Candidate filing period for Anchorage Assembly, School Board and Service Area Board of Supervisors closed on Jan 30.
Anchorage, if you want lower taxes and conservative social policies, we have a phenomenal opportunity to flip our Assembly on April 7 from a supermajority of radical leftists to a conservative majority, and we shouldn’t let it go to waste.
The tax-and-spend policies enacted by “the Marxist Nine” – and good policies blocked by these same members – have driven the problems of crime, homelessness and affordability into hyperdrive the last five years. Residents are now afraid to hike and bike on our trails and use our public parks and library due to unchecked crime and vagrancy. Millions of dollars’ worth of materials purchased for former Mayor Dave Bronson’s navigation center are still sitting at the Port housing sand. But if you have the right connections, millions more tax dollars are being poured into the highly lucrative homeless industrial complex, with no lasting, positive impact on the chronically homeless.
If you wish to remain in Anchorage raising your family, running your business or living in relative peace and security, you’d better help get out the vote and flip the Assembly on April 7th.
How about a thriving, accessible downtown? Nope. Business owners and churches downtown are forced to shell out tens of thousands paying for private security to keep their buildings intact and safe while crime goes unchecked (with the Berkowitz-era police station in the midst of it all). That doesn’t include the police reports and insurance deductibles pastors and congregations shell out for the break-ins. Yet property taxes continue to rise, new taxes are floated and voted without any debate (our Mayor is just full of surprises!), and mortgage and interest rates remain untenably high.
I once called Anchorage a dying city. I hope not. But if it is, the liberal Assembly is hastening its demise a la Jack Kevorkian. Then again, Mayor LaFrance’s Big, Beautiful Assessment (except for Rich Folks Like Her) is probably the real intention of the Leftists: destroy the middle class and drive them out of Anchorage. Those statistics are verified by the census numbers in the burgeoning Mat-Su Valley, and you can ask any builder whether they get better business, here or in the Valley. Hint: it’s not Muldoon or downtown.
While things look bleak at the moment, that could all change in a little over two months. Assembly Members Jared Goecker, Scott Myers, and Keith McCormick are currently the only three reliable conservative members on a 12-member body. Myers is not running for re-election, but his Eagle River seat is reliably conservative. On the other hand, five seats held by leftists are up for grabs in two months. If Anchorage voters fill these six seats with the strongest conservatives running, then the Assembly is suddenly a conservative majority of 8-4, and the city stands a decent shot at stemming the tide of regress.
Is Anchorage worth fighting for? You bet. And if you wish to remain in Anchorage raising your family, running your business or living in relative peace and security, you’d better help get out the vote and flip the Assembly on April 7th.
Anchorage desperately needs a sea change in order to flourish again. We have two months to make these candidates household names so nobody texts you asking, “Who should I vote for?”
Here are my recommendations. Please share them with every registered voter you know and encourage them to vote:
— If you live in District 1, North Anchorage: Vote conservative Justin Milette to replace term-limited Chris Constant. Website: miletteforalaska.com. (Nick Danger, Sydney Scout, and Max Powers are also running.)
— If you live in District 2, Chugiak, Eagle River, JBER: Vote conservative Donald Handeland to replace conservative Scott Myers, who is not running again. Website: votehandeland.com. Handeland is endorsed by Goecker, Myers, and Jamie Allard, among others. (Kyle Walker is also running.)
— If you live in District 3, West Anchorage: Vote conservative Brian Flynn to replace incumbent Anna Brawley. Website: flynnforanchorage.com. Flynn is endorsed by Goecker, Myers, Sami Graham, Mia Costello, among others.
— If you live in District 4, Midtown: Vote conservative Dave Donley to replace term-limited Felix Rivera. Website: donleyforalaska.com. Donley is endorsed by Fred Dyson, Leigh Sloan, among others. (Janice Park and Kim Winston are also running.)
— If you live in District 5, East Anchorage: Vote conservative Cody Anderson to replace incumbent George Martinez. Website: andersonforanchorage.com.
— If you live in District 6, South Anchorage, Girdwood, Turnagain Arm: Vote conservative Bruce Vergason to replace incumbent Zac Johnson. Website: bruceforanchorage.com. (John Stiegele and Janelle Anausuk Sharp are also running.)
Anchorage desperately needs a sea change in order to flourish again. We have two months to make these candidates household names so nobody texts you asking, “Who should I vote for?” when our ballots arrive in March. Please print this list, take a screen shot, and share it widely with your friends and neighbors. Know your district and your candidates.
