Haney's cheap shot against Pepper McFarland in House race
Former Assembly Member Barbara Haney, a Republican state House candidate in House District 33, didn’t bother to check the facts before passing along false information from Facebook, an attack on one of her opponents in the race, Fairbanks teacher Pepper McFarland, an independent.
This is reminiscent of Haney spreading the false claim in early 2025 that 200 protesters were imported to Fairbanks to protest the Trump administration. Haney later said she only claimed that the protesters “looked” like tourists to her.
"Walked like a tour group, behaved like a tour group, nobody recognized them—even among the regular lefties. Totally astroturf—paid for by the 50501 fund. Protest tourism seems to be a new industry. We will see if there was an uptick in bed tax revenue," Haney wrote on her X account.
In this latest matter, Haney chose to repost two Facebook attacks against McFarland from Sarah D. Short, a Republican activist who lives in Anchorage and is a political supporter of Haney’s.
Short has written about her support for Haney numerous times, calling her “a great patriot and one smart cookie.”
It appears that someone sent Short two pictures of a car that McFarland has been driving that has Washington plates. Short posted the photos and said “Check this out—Pepper McFarland—the Democrat endorsed candidate—doesn’t even have her car registered in Alaska.”
Rather than contact McFarland, Haney simply opted to repost Short’s attacks.
I contacted McFarland, who said the car belonged to her mother and the delay in transferring the plates is because of probate.
“It was my mom’s car. My mom came to live with me last summer. She was going to stay for a year, so we brought her car with us so that she would be comfortable as it’s lower than my Tahoe,” said McFarland.
“My mom passed away in September and the car is now part of probate. And we are working through that. We could not find the title so I had to go to Washington and try to get a title. Come to find out, the finance company is still on there even though she paid it off three years ago.”
She said she had to get a letter from the finance company saying the car was paid off and “I have to go back to Washington DMV to get a title so that I can transfer the title from Washington to Alaska.”
McFarland has lived in Alaska for 22 years, 16 of them in North Pole.
“I am running as undeclared. That is what I have been my entire voting life because I just don't fit into any of the boxes. I think for myself and make my voting based on my values: honesty, responsibility, and community,” McFarland says on her website.
McFarland, Haney and incumbent Rep. Mike Prax are competing in District 33.
