Anchorage mayor’s race: Dunbar, Robbins lead in the fundraising arena

The top two candidates for mayor, in terms of fundraising, appear to be Democrat attorney and Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar and Republican business leader Mike Robbins.

According to the 30-day reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Dunbar raised $59,996 in the period stretching back to the year-start report deadline, when he reported he had $252,000. That puts him at over $312,000 for his campaign to date.

But Dunbar will need to keep raising money, because he has just $49,636 in cash available for the final month. On the other hand, Dunbar has placed and paid for all of his ad spots.

Robbins reported $210,057 in his year-start report, and has raised $35,413 for the 30-day report, for a total of approximately $245,470. He has $81,392 cash on hand. He, too, has already paid for and placed his ad spots.

Candidate Dave Bronson, a pilot, raised $162,481.80 for his year-start report, and has raised $61,719 — the most of all the candidates for the 30-day report. Although his campaign war chest is somewhat smaller than Dunbar’s or Robbins, with $224,200 raised in total, he has the most cash on hand: $144,676.

Bill Falsey, running on his record as manager of the Municipality under former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, reported he raised $106,285 in his year-start report, and has raised another $23,898 for his 30-day report, for a total of $130,183. He has $29,590 cash on hand.

Attorney Bill Evans, who filed his year-start report showing $96,380 raised, pulled in another $20,795 for $117,165 in total. He has $52,193 cash on hand.

Dunbar knows he is the one to beat, and a union-financed poll that was released to liberal media shows that Dunbar is slightly ahead of Bronson, although the pollster did not reveal their methodology; they put the numbers out as a “suppression poll.”

Dunbar has blamed Must Read Alaska and its readers for vandalizing his signs over the winter, and made it clear he’ll be running against Must Read Alaska as much as he’ll be running against candidates:

“My campaign is, right now, the most successful on the progressive side. For months, Must Read Alaska and other Republican mouthpieces have been attacking me. They know I’m the one most likely to draw together a moderate and progressive coalition that can beat them. It’s sort of a trickle-down vendetta,” he told the Anchorage Press earlier this year.

Last week, a fundraising letter from Dunbar once again identified Must Read Alaska as his campaign foe, saying “Our far-right opponents have embraced conspiratorial, anti-science rhetoric that would have us ignore COVID rather than face it head on. They support the toxic partisanship of Save Anchorage and Must Read Alaska,” he wrote. He said his “far-right opponents” hold events where people do not wear masks, which “threaten our hard-won progress toward re-starting our economy.”

Must Read Alaska has asked Dunbar to appear on the Must Read Alaska Show, but he declined, saying he would not be treated fairly.

Ballots for the municipal election go in the mail on March 15, and the final day for voting is April 6. In addition to the mayor’s race, which has 14 candidates, there are school board seats, a recall question for Assemblyman Felix Rivera, and bond questions.