“The FBI arrested an Anchorage man today in Juneau after a federal grand jury in Alaska returned an indictment charging him with sex trafficking children, sexual exploitation of children-production of child pornography, coercion and enticement of children and receipt of child pornography.”

“According to public court documents, Craig Scott Valdez, 36, used the popular social media application Snapchat to identify, groom and entice juvenile females in Alaska for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The indictment charges this conduct in relation to one minor victim from an incident occurring in October 2025, but Valdez is believed to have victimized or attempted to victimize other juveniles in Anchorage and Juneau. Valdez is a current state employee working in Anchorage and Juneau,” says the Alaska US Attorney’s Office in a Friday statement.
Now to be fair, the DOJ press releases have always gone out of their way to avoid naming political figures and their parties and it’s no different these days – even if the department is going out of their way to be decidedly less balanced in which political figures they prosecute (or or incompetently attempt to) and which ones they don’t. Still, the “state employee” thing makes it sound like this asshole works on a highway construction crew or as an accountant for Fish and Wildlife Department.

Because Valdez, no relation to Exxon (tee-hee-hee), was until Friday in a post a little more important than that. In addition to serving as the chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans (will circle back to that fucking racist nuthouse) was hired as Wasilla State Senator George Rauscher’s in November, curious timing considering the predicate incident to the 36 year-old Valdez’s multicount indictment.
Per Alaska Public Media, it was on October 14, 2025 that Valdez lured a 15 year-old girl he had met on Snapchat to his home in Anchorage “for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child to celebrate his birthday,” according to a detention memo. Then her mom tracked her phone’s location.
The “mother then entered the residence, struck Valdez once in the face and recovered the child, who exhibited signs of extreme drug or alcohol intoxication and had difficulty walking and maintaining consciousness,” the memo says. Cops “responded a short time later, at which point Valdez, puzzlingly, chose to flee from his own residence.” Why he wasn’t arrested was unclear, but the investigation proceeded and police ascertained that it was likely not his first time with her, as other girls had introduced Valdez to her when she was 13 or 14. The FBI stepped in and at this point believe Valdez may have committed sex crimes with 11 or more other victims around the same age.
And yet Rauscher hired him to run his office the next month, evidently sans the kind of due diligence that a connected and currently-serving politician could’ve conducted even if the chunky pedophile hadn’t been arrested or charged yet. At least the Anchorage Young Republicans can more plausibly claim they were unaware of Valdez’s proclivities and state GOP chairwoman Carmela Warfield canned him from the chapter and every other position he held within the party itself.
“The conduct described in court filings demands our deepest outrage. As adults, parents and community members, our first and most fundamental duty is the protection of Alaska’s children. There is absolutely no place in our state for anyone who would harm a child. In light of these serious charges, decisive action has been taken and Mr Valdez has been removed from any and all positions he previously held within the Alaska Republican Party and the Young Republicans,” wrote Warfield of the worst thing to happen to the state’s Young Republicans chapter in about 23 days.

Went looking for a certain October 24th, 2025 Instagram post from AKYR, and came across this emphatic handwashing of the group chat that ended several careers, posted less than 24 hours after the chair of the chapter encompassing the North Star State’s largest city got punched in the face by the mom of a 15 year-old girl he very likely had already statutorily raped. On his birthday.
ANYWAY, this was the one. They deleted it. Because of that second worst thing in the last 23 days.

And no, this guy is no longer the state YR Vice Chair.
Honestly there’s no doing this piece by the Alaska Landmine’s Jeff Landfield any justice by trying to summarize it. Please appreciate this copypasta skim and then click on the link to give them some traffic. Landfield’s January 28 account of meeting Señor Kuznicki really is something to behold:
I have witnessed several staffer meltdowns in my eight years covering the Legislature in Juneau. Some are stress induced and some are alcohol or drug induced. Juneau is a weird place.
But the one that just occurred may have set a record for the quickest and loosest. Truth be told, what I witnessed last night was so deranged I actually thought I was on candid camera. And is it turns out, I only caught the tail end.
After finishing work around 10 pm last night, I left my office and headed downtown for a beer after a long day. It was a typical Tuesday night in Juneau – most the bars were empty.
I walked into the Triangle and saw six or seven people in a group. A younger staffer quickly approached me. I had never met him but had seen him around the Capitol a few times and recognized him from a recent photo the Alaska Young Republicans posted.
It was immediately apparent he was extremely inebriated. The first thing he said to me was that he knew about the collapse of the Doyon 26 drilling rig on the North Slope five minutes after it happened, and added he has photos and a video. I joked that he should have sent them to me. He responded, “I have to protect my source.” Not ten seconds went by before he gave up the name of his so-called source.
I had zero desire to interact with this guy. So I walked away and sat at the bar and ordered a beer. He quickly sat down in the chair next to me. He immediately leaned in close to me and said, “Have you been watching these n***as in Minnesota?” I was sure what he said but I still could not believe it. I responded, “Excuse me,” and told him he should not talk like that.
Then things really started to go off the rails.
Landfield isn’t exaggerating. Just one more brief clip:
The drunken staffer started loudly declaring, “I run Juneau!” and “I run this town!” It was wild.
He then exclaimed that he was presenting a “big bill” the next day, House Bill 249, and kept saying he was going to “kill it.”
PLEASE read it and add the Landmine to your bookmarks – they’ll have something deeply reported on Valdez soon no doubt – and stay the fuck away from Young Republicans members.