It’s hard to believe, but the ballots for the Anchorage municipal election go out in less than 100 days, and candidates are already filing their financial paperwork and intent for office.
Formal candidate filing opens on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025 at 8 a.m. and closes on Friday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. Meanwhile, there are the filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission that indicate who may be running for local seats.
Republican Jared Goecker, who just finished an unsuccessful challenge to Eagle River Sen. Kelly Merrick in the state legislative race, has filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission to run for Assembly to represent Chugiak/Eagle River for a seat that will be open.
The Assembly seats up for election include:
- District 1 – Seat L – North Anchorage, incumbent Daniel Volland has filed for reelection
- District 2 – Seat A – Chugiak, Eagle River, JBER, Jared Goecker has filed. Incumbent Mark Littlefield doesn’t plan to run.
- District 3 – Seat D – West Anchorage, incumbent Kameron Perez-Verdia has filed with APOC to run again.
- District 4 – Seat F – Midtown Anchorage, incumbent Meg Zaletel is not running for a third term. Erin Baldwin Day has filed with APOC and appears to live in that district.
- District 5 – Seat H – East Anchorage, incumbent Karen Bronga is not running for reelection. Yarrow Silvers is running for the seat with Bronga’s support.
- District 6 – Seat J – South Anchorage, Girdwood, Turnagain Arm – incumbent Randy Sulte has not yet filed for reelection.
For the Anchorage School Board, these seats are up for election:
- School Board – Seat A, incumbent Margo Bellamy has filed with APOC to run again.
- School Board – Seat B, incumbent Kelly Lessens has filed with APOC to run again.
Also expected on the Anchorage ballot is a proposal from the Anchorage Assembly to amend the city charter and enact a 3% sales tax in Anchorage, which the Assembly promises will reduce property taxes.
The next Regular Municipal Election ends Tuesday, April 1.
Anchorage votes by mail-in ballot. Ballot packages will be mailed to the mailing addresses on record with the State of Alaska’s voter registration database.
“For Regular Municipal Elections, ballot packages will only be mailed to qualified Anchorage voters, at least 21 days before Election Day,” the city’s Division of Elections says.
IIRC, the redistricting plan drew Sulte into the West Anchorage district. Would be interesting if he ran against Perez-Verdia, except Turnagain’s outsized influence is already a strike against him.
Doesn’t matter.
Anchorage mail in voting will ensure the makeup of the Assembly remains the same.
“enact a 3% sales tax in Anchorage, which the Assembly promises will reduce property taxes” I call BS on this one because I guarantee they will never reduce property Taxes but I bet they will try and unilaterally raise the TAX CAP.
Yep
Every city or state that promised not to raise a new tax did.
All taxes do is go up and up to pay for those who don’t work for a living.
Can people not understand this has been and always will be a bait-and-switch tactic? Look at California!
Yep! Chris Constant is still looking for funding for his $500,000 Taj mahal bathrooms.
I am old enough to remember when the Dunbar booze tax was supposed to pay for homeless care without requiring any funds from the general fund.
Oh… good times.
Who?
Clearly, you don’t live in ANC or ER.
The 3% will not hurt the well off
It will hurt the poor
Then the bolshiviks will use the extra money to lower property taxes on all businesses (perhaps owned by the well off) and all home owners (perhaps well off themselves)
Then brane dead libs will vote these scheitzkopfs in again!
They are SO stoop id they don’t even know how to be Progressive
Unreal
There is nothing left, except to leave this burg (or die) …..it’s hopeless
Excellent! If you can’t defeat the Rino corrupt Merrick go after the Assembly. Thank you for spearheading this Goecker and for being so part of God’s Army.
A 3% sales tax impacts everyone—adds 3% to the cost of a car, cost of a house? Is there a sales tax cap in this proposal? It should be capped at no more than $100.00 for any purchase.
There needs to also be a ‘cap’ on the criticism of those who take advantage of the opportunities in Anchorage to be ‘well off’. Everyone can be ‘well off’—it just takes a lot of work—something many are adverse to and prefer to be corner workers.