Sen. Mia Costello (Senate District K), Reps. Dave Talerico (District 6), John Lincoln (District 40), have all filed to run for the offices they currently hold.
Mia Costello, a Republican, is completing her first four years as senator for the Anchorage seat. Previously, she served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015.
Talerico, a Republican, represents an Interior House seat from his hometown in Healy. Many have looked to him for possible future leadership positions in the House.
Lincoln, previously an undeclared voter who filed to become a Democrat this winter, was chosen by the governor to replace the disgraced Dean Westlake in District 40. His campaign deputy treasurer is Shea Siegert, formerly with the Ship Creek Group, Gov. Bill Walker’s campaign, and until recently was an aide to a member of the House Democrat-led majority, Jason Grenn.
He had waffled about whether or not he would file again, but finally said on Facebook he had resolved to return to Juneau:
Patrick Savok is also going to run for House District 40, and filed as a nonpartisan candidate who will collect signatures on a petition for the General Election. Until April he was the chief of staff to the mayor of the Northwest Arctic Borough.
Zack Fields has now filed for the District 20 downtown Anchorage seat. He has the support of Mark Begich, Vic Fischer, Les Gara, Vince Beltrami, Leslie Ridle, Heidi Drygas, Joelle Hall, Joey Merrick, and Laborers Local 341. Also, he claims Jane Anvik, Kay Brown, Bill Wielechowski, Hollis French and Kevin McGee in his camp.
Elias Rojas, also a Democrat, had previously filed for the downtown Anchorage District 20 seat that Rep. Les Gara is releasing.
Bob Bradley, a nonpartisan from the Government Hill neighborhood, has just filed for District 20. He will either have to run on the Democrats’ primary ballot.
MEAD TREADWELL ALERT?
Word that Mead Treadwell may be thinking about a run for governor has been making the rounds in political circles. Treadwell was lieutenant governor under Gov. Sean Parnell from 2010-2014, and ran a competitive statewide campaign for U.S. Senate in 2014, coming in third after Sullivan and Joe Miller.
He has been working on Arctic issues and investments with PT Capital since then. This week he hosted a gathering of Americans for Tax Reform at his Anchorage home, with nationally known tax slayer Grover Norquist in attendance, along with dozens of others from around the country who work on tax issues. That’s where some of the buzz finally got out into the wild about Treadwell’s possible interest in running. When Must Read Alaska spoke with Treadwell, he said a number of people have asked him to run for governor and he’d get back to us on his decision.