Let’s seize the moment: get out the vote, flip the Assembly, and start to reclaim Anchorage.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
11 Comments
Not a good budget to turn into the legislature for any funding whatsoever, and especially the Port of Anchorage. Glad to see they included a photo. Its pretty skimpy. Millions went into reconstruction of the port and it looks like it can tie up two or three vessels at a time. Where did the funds go to too? Then there is the fraud, waste and abuse of funding for payment for the small homes and other properties not mentioned for expenses for the homeless. What happened to the funds from the COVID period and repayment or use and abuse. It doesn’t show. Anchorage is a Sanctuary City and by such has maintained monetary risks that have been pushed at every property owner in the borough. The payment for that poor decision is TAKEN in property taxes and increased every year to ungodly levels to satisfy the insatiable appetite of a sanctuary city whose agenda is fraud, waste and abuse. Two of the worst in the assembly will be gone at the end of then election to replace them. Sanctuary City Mayor LaFrance has just put the APD between a rock and a hard spot with no support to ICE. Did that threaten the APD capability to do their jobs in the boundaries of their commitment and oath? US Constitution, Alaska State Constitution and the USMCJ?
There are a lot of costly expenses missing in the mayor’s budget. Every expense, including salaries and benefits needs to be out in the open and all monies used for those expenses should be open for scrutiny and evaluation. How many departments in the city rely on the state and federal funds. Let’s see it.
Mayor LaFrance is much less than honest about this and full disclosure on what she and the Assembly has done should be put out in the open. All voters need to get out and change the problem to rid the borough of this business trash.
The reason why corrupted public servants exist is because there are corrupted souls that benefit from the misdeeds of the assembly. Not until humanity learns to value love more than the all mighty dollar shall the office of the public servants change.
Thanks Theresa for doing every other conservator’s homework for them. This is valuable information that needs to be circulated. How to best do that is the next major objective. It might be worth repeating on the “Alaska Watchman” and other conservative resources when the ballots are mailed out and again just prior to election day!
You’re so right. We need to get the word out.
But Anchorage-Portland is too lazy to go vote.
It’ll never happen. Conservative Anchorage voters are lazy and don’t show up to the polls to actually vote. Voter turn-out in Anchorage is horrendous, The other kill-shot to this is “mail-in” ballots. Paper ballots, hand count, same day vote and election results. Giving them a week to figure out how to fudge the numbers is what make elections laughable.
“It’s not who votes, but who counts the votes” -Stalin
Maybe if you’d really look at the budget of the Anchorage Borough and ask yourselves questions. How many fees and taxes are not put in the plan for the public? There is no mention of new fees for hotels, no mention of the fuel tax that brings in millions or then new liquor tax that brings in millions. Yet the borough wants to increase your property taxes every year but never shows clarity in their moneys they have on hand and what is coming into the borough continually. Get some information and get out and vote the creeps out. The two creepiest are going and won’t be back. Good riddance! But the damage those two did is astronomical! Think about it and vote to keep the creeps out.
The fuel tax that was supposedly for school roofs? How many have been replaced with the $20 million a year that the municipality has collected..? None. Where did the money go..? Ask the assembly. I don’t live in the people’s republic of Anchorage. I do however, vote in every election in the location I reside in. During the wuhan scare, Anchorage closed up the restaurants; the valley was open for business. I’m pretty sure one of your assembly members was caught out in the valley, enjoying a meal and not wearing his mask, when he had voted for Anchorage mandates (not laws) to wear masks in stores and restaurants. I still have my company letterhead-ed “critical employee” letter in the visor of my truck. Why? Because Anchorage was going to get stupid during the wuhan virus scare. The only creep I’ve voted against and will again, will be that shoddy construction contractor Yundt.
I would worry about mail in ballots and voting machines. Douglas Frank proved in a court of law that voting machines (I don’t recall if it was specifically Dominion) have access to the internet and so can be hacked. He demonstrated it to a judge who turned a blind eye to the evidence. Even the Biden FBI went after Douglas Frank to shut him up.
Award winning governor Dunleavy declared that anchorage isn’t important enough for him to weigh in on! In other words, let it die! He earned his award as least popular governor in the country!
Naw… That would be steve cowper. Mr. “All I own is a banjo, a beat up Ford pickup and a dog”. Steve’s wife kept JPD busy by covering up her coke habit. Next runner-up would be tony “Do you know who I am!?!” knowles. Yeah.. Steve liked jogging on Ft. Rich tank trails, until some MPs picked him for trespassing. Then we have bill “I stole your PFD” walker. I guess the state employee retirement fund was more important than Alaskans getting their full PFD. /s
Now.. What were you saying “Dave” (most likely from out of state or a recent transplant)…?
Oh hermy, I’ve been here for a long time. Actually I bravely took on the corrupt deep state government that runs Alaska, while folks like you have caudlded the theives and liars in this state! Put down your bottle hermy and take a clear eyed look at your present governor and describe him in one word!. CORRUPT!!!!