A leftist lawyer who represents West Anchorage on the Anchorage Assembly is calling it quits. She will not run for reelection, Austin Quinn-Davidson said in a news release today. There was no announcement of who might run in her place, but Democrats often line up such decisions in advance.
The next Anchorage municipal election starts in March, with people able to vote as early as March 14. Filing for office opens Jan. 13, and closes Jan. 27 at the close of business. Anchorage has all-mail elections and ballots must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
“After more than four years of elected service to the Anchorage community, including eight months serving as the Acting Mayor of the Municipality, Austin Quinn-Davidson has announced that she will not run for re-election in 2023,” her news release said.
She and her wife have a five-month-old son, “and I want to spend more time with him and my wife at such a special time for our family.”
AQD, as she is sometimes called, said she is proud of her service and how she stepped up to serve as mayor. She was vice chair of the Assembly when former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz resigned in disgrace after being caught having an inappropriate relationship. Quinn-Davidson and her colleagues on the Assembly reshuffled the officers so she could become chair, and then become acting mayor, while Assemblyman Felix Rivera stepped back from becoming mayor, out of a lack of support from the Assembly. AQD continued the shutdown and masking policies begun by former Mayor Berkowitz.
She said, “I literally saved many lives by making difficult decisions — decisions that were not always politically popular. We were called to demonstrate true leadership and we met that challenge.”
She also took credit for a drop in crime in Anchorage, enacting an alcohol tax to fund programs intended to prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse.
