The man to beat for mayor of Anchorage: Forrest Dunbar

By
Suzanne Downing
-
60

Friday was the first day when candidates for Anchorage mayor could officially file for office.

At 10 am, Dave Bronson arrived at City Hall with his wife Deb Bronson, and campaign manager Bernadette Wilson. Bronson is running for mayor. He then did his requisite interview with reporters and finished the day with a fundraiser with key supporters, including campaign consultant Art Hackney.

Next into the office was Bill Evans, who arrived with campaign manager Cale Green, to file. He, too, made the rounds with the media and finished his day with a discussion on Zoom with Alaskans for Open Meetings, a grassroots transparency advocacy group.

Mike Robbins came shortly thereafter with his wife, Tetyana and his campaign Brian Mentzer. Running on a populist platform, Robbins spoke to the media and had a fundraiser with two dozen business owners at the Peanut Farm that evening.

But the man to beat filed elsewhere on Friday at 8 am.

Wearing a Carhartt jacket and hoodie, Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar filed his candidacy at the Division of Elections office in at the Ship Creek Avenue office in downtown Anchorage, right next to the far-left campaign headquarters of the Ship Creek Group, which is providing Dunbar with campaign services. It was an entirely different look from his garb at the Pride parade in Anchorage a couple of years ago.

Dunbar is a liberal’s liberal. Three years ago, he, John-Henry Heckendorn of the Ship Creek Group, and Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins were credited by Politico for turning “a red state purple,” by getting candidates to shape-shift as moderates and registering some as “nonpartisans” in conservative districts.

The progressive posse of young Turks ushered three new liberals to the House of Representatives, all of whom got caught up in “me-too” scandals and ended up leaving office in various degrees of disgrace. The fourth they aided and abetted, Jason Grenn, served just one term in the House before voters in his district booted him and elected Republican Rep. Sara Rasmussen.

Dunbar, a lawyer with the Alaska Army National Guard, where he serves as an assistant judge advocate, is part of a clique of downtown radicals up-and-comers on a mission to turn Alaska Democrat.

How radical? So radical, Dunbar is on record saying the U.S. Constitution is “shot through” with racism.

Candidate Dunbar says Constitution — ‘all of it’ — is shot through with racism

A guy like that, with his Berkowitz-supporting baggage, should be easy to beat in Anchorage, one might think.

But Anchorage is now Biden Country. Oil patch workers have left by the thousands, as the economics of oil changed, and now government and nonprofit workers represent a greater majority. Anchorage gained thousands of blue-voting health care workers, funded by the Obamacare expansion. Many conservative voters have fled to the Mat-Su Valley.

Every district in the municipality –15 through 28, except for the two in Chugiak-Eagle River — voted a majority for Joe Biden for president this past November. And Anchorage voters cast their ballots for Ethan Berkowitz for mayor, not once, but twice, even though there were solid fiscally conservative choices during both the 2015 and the 2018 races.

Also filing at the Ship Creek office on Monday was was liberal Bill Falsey, former municipal city manager under Berkowitz, who will appear less radical than Dunbar, but who also has the “Berkowitz baggage” in spades. Falsey has been a functionary, rather than a lawmaker, however. His problem is more of “what did he know and when did he know it” about Berkowitz’ proclivities and bathroom nude selfie. Few expect Falsey to go the distance, but he’ll get his name out there, get some experience under his belt, and decide if elected office is really for him.

‘War of the Roses’ meets ‘Fatal Attraction’ as Ethan Berkowitz uses his powers to attack Maria Athens

Part of the hardline shutdown bloc on the Assembly, Dunbar has been locked-and-loaded in favor of former Mayor Berkowitz and Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson in the scorched-earth policy against private businesses in Anchorage. Lately, he mostly phones in his appearances at the Assembly meetings, unwilling to face the wrath of the public and its harsh condemnation of many who have started attending the meetings.

