Unfinished business on November 8th: who and what I support in the Fairbanks area
Those building a bright future for our state.
While municipal elections are over, there are a lot of issues to deal with on the state and federal level, and your vote is especially important this year!
At this point we've all seen a lot of radio, TV, social, mailer, phone and other ads, and many of you likely already have a strong idea of who and what you're voting for. In case you're still doing research, or are a little overwhelmed, I'll tell you who in the Fairbanks area has my support. In no particular order:
Angie Fitch Fowler (District 36), Ashley Carrick (District 35), Grier Hopkins (District 34), Van Lawrence (District 32), and Maxine Dibert (District 31) are each running to represent a different seat for State House.
John Bennett (District Q) and Scott Kawasaki (District P) are running for different seats on the Alaska State Senate. You can see which districts you live in by looking at this slightly clumsy map of the Fairbanks area: https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/maps/area/2022-May-Interim-Fairbanks.pdf.
Many of these candidates served as mentors or were already friends during my own campaign, and I feel very fortunate to have had them in my corner.
You can help them out by volunteering with the campaigns of the candidates above in this final, critical window. Click here to fill out a google form and volunteer: https://forms.gle/rXLej87jCiTNBDf49. These are people with a vision for a strong, vibrant future for Alaska, and we need to support them.
For governor, I'll be ranking Walker/Drygas and Gara/Cook 1 and 2, respectively. If you support either of these candidates I encourage you to rank the other one as well.
For US House, I'm excited to support Mary Peltola, and for US Senate I'll be voting for Lisa Murkowski.
I'll be voting "No" for a constitutional convention. While the option to open up the constitution could bring some solutions to the people, I believe that too many proponents of the convention are working towards eroding reproductive freedoms, the effectiveness of public education, and the rights of unions, along with being an expensive gamble that would instill even more uncertainty in our state.
I’m generally in favor of retaining each judge that’s on the ballot. Judges go through an evaluation process and this year, like usual, all 29 sitting judges on the ballot have been recommended for retention. There is more info here as a good write up in the Daily News Miner.
If you have any questions or thoughts about who and what I'm supporting, please let me know through a comment or email.
If you still have a campaign sign of mine, I urge you to either get in touch with me or drop the sign off at the IBEW hall on Airport way, and trade it in for another wonderful union endorsed candidate of your choice. I'm happy to help make this happen: just let me know!
Thank you, everyone, and I hope you enthusiastically participate in our electoral process on Tuesday, November 8th!