Libertarian candidate for governor says she’s a spoiler

The Alaska Libertarian Party’s gubernatorial candidate Carolyn “Care” Clift thinks she could affect the outcome of the tight race.

“I do see myself as a spoiler,” she said during a taping of 360 North public television’s Forum@360 on Thursday.

Polls show incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell and independent Bill Walker as close frontrunners. Clift and the Alaska Constitution Party candidate J.R. Myers are in distant third and fourth places.

Clift says after the Democratic candidate Byron Mallot stepped aside to run as Walker’s lieutenant governor, her ticket is now a better fit for socially liberal voters.

“There were a lot of socially liberal or socially tolerant voters who were going to vote the Democrat ballot, because traditionally, (a) Democrat ballot is the only one who supported their social beliefs,” Clift said. “And now they have a Republican heading that ballot.”

Walker had been a registered Republican, but switched to undeclared as a condition of getting the Democratic Party’s endorsement.

Clift is a retired special education teacher from Anchorage. She is a fiscal conservative and said her top policy priority is to establish a sustainable budget. She intends to limit annual state spending to $5.5. billion.

She voted against the repeal of Senate Bill 21, the last rewrite of Alaska’s oil and gas tax system. Critics called SB21 an industry giveaway; supporters say it makes Alaska a more competitive place for investment and will increase oil production.

On social issues, she’s pro-choice, supports same-sex marriage, supports public funding of contraception, and opposes the Affordable Care Act.

On the November ballot measures, she opposes the entire concept of a minimum wage, supports the requiring legislative approval of large scale mines in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve, and supports legalizing marijuana.

The episode of Forum@360 airs at 8 p.m. Oct. 10.

Jeremy Hsieh

Local News Reporter, KTOO

I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?

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