Hi there, Jim Sykes.  Don't forget that Sturgulewski also won the nomination in 1986 over Hickel and a host of others in a crowded primary field.  That should be obvious.  What isn't so obvious is that Sturgulewski closed her door to anyone who supported her primary opponents, which made Joe Vogler suddenly attractive to enough Republicans.  As a result, the AIP achieved the necessary threshold in that election to be officially recognized as a political party in the 1990 election.  Prior to that, the AIP's ballot access had largely come from Vogler suing to get on the ballot.  Hickel had been on an ego-driven quest to regain the governorship ever since Nixon fired him as Interior secretary.  Sturgulewski's deliberate disenfranchisement of rank-and-file Republicans, both in 1986 and especially in 1990, is what made that happen.