Alaska Beacon

In southwestern Alaska, where there is a mix of tundra, mountains, forests and river-crossed terrain, there has been a rapid transformation in the wildlife.

In the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge specifically, the moose population has increased a whopping 400-fold since the early 1990s, from just a handful a few decades ago to about 2,000 animals now.

The reason appears clear: climate change. Milder winters and the proliferation of vegetation correlate directly with the moose population boom, according to ongoing research by Sebastian Zavoico, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The strongest part of the trend seems to be in river-crossed areas on the western side of the refuge, where woody shrubs have spread into areas that used to be more tundra-dominated, said Zavoico, who has used mathematical analysis to compare climate and vegetation changes with moose population changes.

The Togiak moose changes are part of a global pattern, Zavoico said. “We know that species are shifting their distribution all over the world,” he said. “It definitely fits the mold, that’s for sure.”

‘Tundra Be Dammed’

In Alaska, the shifting populations include moose and snowshoe hares moving farther north onto territory that used to be strictly tundra but now has woody plants, such as the North Slope. It also includes beavers, which have become fixtures in some Arctic areas where they were rare only a few decades ago. Beavers not only take advantage of the new shrubby conditions but, through engineering their dams and lodges, are hastening permafrost thaw and other ecological changes, as described in a UAF-led study appropriately titled: “Tundra Be Dammed: Beaver Colonization of the Arctic.”

While the changes have been good for some species, including moose in the Togiak refuge, they mean trouble for others. Among the highest-profile losers in the transformation are caribou, which depend on tundra vegetation like lichen and moss.

Scientists working in western Greenland, for example, found a “trophic mismatch” that is bad for caribou calf survival. The plants are emerging earlier, thanks to warming temperatures, but the daylight-regulated calving season has not changed accordingly, meaning the animals are missing out on the most nutritious greenery when they need it most, the scientists found.

As in some other regions, the caribou and moose trends have gone in opposite directions around the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. The region’s Mulchatna Caribou Herd, which numbered about 200,000 animals in the late 1990s, is now down to about 12,850, said Andy Aderman, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist working at the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. The low population count triggered an emergency hunting closure last year.

Hunting changes

For people who have traditionally relied on caribou meat, a shift to moose hunting is logical, Aderman said. “The need doesn’t go away,” he said.

In sharp contrast to the situation with caribou, moose-hunting seasons in the area are liberal, appropriate to the science about moose populations. There is even a concern about the moose population getting too big too quickly, devouring the plants and overwhelming the region’s carrying capacity. “Something we’d like to not see is starving moose,” Aderman said.

Around Alaska and the wider Arctic, the rapidly changing climate has sometimes created mismatches with hunting and fishing seasons. Sometimes the regulatory calendar, which can be difficult to adjust, misses the altered arrival of the fish and game the hunting and fishing rules target. Sometimes the designated seasons no longer match conditions for safe travel over the tundra, snow or ice.  Sometimes, hunting practices adjust.

In Kotzebue, for example, subsistence hunters are coping with a compressed season for their spring hunts of bearded seals. The ice floes that the seals rest on melt away earlier, so hunters make more frequent boat trips over a shorter time period, a change detailed in recently published research.

While seal-hunting success rates have been maintained, local people are having less success with the beavers that have proliferated in the Kotzebue region, said Alex Whiting, environmental specialist for the Native Village of Kotzebue.

Overall, beaver trapping is a lot of work for little reward, as “the fleshing and putting up of beaver is the most labor intensive of all the fur, especially for novices,” Whiting said by email, referring to the region’s fur-bearing animals.

Fur prices are low in the commercial markets, and fur from animals like sea otters is generally preferred, Whiting said by email. Harvesting beavers “is more complicated trapping than most, because most of the sign is underwater and the trap sites are covered in ice and snow,” he said, and working on the ice can be unsafe.

Around the Togiak refuge, the switch from caribou to moose hunting hasn’t always been easy, either. “I think some people prefer caribou over moose for flavor,” Aderman said. A single moose generally weighs about 120 pounds more than a single caribou, meaning some logistical challenges for hunters, he added. “One person can usually handle a caribou by themself,” he said.

Both people and bears adjust

While people are adjusting, so apparently are bears. They are famously reliant on the region’s rich salmon runs, but they are also learning to prey on the young moose calves available each spring.

Aderman said he has even seen bears lying in wait nearby when pregnant cow moose are bedded down and preparing to give birth.