A man who has been a public servant much of his career (he was briefly a lawyer for Stoel-Rives), Dunbar is an experienced campaigner, having run unsuccessfully against Congressman Don Young in 2014, and for Assembly twice. He’s playing the long game to take another shot at Congress in 2022 or perhaps the governorship. But running Alaska’s largest city? That’s a plum position, which governs 40 percent of the state’s population and will launch him to the next level.

Dunbar knows he is the one to beat, and said that’s why his signs were vandalized over the winter. He blamed Must Read Alaska and its readers for vandalizing them 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.

He can’t seem to resist criticizing Must Read Alaska during Assembly meetings and in the leftist press.

‘Double-down Dunbar’ says he was misquoted, then runs away from his statement on constitution’s racism

Dunbar has the support of the usual suspects of Democrats, with endorsements from Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, Rep. Harriet Drummond, Rep. Zack Fields, Rep. Liz Snyder, and Rep. Andy Josephson. Also, former Sen. Johnny Ellis gave him the nod.

These are powerful endorsements as all of them have won in their districts and can get their voters out. They have enormous pull due to their own campaign infrastructures, lists, and ready-and-willing lieutenants.

With a city that is more resembling Seattle and San Francisco than Anchorage in its heyday, will center-right Bill Evans be an acceptable alternative as a moderate, or is Anchorage ready for a Mayor Dunbar, who would be even more radical than Berkowitz?

Like former Mayor Berkowitz, Dunbar attended Harvard University and earned his law degree from Yale University. He worked as a public defender, and for the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan. He was born and raised in Alaska, and graduated from Cordova High School.

In his campaign literature, Dunbar lays out his vision for Anchorage:

1. With the cooperation of the business community, we should turn portions of Fourth Avenue and E Street into pedestrian promenades. Other cities have done this with great success, and studies have shown that boosting foot traffic in this way increases safety and commerce, particularly in the evening.

2. We need to take advantage of the $40 million investment toward homeless services promised by our private partners over the next five years, and make our own commitments to substance abuse treatment, behavioral health, housing and other initiatives — such as early childhood care and education — that get to the core of this and other problems. Those private funds must not be seen as a replacement for state or municipal support, but rather as a complement to what we can do. We have a unique window of opportunity; we must not let it pass us by.

3. We should work to strengthen the city’s sense of indigenous place, in part through acknowledging original Alaska Native place names. We should improve signage, and continue to build better relations with the Eklutna Dena’ina and other tribal entities. Aside from being the right thing to do, this approach is also the economically smart thing to do; surveys have shown that the No. 1 desire from tourists in Anchorage is greater immersion in Alaska’s rich Native cultures.

Finally, it’s important that Anchorage avoid some of the chaos and division we have seen in Juneau and Washington, D.C. Through a combination of good people, structural advantages and institutional investment, the Anchorage Assembly remains a comparatively well-functioning body. We generally maintain a sense of cooperation, avoid grandstanding and strive to uphold the public interest. Our municipal government delivers basic public services such as snow removal, police protection and emergency medical services, and that will always be my primary goal.

Bill Evans, a lawyer and former Assemblyman, appears to be positioning himself as the candidate who most in the middle can support. Robbins, a business owner, and Bronson, a pilot, are appealing to those who are truly unhappy with the direction of Anchorage and are seeking a measurable change in direction.

Those who are studying the past two mayoral elections watched as the conservative and moderate candidates lost by 18 or more points. Mayor Berkowitz beat conservative Amy Demboski by 20 points in the runoff in 2015, and bested moderate-conservative Rebecca Logan by 18 points in 2018.

Since 2018, Anchorage has gotten even more blue, with Democrats gaining registrants in every House district in the city limits, as every district is losing Republican registrants. The Alaska Democratic Party will be fully engaged in this “nonpartisan” election.

The candidates know that April 6, 2020 is the “primary” and that with 10 candidates or more likely on the ballot, getting that magic 45 percent support is unlikely for any of them, and a runoff has to be factored into their race plans.

