By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-19 19:41:29 | Updated at 2026-10-20 00:15:06
6 hours ago
Democrat Mary Peltola justified having the highest salary in the Alaska state legislature to fight for rural Permanent Fund Dividends, then cashed out to lobby for a bill that sought to slash those same payments to families.
Peltola drew a taxpayer salary of $77,884 as a state representative yet was chronically absent from the job, missing nearly 20 percent of votes. She did, though, find time to bill taxpayers for a Hawaii retreat before leaving office in 2009.
In 2001, Peltola justified being the state’s most expensive lawmaker because she was fighting to make sure constituents “got their Permanent Fund Dividends.”
The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is an annual payment to state residents with the interest earned on oil revenue. Peltola told the Peninsula Clarion, “I have a very big district and I also serve a district that doesn’t have very strong municipal government, so in a lot of respects I’m doing double duty.”
The newspaper noted that per-diem payments to state legislators are optional.
Mary Peltola, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska, addresses supporters at an election watch party Tuesday, August 18, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
On at least two occasions after telling the local media outlet she wanted to make sure families received the payments, Peltola voted to cut the dividend payments during her time in the legislature.
When Peltola went from legislator to lobbyist the first time, she lobbied for a bill that would have cut the payments in half. In 2016, she was a registered lobbyist for Alaska’s Future Inc., which supported a bill that passed the Alaska state Senate cutting those same payments she once said she was fighting to ensure families received.
In previous Breitbart News reporting, Peltola backed a state income tax that would have hit middle-class Alaskans the hardest. One news outlet stated that the tax would have required middle-income Alaskans to pay the highest rate, adding the tax, “hits the middle to protect the rich.”
Peltola faces Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in next month’s midterm election. Republicans hold three of the four spots on the general election ballot after Democrats manipulated the state’s primary with chicanery, which included placing a Democrat activist with the same name on the ballot as the two-term senator.
Follow Matt Mercer on X: @mattmercer.