In recent years, Zavoico said, the region’s staggeringly high rate of calf survival has dipped, potentially a sign of bear predation. “It seems like the story that I’ve heard is the bears are starting to take advantage of this new resource that they’ve never had before,” he said.

The only oil company that bid in last year’s controversial Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lease sale has dropped the sole tract acquired in that auction.

Regenerate Alaska, a unit of Australia-based 88 Energy Ltd., relinquished the tract it acquired for over $770,000, federal officials said.

The tract was the narrowest of the 22 offered in the lease sale. It is located on the northwestern edge of the refuge coastal plain. It borders an 88 Energy prospect on state land called Yukon, which itself borders the Point Thomson unit that has been producing natural gas condensate since 2016. On its website, 88 Energy said the acquisition of the ANWR lease “increased our position” at the Yukon prospect, but that any further development would depend on working jointly with other companies that hold leases and possibly farming out the work to others.

The Interior Department confirmed the cancellation and refund.

“Regenerate Alaska, Inc (RAI) purchased a 23,446-acre lease in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on January 6, 2021, as part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain lease sale,” Interior said in an emailed statement. “RAI requested to have the lease rescinded and its bonus bid and lease rental payments refunded. The Bureau of Land Management has a well-established procedure to do this, and last month rescinded and cancelled the lease, as requested.”

The Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management offered leases covering about 1.1 million acres in the Jan. 6, 2021, lease sale. Thirteen bids were received and ultimately nine leases were issued.

Of all the tracts offered, the Regenerate Alaska-acquired tract was the one for which development was the most economically feasible, according to an analysis conducted last year by the World Wildlife Fund of the United States. The analysis found that it would break even at an oil price of $62.50 a barrel in 2021 dollars compared to other tracts’ break-even prices that ranged up to $83.60. However, no production could start until around 2040, and none of the tracts were found to be economically feasible, according to the analysis.

The Regenerate Alaska-acquired tract was also on land where the state disputes federal ownership. The state has claimed it owns that slice of land next to the Canning River. The state is appealing a 2020 Interior Board of Land Appeals decision rejecting the claim.

Regenerate Alaska’s exit leaves just the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and an Anchorage real estate investor, Knik Arm Services, as the only ANWR leaseholders. AIDEA, a state-owned economic development corporation, has seven leases and Knik Arm Services has a single lease.

Environmentalists said the Regenerate Alaska move, following industry disinterest in the lease sale, shows the futility of attempts to drill in the refuge.

“Last year’s lease sale—which was hurriedly held just weeks before President Biden was inaugurated–was a dismal failure for Donald Trump’s Interior Department when no major oil companies submitted bids because they know the public opposes drilling in the refuge and leases there are a terrible investment,” Karlin Itchoak, Alaska state director of The Wilderness Society, said in a statement. “Only the state of Alaska, which acquired most of the leases through the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, is still clinging to outdated thinking.”

Last year, Chevron and Hilcorp Energy Co., the successor company to BP Alaska, gave up their claims to leases held on Native land within the refuge boundaries, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Chevron and BP had drilled a well there in the late 1980s, called the KIC-1 well after the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp., but the site was never developed. Chevron and Hilcorp paid the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. a $10 million “breakage fee” to cancel the leases, as reported in a footnote in ASRC’s 2021 annual report.

“While it is disappointing that the leases were relinquished, ASRC remains supportive of other future opportunities for development in ANWR,” the annual report’s footnote said.

The oil companies’ lease relinquishments do not change AIDEA’s plans to develop its seven ANWR leases, the head of that organization said  Thursday.

“We are still actively pursuing pre-development planning and permitting for seismic surveys. While allowed under the leasing program approved by Congress, federal agencies have been actively delaying permitting and access,” Alan Weitzner, AIDEA’s executive director, said by email. “While these investors in Alaska could be creating jobs and opportunity here in the state, they are unfortunately being persuaded by these federal agencies to look outside the US.

The field of candidates in Alaska’s Aug. 16 primary became clearer on Wednesday, the filing deadline.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich announced he wouldn’t run for re-election. His aide Löki Tobin is running instead. Begich’s announcement follows Republican Senate President Peter Micciche’s announcement that he wasn’t running, so both Senate caucuses will have new top leaders next year.