Political analysts presume Dunbar will be in the runoff, that the Alaska Demcoratic Party machine will bring its forces to bear, and that anyone who didn’t vote for Dunbar on April 6 will either stay home and allow the government and nonprofit workers to decide the outcome, or will settle for the alternative.

And that gives the three leading contenders — Robbins, Bronson, and Evans — much to consider as they try to define themselves and their opponents, in advance of the ballots being mailed to voters on March 15 — just 58 days from now.

60 COMMENTS

  2. Do you know if any other liberals besides Falsey and Dunbar that will be filing? The conservatives are going to split the vote so much with Bronson, Robbins, and Evans. God help us if we get Dunbar leading the city.

  3. Look around the state Suzanne, there are WAY more “Carhartts & Hoodies” then cheap suits with red ties…the times are a changing and those on the far right will be left out of discussions going forward.
    Extremism has no place in America and the citizens see this more clear than ever in 2021.

    • I agree that extremism is bad. I’ve seen enough history to have noticed the pendulum swinging wildly both ways. Having said that, I don’t see Dunbar as the answer. I gave him a chance once.

    • Totally, and Forest is a good human being. And good on him for supporting and embracing a diverse population of people.

      • What diverse population of people is that? Just about everyone in Anchorage not collecting a paycheck from the government or nonprofit sectors is facing a choice of whether or not they can continue to live here, myself included. I like George Martinez personally, but I question his strategy of trying to stand out as a person of color. Look at what the people of color within the Democratic Party did to get Edgar Blatchford and Lynette Moreno Hinz elected (read: nothing).

    • Totally, and guess what — Forrest is a great human being. It’s a wonderful thing to support and embrace diversity.

    • You prove the point and you don’t even know it.
      .
      A clown wearing a Carhartt jacket and a hoodie is still a clown…even if his cheap suit and tie are under the jacket and hoodie!
      :
      “Extremism has no place in America and the citizens see this more clear than ever in 2021.” Don’t vote for Forrest!

  4. Eagle River ,Chugiak is rapidly turning into a crap hole under the the past couple of administrations. Now is the time to seperate to save ourselves. The old live and let live seems that it being replaced by my way or the highway.
    Now may be the time for Eagle River to hit the road.

    • It’s time to thoroughly evaluate two options for Eagle River and Chugiak: EagleExit or Mat-Su Borough annexation of Chugiak-Eagle River-Eklutna. I’m just throwing out this idea. The current direction of Anchorage is not positive for these communities, unless the leftist mindset has already infiltrated them (which I fear).

      • The mat/su borough doesn’t want Eagle River that is for sure.
        The best option for Anchorage residents that are unhappy with the direction of the city is to move.
        The population explosion & demographic change is not going away in the Anchorage bowl, but luckily there is still lots of space available when you drive an hour away in either direction.
        I personally see many vacant cabins in Willow getting purchased by Anchorage residents in the last year as folks look for a new way to rekindle that “Alaskan Experience” without repressive government overreach at their front door.

        • What “population explosion”?
          Our economy is garbage, the only boon we have had lately was the influx of COVID cares money, plus diversity is as old as anchorage itself, that’s not new or a credit to any political party.

        • The anchorage bowl is not experiencing a population boom, it’s actually in recession and continuing to lose population. As anchorage dies off the Mat Su is eating Anchorage’s lunch and becoming politically more powerful. Sorry Steve, but anchorage will not grow until there is another pro business mayor like mayor Sullivan.

    • Anchorage will never let Eagle River go. They need to steal money from residents to pay for whatever bad ideas the Assembly comes up with.

  5. Elections are over; you can never vote Communism out once it digs in like a malignant cancer. It is not who votes, but who counts the votes. And the Communists own the vote counting mechanisms.

  7. Funny how this site gave so much time to Dunbar who clearly does not care about Anchorag,e only power. We will throw him to the curb. Pack your bags Dunbar, we are going to flush the toilet with you and others in it.

