Two pivotal East Anchorage races could determine control of Alaska House (Via AlaskaBeacon)
Donna Mears, left, is a Democrat running in House District 21 against Republican Forrest Wolfe, second from left. Democrat Ted Eischeid, third from left, is running in House District 22 against Stanley Wright, right, who is a Republican.
In House District 22, which includes North Muldoon and Russian Jack, Democratic planner Ted Eischeid faces Republican city official Stanley Wright. For Mears, that means addressing everything from social services to homelessness and larger Permanent Fund dividends to help residents afford rising housing costs.
She’d like to increase state support for public education. She says the schools should be measured more by how well they prepare students to solve problems than just by test scores. Wolfe said his experience with lawmakers from widely different geographic areas, both parties and both chambers, as well as in majority and minority caucuses, would give him a unique perspective for a first-year legislator.
While Wolfe didn’t trail Mears by many votes in the primary, he is trailing by a wider margin in campaign fundraising. He’s raised just over $39,000 through Oct. 29 – less than half of Mears’ total. His largest donors include major Republican contributor Bob Penney and GCI leader Ron Duncan, as well as the Alaska Chamber and Republican energy-industry groups.
“That platitude: The first step in effective leadership is to show up,” Eischeid said. “I’ve been trying to show up. I think that makes me a better candidate.” Wright said he would start any effort to balance the budget with cuts. But he said he wants spending reductions that won’t hurt state services.He gave as an example eliminating unfilled state positions. This is similar to a position Gov. Mike Dunleavy took in 2018 when he talked about cuts that would close a budget gap. But the fact that there are unfilled positions is already accounted for in the budget, which means that there aren’t additional savings in that area.
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