The Senate races that featured prominent candidates from both parties included the East Anchorage seat currently held by Republican Sen. Mia Costello, who faces Democratic Rep. Matt Claman. And in Fairbanks, Democratic Sen. Scott Kawasaki faces a challenge from Republican Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly.

Other Senate races will largely be fought within a party, such as an Eagle River Senate race that includes only four Republicans and an Anchorage Senate race for a heavily Democratic seat that includes three Democrats and one Republican.

Juneau Democratic Sen. Jesse Kiehl was the only senator without an opponent. Golovin Democratic Sen. Donny Olson is the only legislator who doesn’t have to run for re-election due to redistricting. The Senate currently has 13 Republicans and seven Democrats.

In the House, there were multiple candidates in 34 of the 40 races. The House currently has 21 Republicans, 15 Democrats and four independents, but two of the Republicans caucus with the Democrats and independents. When the caucus formed, House Speaker Louise Stutes, a Kodiak Republican, cited majority caucus support for programs that benefit her constituents, as well as the unwillingness of some Republicans to compromise, while Eagle River Rep. Kelly Merrick cited the inability of the House to organize and the need to work across party lines in a closely divided chamber.

Unlike in previous years, the limited number of candidates in legislative races means that the primary will not narrow the field, except in the case of one Alaska House race.

There will be many races in which more than one candidate from one party will advance to the general election. There are eight Senate races with multiple Republican candidates and one Senate race with multiple Democratic candidates, as well as 19 House races with multiple Republicans and five House races with multiple Democrats.

In the past, only one candidate from each party would have advanced from the primary election into the general election. But a new election system is in effect this year as a result of Ballot Measure 2 passing in 2020. Under the new system, the top four candidates in each primary race, regardless of party, advance to the general election, in which voters will rank their choices.

House District 35, which includes Chena Ridge and other areas near Fairbanks, is the only race with more than four candidates, with five people running. If they all remain in the race, one candidate will be eliminated in the primary election.

Since the other 58 legislative races have no more than four candidates, everyone on the primary ballot in those races will appear on the ranked-choice general election ballot, unless they withdraw. Supporters of the system say it means that a limited number of primary voters will no longer determine the outcome of elections.

In the primary election, voters will choose one candidate in each race. In the general election in November, they will rank the top four candidates. The outcome will be determined by the candidate preferred by most voters, or the candidate with the most votes once all of the trailing candidates have been eliminated.

There are 10 candidates for governor: Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Democrat Les Gara, Republican David Haeg, Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe, Republican state Rep. Christopher Kurka, independent candidate William Nemec II, Republican Charlie Pierce, Libertarian Billy Toien, Republican Bruce Walden and independent Bill Walker.

There are 20 candidates for U.S. Senate, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Republican Party-endorsed challenger Kelly Tshibaka.

The U.S. House race drew 31 candidates, 24 of whom also are among the 48 candidates in the special primary election on June 11.

Candidates have until June 25 to withdraw from the primary.

A new totem pole in Juneau is 22 feet tall, almost 4 feet wide at the base and about 7 to 8 feet wide where Raven and Eagle are. You have to walk around it completely to see all of the elements. Unlike most poles that are carved on one side, the Sealaska Cultural Values totem pole is carved all the way around, a full 360 degrees. According to Sealaska Heritage Institute, there are only three others like it, all in Canada. Now, there’s one in Alaska.

“It’s the fourth one that I know of on the whole Northwest Coast. They’re pretty rare, done within decades of each other. It was the biggest challenge of our career. There’s just so much that goes into the actual carving, the moving, the rolling back and forth. It was a lot more work than I anticipated,” Haida artist Sgwaayaans (TJ Young) said during an interview on Friday.

He and his brother Gidaawaan (Joe Young) carved the Sealaska Cultural Values pole, which was erected May 26, at the entrance of the plaza at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s arts campus in the middle of Downtown Juneau.

It’s made from a red cedar tree that Sgwaayaans estimates was 600 years old. “We counted the rings,” he said. “We had someone sit there and count the rings and use a tack; every 10 years you put a tack. This one was around 600 years old.”

The log from Prince of Wales Island was wide, straight, and had no knots for the first 20 feet; knots can slow the carving process down. “It was a beautiful log. We kind of got spoiled on that one because not all logs are like that,” Sgwaayaans said.