    • Home prices dropping on our street.
      The last 2 properties sold for well under the Muni assessed value

      Remember when homes always sold for over the assessed value?
      Back before the libs ruined our city?

  9. Anchorage will NEVER recover as a productive and wholesome city if we end up with Dunbar as the mayor. Although he should represent me (and my immediate neighbors) on the Anchorage assembly, he NEVER responds to any of my emails or voiced concerns. Unless you overwhelm him with compliments or campaign contributions and suck up to him otherwise, you can expect the same from him if he is elected. Dunbar is only concerned about himself and those who agree with him on everything.

    .

    Please Anchorage … let’s get behind a candidate who will serve all MOA residents with actual leadership, honesty, respect, substance, and dedicated service. I recommend Bill Evans!

    • But. Bill Evans is associated with Cale Green, who is one of the owners over at the Leftist friendly Alaska Landmine. Seeing his drone video once listening to whine about did he have the legal right flying his drone over an area was annoying. He cares more about himself than people around him. I see Bill Evans to be associated with Cale Green will be more of the same type of people Anchorage and Alaska has had before.

  12. Dunbar already ducking the press? If he is so confident, then why not register at City Hall?
    As for Falsey, wasn’t he the guy who nixed the parent notification petition some years back, when he was the city attorney?

  13. Do we know that Dunbar “was born and raised in Alaska”? I just looked up the 2014 Official Election Pamphlet and he omits mention of where he was born. Alyse Galvin did the same thing, implying she was born in Alaska without explicitly stating so, before it was revealed that she was really born in California. Before it was deleted, someone made an edit to his Wikipedia article claiming that he was born in Oakland, California. I’m willing to admit it’s plausible that he was born in Alaska, as his father began working for ADFG in 1982 and graduated from UAF the following year.

    • Meaningless where he was born
      We have our own born & raised leftist now
      And plenty of them …..my daughter is one BIG time

      • When you consider how it’s thrown around so indiscriminately, the phrase “born and raised” is what’s really meaningless (you must admit that it sounds so “cool”, though). There was a certain MSM outlet which in years past published as “fact” that Terry Miller was “born and raised in North Pole” (actually born in San Francisco, moved to Alaska at age 6 or 7, then moved to North Pole a year or two later) and Jack Coghill was “born and raised in Nenana” (actually born in Fairbanks to a Nenana family, likely because the hospital which existed in Nenana in prior years closed when the railroad construction was completed).
        .
        The real point, in case you missed it: there once was a time, within the lifetimes of nearly everyone reading this, when running for office included an expectation of making your life an open book. That expectation disappeared about 15 years ago. We have people serving in important offices in Alaska right now who we really know nothing about. That is because voters have become content with voting for a face and/or a logo and/or a collection of slogans they read on a website. Either that or obediently voting for whomever the party bosses tell them to vote for. Another MSM outlet ran a headline last year promoting “Life-long Alaskan Alyse Galvin”. That could have been avoided by simple fact-checking, in this case her own statement in the OEP of being 54 years old and living in Alaska 37 years. Evidently, our fact-checking mechanisms nowadays lack simple gifts of discernment. This lack of discernment is capitalized upon by our political leaders in turn.

  14. Exactly why Anchorage CANNOT have more than 1 conservative candidate for Mayor in this April’s Anchorage election. It would be poor planning to have the conservative vote split between several conservative candidates !

  15. Rank choice voting assures these marxist radicals will be elected……………

    It is rank; it stinks!!!!!!!!!!!

    • As of January 7th, nationally we are no longer a Constitutional Republic. We are a puppet government of China, just like Hong Kong.

      Alaska is wrecked with fraud and no conservative will win because the insurrectionists know they have the Judiciary, and the governor is spineless and weak or a collaborator.

      They will brazenly cheat with no fear of being stopped.

      It is up to the Anchorage citizens to save their city, I just don’t know what that looks like due to fraud.

  16. The three conservatives will fight till the end split the vote and this thing will be our next mayor. Unless… Wake up people.

