Peltola’s whopper at Kodiak fish debate

The two-hour fish debate in Kodiak is one of the big debates of the congressional race every two years. Rep. Mary Peltola went into the debate with apparent case of nerves, with her hands visibly shaking as she sorted through her volumes of notes on the debate stage. She fidgeted with her luxury jewelry, forced her smile at the audience, and drank from her bottle as she waited for her leading opponent Nick Begich to arrive, along with third-party candidate John Wayne Howe.

Howe admitted early in the debate that he knows little about the fishing industry in Alaska. His answers demonstrated that, and he acknowledged his strong suit is listening to people.

This was supposed to be Peltola’s area of subject expertise, and many expected it to be her best debate showing. Her debate at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference had been viewed as weak and had to be disappointing to her campaign team, who watched from the sidelines as she read every answer to the pre-provided questions.

But on Tuesday in Kodiak, Peltola started out by again reading her opening statement. Later spoke more extemporaneously. Only at times did she have a Kamala Harris word-salad moment. She had to review her own notes to remember the names of the bills she had sponsored. Begich poked fun at her for only being able to get four sponsors on bills, but even fewer votes on them.

While the debate was civil, Peltola had posted a message on her campaign page that said if people vote for Nick Begich, all the fish will be “GONE.”

She claims there will be no more fish if Begich is in Congress.

Peltola said, “If Nick Begich has it his way the fisheries we rely on won’t be around for future generations. Do not let this happen.”

When Begich called her out on her negativity and lies on Tuesday, she flatly denied posting that and said it was not her campaign that did it. But it was. Begich had caught her in a whopper. Here’s Peltola’s statement:

Peltola has cultivated a “nice” image, but as the race has tightened, she has started directly attacking Begich with force, with campaign mailers that falsely blame him for scams against seniors, and other made-up accusations. She is now attacking him for being in business, rather than in government like her, and now she says he has the power to eliminate fish from the planet.

The fish whopper was something Begich didn’t let her get away with. After he called her out on it, she said it was pathetic that the debate had “devolved a bit into petty backbiting.” Peltola tried to pivot away from her own attacks on Begich by saying that she had come to Kodiak to debate fish issues.

The Peltola who left Kodiak was not the same one who arrived. Upon her arrival, she posted a TikTok video of herself saying she was going to “tell Nick a little something about fish.”

When she left Kodiak, Peltola had been revealed to the fishing community as a liar: “I don’t know what attack ad is being referred to. I know nothing of this, that was not my ad.”