Originally from Hydaburg and now living in Anchorage, Sgwaayaans has been carving for more than 20 years. In that time, he and his brother have carved 15 to 20 full-size totem poles. Most take about three to four months. The Sealaska Cultural Values Pole took close to nine months. With design and all the other work, the project was about a year and a half in the making. When the pole was erected and put together on Thursday, Sgwaayaans felt tremendous relief. “We were able to exhale,” he said.

The idea to make a 360-degree totem pole came from Sealaska Heritage Institute. “When we looked at where we were going to put it, it became really clear that there was no front and no back,” Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl said.

No matter where a person stood, Worl didn’t want anyone to see the back of the pole.

“The only logical thing that we could do was to have it carved all the way around. At that time, I didn’t even know how rare it was. It’s a whole different ballgame for us.”

Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian unity

The Sealaska Cultural Values totem pole is different in other ways as well. It represents all three tribes of Southeast Alaska — Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian — and depicts Sealaska’s core cultural values. The values run across all three groups and “contributed to our survival as Native people,” Worl said.

In the Lingít language, those values are Haa Latseení, which stands for “Our Strength: Strength of Body, Mind, and Spirit;” Haa Aaní, “Our Land: Honoring & Utilizing our Land;” Haa Shuká, “Past, Present, and Future Generations: Honoring our Ancestors and Future Generations;” and Wooch Yáx, which means, “Balance: Social and Spiritual Balance.”

“Even though we are three separate tribes and we speak different languages, we have a common culture. And I keep saying that our cultural similarities are greater than our differences, and that’s because of the wide interaction that we had among our groups,” Worl said.

The three figures at the top of the pole represent the Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian, and the face of each was carved by a different carver. Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley carved the Tsimshian face, Lingít artist Rob Mills carved the Lingít face, and Sgwaayaans carved the Haida face.

Sgwaayaans wants to see more collaboration among Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian carvers in the future. That’ll help sustain the art and get younger people interested.

“There aren’t as many carvers as there were 100 years ago. That master [artist] apprenticeship got broken somewhere down the line in the early 1900s. Those were kind of the dark ages where everything was getting dismantled. Our culture, the language, the art, the dancing – it was forbidden. And we’re trying to get back to that old master standard as far as the art goes,” Sgwaayaans said.

Sgwaayaans previously spent four years as apprentice under master artist Robert Davidson, who Sgwaayaans consulted with throughout the process of making the pole. And Sgwaayaans and his brother had two apprentices for the Cultural Values pole — Greg Frisby and Andrea Cook, who are both Haida.

The art, he said, is “so beautiful. It’s worth preserving, it’s worth saving, and that’s kind of our mission.”

Atnané Hít: House of Art

Sgwaayaans and his brother did most of the carving in Hydaburg before the pole was moved to Juneau in late January. The final three months of carving was done at the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus. It was the first work done in the new building, which is named Atnané Hít: House of art.

The campus, which encompasses approximately 6,000 square feet, houses indoor and outdoor space for artists to make Northwest Coast art pieces, such as totem poles and canoes; classrooms for art programming and instruction in areas such as basketry, textiles and print making; an art library; and space for artists-in-residence and faculty. The covered outdoor area will be used for performances, art markets and public gatherings.

Sealaska Heritage Institute will hold a grand opening for the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus on June 8 at noon in the plaza, during its biennial dance-and-culture festival Celebration. The grand opening will include dedications for the new building and the totem pole.

The arts campus is phase two of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital; the construction of the adjacent Walter Soboleff Building in 2015 was phase one. Phase three will be Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) along the downtown Juneau waterfront. Sealaska Heritage has secured funding for 10 totem poles — Sgwaayaans and his brother will be carving two of them.

“I would be no more prouder in my life than to have an Alaska Native be the U.S. Congressman,” the late Alaska Rep. Don Young said at the 2011 Alaska Federation of Natives convention in reference to who might replace him, according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News at that time. Of the 48 candidates vying to temporarily represent Alaska, at least four are Alaska Native – Laurel Foster, Emil Notti, Mary Peltola and Tara Sweeney. All were invited to Thursday’s virtual Meet the Candidates Native Issues Forum hosted by Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, known as Tlingit and Haida.

While Tlingit and Haida is not advocating for any particular candidate, President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson encourages people to vote for an Alaska Native candidate.

“Alaska, population-wise, is one of the smallest states. Yet, of the 574 federally recognized Alaska Native and Native American tribes, 229 of them are here,” Peterson said on the phone prior to the forum. “With ANCSA and all of the corporations, land, resource extraction, energy, military safety — a lot of it depends on Alaska Native lands and resources. So, we want somebody there who has familiarity, who understands the complexities of Alaska.”