  17. I still can’t get over my shock that any Jew can stand with the Democrat Party, which refuses to stand with Israel; Democrats take the Palestine side. That’s so weird! A Democrat Jew going against their own people. Republican members standing for the State of Israel. Obama and Biden/Harris are Iran’s friends, and Iran wants to annihilate Jews and the State of Israel, so that tells me all I need to know where Democrats stand against Israel and Jews.

  18. You regular readers who comment with an extreme position each and every time to MRMs steady diet of infected red meat need to spend time with a cult deprogrammer and a civics instructor. Mr. Dunbar is one of the finest, most intelligent public servants Alaska has produced in years. His resume and his dedication to public service are above reproach. Fine to disagree with the politics, but really, the never ending commie, Marxist, San Francisco references demonstrate the shallow level of thought and discourse that commenters here are at best capable. Education has let a lot of you down it appears. Truth is hard to swallow when belly’s are full of fear and hate.

    • Welcome to the club! Dan you described yourself by your comment and fit inside well with the crowd you described. Something tells me you can’t stand being around anyone who doesn’t think like you. I liked to see your kind sharing a diner table with Suzanne or anyone other conservative leaders without you telling them how wrong you think they think and reason. Too many Alaskans and Americans will die as ‘blind man’ without ever seeing the truth during this life.

  19. Glad I’ve learned to screen grab my comments within the 39 seconds they are allowed to reside amongst all you other deep thinkers’ before they are “moderated” into the ether. “Uniformity of perspective will be critical in the Long March forward” would be a fitting banner for your digital rag.

  20. The Army is doing everything that they can to rid themselves of this disgrace. But if we can’t pull together on a Mayor, you can be sure that he has a chance.

    The people that have been fighting our battles with city hall (all women strangely enough) are all endorsing Bronson. That’s good enough for me, but I have met with the man and I like him. I think he will do a great job.

    I am a small businessman and have never had the opportunity to meet or talk face to face with the other candidates. That says a lot. He told me that he will answer his phone and hear us out. That is the difference between being ruled or represented. We must not split the vote or we will lose again.

  21. Dunbar is a socialist and doesn’t care about Anchorage or Alaska. hHe cares about his political career and nothing else. To vote for him you’d have to be a complete idiot.

  22. The only “foot traffic” Dunbar can expect in his downtown Anchorage utopia project will be the homeless, because so many businesses have closed down due to poor management of the city. The homeless are well provided for, yet contribute nothing to society.

  23. Leftists view everything through the lens of race, they are simply obsessed with it! Most normal people see people, leftists see color. What a shame that they can’t just enjoy a relationship without bring hateful thoughts into it. Keep stirring that pot of anger and hatred and someday your “victims” will turn on you.

  24. Litmus test for all future candidates:
    .
    Are you, or have you ever practiced as a Lawyer?
    .
    NO MORE LAWYERS, from either party!

  25. Dave Bronson is NOT a radical…….I am a Cardiac Anesthesiologist here in Anchorage, and I strongly support Dave Bronson for mayor. He is a practical, compassionate conservative voice who has consistently engaged the Assembly and attended those meetings in person (unlike Evans and Robbins) to intercede on behalf of the small businesses and middle class employees who are seeing their livelihoods wrested from them without hope of recompense. He speaks passionately about the plight of the homeless and has amassed a vast knowledge-base of cities who have turned around their “homeless problem” and vagrancy problem by holistically addressing the causes of those problems and maintaining law and order and improving the livability of the city in the process. His background as an Air Force officer and years as a commercial pilot have given him unique focus and attention to detail that will help him unravel the complex logistical problems that are coming due to Anchorage’s aging port infrastructure as well a the inevitable recession and financial strain that Covid and the resultant wanton business destruction will wreak on our future. Forrest Dunbar is a radical leftist who wants to transform Anchorage into a poor imitation of LA, Portland, or Seattle. Dave Bronson, however, is no radical…he is an Alaskan by choice, a retired Air Force officer, a pilot, a husband, a father, and a common-sense conservative. Dave loves Anchorage and he has my vote! Don’t listen to reductionist simplistic arguments for whom you should vote based on where pundits place candidates on the so-called political spectrum. Take time to hear Dave talk and decide for yourself. I have no doubt that you will join me and so many others, and vote for Dave Bronson

