‘Her job is to just deny reality’: Jake and Spike clash over DelBene’s answers on the Alaska ballot scandal

Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene was asked again and again on national TV whether a reported Democratic scheme in Alaska’s Senate race bothered her. KIRO host Jake Skorheim said she never gave a straight answer.

“DelBene is a picture-perfect, uninterested politician,” Jake said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

DelBene represents Washington’s 1st Congressional District, which includes part of Snohomish County. She also chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the group that works to elect House Democrats, and she’s on the ballot this year.

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked her about a New York Times report that operatives aligned with Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola secretly recruited a second Dan Sullivan to run against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The other candidate, Dan J. Sullivan, is a retired schoolteacher and commercial fisherman. He’s on the ballot alongside the incumbent.

Peltola has denied any role. Alaska’s governor has ordered a probe into her campaign. FBI agents have visited people in Petersburg who donated to Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign.

DelBene dodges

Jake played the exchange. Sorkin asked DelBene several times whether the Alaska report bothered her. Each time, she said the Peltola campaign denied it and then turned to Republican gerrymandering.

“You don’t believe the report at all?” Sorkin asked.

“I think that it’s been very clear that the Peltola campaign has said they deny those allegations,” DelBene responded.

Sorkin said he wasn’t asking her to defend one side.

“It is shameful if Republicans do it. It is shameful if Democrats do it,” Sorkin declared. “I think from a credibility perspective, it makes it much harder for you to argue about the Republicans if you can’t also argue about your own party.”

“There should not be dirty tricks,” DelBene answered, “The dirty tricks that I have seen have been gerrymandering by Republicans across the country.”

Jake played a later CNN appearance where DelBene was asked the same question. She gave the same answer.

“The Peltola campaign has denied that that happened,” DelBene reacted. “We can’t deny what we have seen happen from Republicans on the ground every day this cycle.”

‘It’s not my job to get Democrats elected’

Spike said DelBene shouldn’t be faulted for refusing to convict Peltola on live TV.

“She’s doing what she has to do there,” Spike mused. “We don’t know the validity of the allegations. It may very well be true, but we don’t know that to be the case yet.”

Jake said any reasonable person who read the Times story would see a problem.

“They got like 12 different people who they cite. They got the former campaign manager,” Jake pointed out. “Any reasonable person who reads that…”

“But you’re not judge and jury, and there hasn’t been an investigation,” Spike countered.

Spike did agree she could have said it differently.

“She should have said, ‘Yeah, it looks horrible,'” Spike compromised.

“Her job is to just deny reality,” Jake summarized.

“Her job isn’t to say it looks bad for a Democrat,” Spike said. “That is her job, not to say that.”

Gerrymandering on both sides

The two also argued over DelBene’s focus on redistricting.

“Republicans and Democrats all gerrymander. That’s not exclusive to Republicans,” Jake pivoted.

Spike said this cycle was different because maps were redrawn mid-decade at President Donald Trump’s urging, starting in Texas. California’s redistricting was a response.

“It happens everywhere, at all times,” Jake countered. “She’s using it as if it’s a Republican-exclusive thing.”

Jake said the easy move would have been to agree with Sorkin.

“If I were her campaign, I would have reached out to her and said, ‘Madam Congresswoman, just acknowledge that it’s a bad thing on both sides,'” Jake theorized. “It is a softball. That’s all you have to do.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3