindly manner, and Santa Claus is indeed his legal name, though, as a Bernie Sanders supporter, he does not exploit elf labor. He won a city council seat in 2015, to the delight of observers around the world. Now he\u2019s ready to take his political career to the next stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s running to complete the term of the long-serving Republican congressman Don Young, who died last month at age 88. A special primary will be held on 11 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Santa
Santa Claus is running to complete the term of long-serving Republican congressman Don Young. Photograph: Courtesy Santa Claus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As for Claus\u2019s politics: he\u2019s\u00a0been called<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca bastion of blue on a city council as red as Rudolph\u2019s nose\u201d. He says voters who look at Sanders\u2019 policy platform can get a pretty good idea of his own, including support for Medicare for All, racial justice, corporate accountability, and free and fair elections. That includes ranked-choice voting, which will feature in the second round of the coming election. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s given me the opportunity here,\u201d he said. Ranked-choice voting \u201cgives people with name recognition such as yours truly, and even Sarah, for that matter, a slight advantage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Claus hasn\u2019t always had that name. \u201cSeventy-four years ago, I didn\u2019t pop out with a beard,\u201d he says. In fact, Claus changed his name from Tom O\u2019Connor in 2005. He was living in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, at the time, and pondering what he should do with his life, as Julia O\u2019Malley wrote in a 2015 Guardian profile<\/a>. He had previously worked in law enforcement, where he\u2019d witnessed kids falling \u201cthrough the cracks\u201d of the foster care system, and he wanted to do what he could to help them, he told the Anchorage Daily News<\/a> in 2020. He\u2019d already grown the beard, and as he prayed for guidance, someone in a car nearby shouted, \u201cSanta, I love you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s about as fast an answer to your prayer as I\u2019d probably ever get,\u201d Claus tells the Guardian. \u201cSo next day, I called up the county clerk to change my name legally.\u201d It caused a few headaches, including some brief suspicion at airport security, where he got \u201cthe once-over\u201d. \u201cSomebody about a month later sent out an email, I guess, letting people know, yeah, there\u2019s this guy Santa who\u2019s gonna be flying around. Not necessarily in my sleigh, but using regular transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his name, greeting children at Christmastime isn\u2019t his thing. \u201cI\u2019m not really interested in that,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are plenty of my beloved helpers throughout the world who sort of stand in for me with their in-person visits.\u201d Instead, he says, \u201cI tend to interact more with adults with respect to legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, shortly after changing his name, he embarked on a tour of every state, meeting with governors, their staffers and legislators to advocate for child welfare, as he told the Daily News. It was on this tour that he met his future rival for the congressional seat \u2013 and despite the political gulf between them, she made a good impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Santa
Santa Claus, predictably, lives in North Pole, Alaska \u2013 a town of about 2,000. Photograph: Courtesy Santa Claus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSarah Palin was one of the governors I visited,\u201d he says. \u201cWe met very briefly, but she had set up a meeting with six of her different department heads, which was quite unusual for a governor to do. So I was appreciative,\u201d he says, saying Palin was \u201cvery nice, very helpful to me\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for their disagreements, Claus, who has not declared a party affiliation, is diplomatic. \u201cNow that she\u2019s been endorsed by Trump,\u201d he says, chuckling, \u201clet me put it this way: being a Bernie supporter, we have disparate views on a variety of subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continues: \u201cI don\u2019t plan to get pushed around by her or by Trump. So it may have some interesting moments during the race,\u201d for which he says he is not soliciting or accepting donations. \u201cAs a candidate, as a legislator, I tend to look for common ground. There are people I disagree with and people who disagree with me. But there\u2019s always common ground and one\u2019s willing to make the effort to find it and then legislate for greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congressional election will determine who completes Don Young\u2019s term, ending in January. If Santa Claus wins, he doesn\u2019t plan to run for re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there should be people a decade two or three younger than I am stepping up and doing their best to help their communities and their states. For some positive change, I\u2019d like to do my little part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlus I think it\u2019d be kind of fun. Alaska is known for kind of having characters up here. I would certainly be well within that tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bearded city council member in North Pole, Alaska, backs Bernie and champions child welfare. Could his new workshop be in Washington? Matthew Cantor@CantorMatthew Wed 27 Apr 2022 (TheGuardian.com) Sarah Palin announced her candidacy for Alaska\u2019s only seat in the House of Representatives this month, entering a race with dozens of candidates…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22199,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22198\/revisions\/22199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}