    • Neither of those two top Republicans look like the need “a job to pay the bills.” So here’s radical idea, they should get together, form a job-sharing coalition, rejecting any and all “public funded Mayoral financial perks for themselves.”
      .
      We the public are sick to death of being lectured by people on the public teat, telling us we must keep funding their lavish lifestyles, whilst businesses are taxed to the hilt and staff are furloughed, or forced to operate at 25% capacity.
      .

  26. Only a matter of time it seems before Alaska becomes far left California. Without a doubt there will be a State tax and it will be raised drastically in coming years. No more oil exploration cause the U.S. is going solar mainly. Solar is not practical for alaska…Means ever higher taxes and big subsidies. There will be no middle class. Only the very rich and the very poor, relying on government to help them survive. Neither will have real freedom though. maybe secede?

  28. Dave Bronson is a conservative with an analytical perspective that Anchorage needs to turn this downward spiral around. He is assembling a great team of other financially responsible conservatives in the Anchorage School District and Assembly to get our city back. Please get behind Dave Bronson for Mayor….we need a single Strong candidate to keep this town from further decline in the hands of the far-left!

  29. This is a great picture. The guy in the black tank top with the 70’s puka shell necklace, what is he wearing down below? Ouch! Yikes, Anchorage is going to be led by the Village People. Good times ahead!

  30. Anchorage’s economy is done. In the coming election the voters will stick a fork in it, The few small businesses remaining? Growing fewer. Voters didn’t seem to realize what they were getting but now they do and they seem to love it. Those who don’t love it? Take the opportunity to move on before ordinary people feel the lash and the property market crashes. They will figure it out – won’t they???

    Maybe not.

  31. If Anchorage and Alaska want to see positive change like jobs, responsible fiscal policies, government leadership that actually represents you and not politicians, better healthcare with more options, law and order. Find the Conservative candidate that actually tells you the truth and will do what he promises like President Trump. If you continue to put leftist nuts in office, you reap what you sow! Just look at what they have done to America, case in point! Anchorage’s businesses have been hammered by liberals who think they know better with no relief in site. Why the hell would you put Dunbar in office? I mean, do people even want a life anymore or do they want an authoritarian government telling them what they can say, what they can eat, where they can live and cut them a small universal check so they can try and feed themselves and their children. If you continue to put these type of corrupt people in office, we are headed down a very dark path! It is time to wake up people! Don’t go for a moderate either because they are just a leftist in sheep’s clothing, just look at Murkowski.

  32. To the lefties who’ve poster in this forum, have you noticed that you haven’t been censored or de-platformed? Think about it. To the three repub candidates for mayor, get together and put your egos aside so we can squash the bugs that are the liberal invasion of Alaska. I mean, who doesn’t like Drag Queen Story Time at the Loussac Library but, there’s only so much of that one can absorb. 🙂 One more thing… for all of you dedicated, conservative forum contributors in here… support Suzanne’s efforts and financially donate to this web site. Otherwise, the Binkley’s will be the only source of local and statewide news? that you have left. Please, get busy.

  33. Dave Bronson will lead Anchorage back to prosperity and common sense. He will work for small business and no-nonsense leadership. Transparent, Honest, Strong! Exactly what Anchorage needs at this time!

  35. Mr. Dunbar is our next Mayor …just ride by the IBEW Hall on Denali & see for yourself

    The center/right candidates will gang up & split the vote handing this election to the Left
    Along w/ “New Left” Bond props, that have a “smash the tax cap” sentence in each one of them

    Sorry, it’s depressing but the truth

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