The forum was “intended to engage our tribal citizens in voter participation in the upcoming special election,” said Tlingit and Haida First Vice President Jackie Pata, who moderated the forum. The candidates who were present had the opportunity to answer every question. The viewer count for the Facebook Live event hovered at around 110.

The candidates

Former state Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, was only there for introductions before boarding a plane in Bethel headed to Anchorage and then Juneau. “We all, as Alaskans, know how travel goes,” she said. Peltola is Yup’ik from Bethel. She spent the few minutes she had talking about land issues, including Alaska Native people in five communities in Southeast Alaska that did not receive title to land through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

“I am in strong support of the landless tribes in Southeast. That’s been an ongoing issue for too many generations. And I’m thankful that Don Young was a champion of making sure that the landless tribes were allocated the few acres. Considering how big the Tongass is, we’re really talking about not very many acres for the original people from those communities,” she said.

Peltola said she supports lands into trust, is an advocate for subsistence, and a proponent of sovereignty. “I think we, as Native organizations and Native people, have the agency to take care of ourselves,” she said.

Placing tribal land into trust is a process that allows the federal government to acquire titles to property and hold it for the benefit of tribes. How the law governing land into trust applies to Alaska has been the source of conflicting U.S. Department of Interior opinions.

When asked why each candidate was running for U.S. Congress, nonpartisan Laurel Foster said she knows what it’s like to live in rural and urban Alaska, “and understand that they are completely different ways of living. And it’s important that our representatives are aware of that, and that our representatives and our leadership reflect the diversity within our state.” Foster is Cupik from Bethel, now living in Anchorage where she’s a senior paralegal at the Alaska Native Justice Center. Some issues she cares about are public safety within rural communities, access to fair and equitable healthcare and climate change. Foster highlighted the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People initiative – “My brother’s still a missing person. It’ll be 20 years, so that’s an issue that is close to my heart.”

Former Assistant Secretary of the Interior Tara Sweeney called herself “a Ted Stevens and Don Young Republican where I’m looking to meet Alaskans where they’re at and to embody their leadership styles of bringing people together. But when we need to, know how to fight, certainly know how to advocate.” Her campaign is focused on fostering a robust economy, through private sector growth, a strong labor force and healthy communities. “And so for 50 years, Don Young fought for this state tirelessly and I would like to continue that legacy.” Sweeney is Iñupiaq from rural Alaska currently living in Girdwood.

Nonpartisan Emil Notti, founder and the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, is against big money in politics and wants to draw attention to the environment. He wants to finish working on something he started 50 years ago “and that’s getting the land that villages didn’t get. Land claims are not done until we finish that.” Notti was a key participant in the negotiations that culminated in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Emil Notti is Koyukon Athabascan, born on the Yukon River. If elected the lone Alaska Representative, he said he’ll focus on relationship building, “Everything depends on your personal relationships, whether you can convince people that you have a worthwhile cause or not.”

Land into trust and climate change

Regarding land into trust for Alaska, Sweeney said she supports it and there’s a need for an Alaska-specific solution. “While this is sitting within the Department of the Interior right now, the role of Congress is to provide some clarity into the process,” she said. “What we’re seeing with land into trust in Alaska is that there has been a back and forth across five administrations that is focused on the underlining of whether or not the law permits Alaska land into trust and so if tribes in Alaska are striving for sovereignty and land into trust is a tool, then that’s a conversation worth having.”

Notti said village lands should go into trust. “If you lose the village lands, you’re going to lose your identity,” he said. “I think the regional corporations should put their muscle and technical ability behind getting land into trust for villages. I’m not worried about the regional corporations. They have plenty of lawyers and money and political push to defend themselves. But the village land, I think, is absolutely critical.”

Foster said land into trust can create different opportunities for tribal entities within Alaska. “It can expand jurisdictional boundaries for tribes and also expand the potential to negotiate use and sale of natural resources. If a tribe decides or believes that this would be beneficial to them and their people, I would support it as an option.”

On the candidates’ policy priorities to address climate change, Notti said, “First thing we have to do is get off of coal and oil for energy. We need to go to renewable energies. And the federal government would play a big role in that to encourage and build the infrastructure to do that.”

