Rep. Dan Saddler bumped into Lora Reinbold in the lobby of the Division of Elections on Thursday, as he filed for Senate Seat G, which is an open seat representing a military-heavy portion of Eagle River.
Saddler is the current House representative for District 13, and has lived in Eagle River since 1992, with roots in Alaska that stretch back to the 1970s. He has served in the House since winning his seat in 2010. His prior experience includes being a legislative aide in the Senate, and as House Republican majority press secretary. He was a newspaper reporter for the Anchorage Times, and worked as a special assistant to the Department of Natural Resources. He has a career in journalism, and in public relations with a Native Corporation.
Saddler, who was unopposed in his House race in 2016, will compete against Rep. Lora Reinbold of District 14, who had filed just minutes earlier in the day.
Saddler served on the Community and Regional Affairs committee this session. When the House was run by Republicans, he served on Finance, Education, Labor and Commerce, Resources, Military and Veteran Affairs, Energy, and Joint Armed Services (co-chair for six years). He was co-chair of Resources during the highly charged SB 21 oil tax reform (which passed).
Legislation he has gotten through to law includes the Veterans’ Driver License bill, where you can prove your veteran’s status without having to carry discharge papers. He sponsored the digital fishing license law, so sports fishers don’t have to carry papers on them. Saddler won passage of legislation to allow disability savings accounts, allowing families to take care of their disabled family members without those disabled Alaskans losing their benefits.
Fred Dyson, longtime senator who had served this district (before reapportionment it was District F) from 2003-2015, has endorsed Saddler.
Saddler’s District 13 seat could be filled by Craig Christenson, a Republican who filed for it earlier this year.
[Read: Lora Reinbold files for District G Senate]
Nope, not about to vote for him; he would be MacKinnon on steroids.
Chugiak/Eagle River needs representation that can get along with it s own kind.
In the MUNI assembly we have only one chance Fred, Amy does not get along with any of the members.
Lora was kicked out of her own caucus and has always been on the outs with the Republicans . Hence they both get little to nothing passed.
Chugiak/Eagle River needs someone who can get legislation passed. Moral high ground is great when all you have to do is preach at people. The reality of the legislative process is compromise.
Dan Saddler is a proven, reliable, reasonable, and most importantly will listen when challenged on a position he has taken.
I’m afraid Reinbold is the change we need in the Alaska Senate – desperately is not too strong of a word. Right now anyone who doesn’t support increasing the budget is ousted from the Senate Majority. That has allowed a pace in government growth that would entirely consume the earnings reserve of the Permanent Fund in three years if allowed to continue, and then it would consume the corpus in a decade or less. Even a modicum of fiscal discipline would be welcome but to find an Alaska economy that can support some semblance of the huge government we have built, even as we disregarded the state economy, we need Reinbold on the Senate Finance Committee. Note that when she was in the House Majority her operating budget ideas were discredited but when the bastardized Minority became the Majority and the real Majority became the Minority Reinbold’s ideas suddenly made sense to her colleagues. That is the hallmark of a leader, and possibly Alaska has never suffered nearly as much from lack of leadership in state and local government as it does right now.
So, he did nothing in the State House, now he wants to do nothing in the State Senate ? Brilliant !
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