DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE HAS COMPLICATED HISTORY
All we know is what is on the record. We don’t know what actually happened between Hunter Dunn and Joshua Spring last year. But there was a knife, and it made Spring uncomfortable.
Dunn has filed for District 26 House as a Democrat. Dunn grew up in East Anchorage, attended Bartlett High School, and got started in politics in 2014, working to elect Mark Begich. Rough start in politics.
He was a field organizer for the Alaska Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign in 2016 and worked on Steve Lindbeck’s campaign for U.S. House, against Don Young.
He’s been with a few winning ones, too, mind you. The Assembly race of Suzanne LaFrance comes to mind. The young campaign operative has a lot of experience for a 23-year-old.
Another Democratic operative who worked with Dunn on the coordinated campaign for several candidates later that year said Dunn pulled a knife out and menaced him during the LaFrance race for Assembly. We’re sure it was innocent; he was cleaning his fingernails, right?
Joshua Spring later in the year took out a protective order against Dunn for stalking. The protective order was never served on Dunn, who evidently couldn’t be found by the server. And the petition was eventually withdrawn.
The whole thing had played out on Facebook months prior, during the Assembly campaign of Suzanne LaFrance, who represents South Anchorage.
The Facebook posting by Spring prompted comments, including one from now-congressional candidate Alyse Galvin. The posting brought a denial by the Alaska Democratic Party’s data director Matthew Greene, and a suggestion from the party’s former Communication Director Katie Bruggeman that Spring get ahold of her right away.
And then, in an instant, the whole exchange was taken off of Facebook. But not before it was captured:
Today, Spring works as a legislative aide to Sen. Tom Begich, Suzanne LaFrance has two more years on the Assembly, and Bruggeman is a stay-home mom. Dunn is running for a South Anchorage seat in the House of Representatives in a district that voted for Donald Trump 4,578 to Hillary Clinton’s 3,374 in the 2016 General Election.
As a Democrat, he’ll have an uphill battle against one of three Republicans who have filed so far for that seat: Al Fogle, Joe Riggs, and Laddie Shaw are interested in serving in the seat being vacated as Rep. Chris Birch runs for the Senate seat that opened up when Sen. Kevin Meyer threw his name in for lieutenant governor.
It will be a good experience for Dunn. Being a candidate is nothing like being a campaign worker, he’ll find. So some advice for him: When he goes door to door, he should make sure to keep his knives out of sight.