Is Sen. Bettye Davis a solid anti-school choice vote?

A friend of mine on the East side of Anchorage got a fundraising letter in the mail from Harry Crawford, who is running against Senator Bettye Davis in the Democrat primary. Bettye Davis is being challenged in the general election by Anna Fairclough for that seat.

There are a couple of ways to interpret what is going on here: There are rumors that have been circulating for a long time about Sen. Davis’ health, though she doesn’t seem to be slowing down. A Crawford win in the primary would certainly complicate things for Fairclough. Apparently she was or is dating the head of Associated General Contractors John McKinnon. AGC is the organization that represents the companies in the state that are unionized. While this may help Fairclough, a Crawford win in the primary, again, could complicate things.

I was surprised that Harry Crawford ran against Don Young in 2010. Young has a staunch union record, and the dots didn’t seem to make sense. Crawford didn’t really run a very good campaign, though. It was almost as if he was there as a placeholder. Perhaps labor was preparing for something that didn’t happen.

There may be another interpretation. Though she isn’t in the pro school-choice camp, because she is an African-American, Senator Bettye Davis may be seen as a less than solid vote against school choice. Why? Because African-American kids in Anchorage would stand to gain the most from school choice. Not only is this the case in places like inner-city Chicago and New York, it’s also true here inside the Anchorage bowl.

But don’t expect sparks to fly in this primary. According to the fundraising letter mentioned at the beginning of this article, Crawford says he plans to “run a positive primary campaign” and that he will not criticize Bettye Davis because he doesn’t “have anything negative to say about her.” The letter closes promising that he will work to “preserve this seat and the bipartisan Senate coalition.” Here is yet another left wing democrat who believes that the Senate coalition is a good thing.