Foster cautioned against relying solely on renewable energy sources. “When you actually look into the production of renewable energy generation, they have their own negative impacts on the climate as well,” she said. “So I think balance between [fuel and coal, and renewable energy sources] is important.” Foster also emphasized the important role of individuals and communities in reducing the carbon footprint.

Sweeney added, “Working with the businesses inside of Alaska to voluntarily partner to reduce their carbon footprint is an option.” Regarding ocean acidification, she said a science-based approach is needed “and I would support authorization and appropriations of funds to continue the research and the mitigation practices with our local communities.”

The Tlingit and Haida candidate forum lasted about 50 minutes, ending with a recap of the special election important dates and process. June 11 is the last day to mail in your ballot. “Vote before Celebration because after you’ll be too tired to mail that envelope,” Pata said laughing. Celebration, the biennial festival of Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures, is happening in Juneau June 8-11.

James Brooks contributed to this report.

Months before Alaska’s state elections, the Legislature is set for major turnover.

At least 17 of the Legislature’s 60 members will be in a new position or out of office entirely by next January — and that doesn’t count anyone who loses their seat this fall. 

The deadline to file for this year’s legislative elections is June 1, but many candidates have already made up their minds.

Because a steep learning curve awaits new legislators, several departing incumbents said the turnover will slow the progress of complicated legislation, such as a long-awaited state fiscal plan.  

“We’re continuing to lose experience, and I think that’s extremely harmful for our state and the Legislature,” said Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage. “I find one of the big challenges is just getting everyone on the same page, as far as basic facts about the budget, how the legislative process works, and we’re gonna have to start at ground zero for a lot of new folks.”

Others said the turnover may result in changes in leadership of the state House and Senate, including the possibility of a Republican-controlled House or a coalition-controlled Senate.

By the end of the day Friday, 10 incumbents had declared that they will not seek reelection. 

Another five members of the House are running for Senate or governor, and at least one more is considering a similar jump. Redistricting will claim another two House incumbents.

Change in the Senate

In the 20-person Senate, four legislators aren’t running for reelection, including Senate President Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna. The others are Sens. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River; Josh Revak, R-Anchorage; and Natasha von Imhof, R-Anchorage.

“It’s incredibly unusual. In my lifetime in the Senate, I don’t remember that many incumbents retiring,” said former Senate President Cathy Giessel. She spent 10 years in the Senate before losing in the 2020 Republican primary. She is now running again.

“That’s some big turnover in the Senate,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who is seeking reelection. 

Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, decided against running for reelection in order to address an unspecified family issue.

“There is a lot of turnover this year. I think that legislative years are like dog years in some respects,” Spohnholz said, referring to the demands they place on individual lawmakers.

Over the past two years, lawmakers were in session at the Capitol for 338 days, more than any other two-year term in state history. 

Some of the departing legislators described days away from their families, deeply polarized political arguments and the financial strain that comes from having to maintain two households.

“I think some of the people that have been there have either felt that they can’t get things done, or their personal life is calling them back for whatever reason, whether that’s personal, financial or the other challenges of dedicating your life to public service,” said Rep. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, who is now running for state Senate. 

‘Difficult work environment’

Schrage attributed the turnover to “a difficult work environment,” which includes the stress of COVID, legislators separated from their families by long sessions, “and I think it’s also a result of the fact that, frankly, you have to make a huge financial sacrifice to serve in the Legislature.”

“It’s really difficult for a lot of people, and I’m just not surprised to see the level of turnover that we’re seeing,” he said.

Rep. Sara Rasmussen, R-Anchorage, isn’t seeking reelection. She described being away from her young children, including her son, who began kindergarten this year.

She said redistricting also played a factor.

“The composition of the district I’m in is significantly more challenging for a Republican to win,” Rasmussen said.

Long House list

In the state House, the departing incumbents include Reps. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka; Kaufman; Rasmussen; Spohnholz; Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage; Ken McCarty, R-Eagle River; Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River; Christopher Kurka, R-Wasilla; Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks; Adam Wool, D-Fairbanks; and Tiffany Zulkosky, D-Bethel.

Kaufman, Tarr, McCarty and Merrick are seeking seats in the Senate. Kurka is running for governor. Wool is running for U.S. House. 

Redistricting has placed Anchorage Democratic Reps. Chris Tuck and Andy Josephson in the same district. Josephson has filed for reelection; Tuck had not by Friday evening. 

Elsewhere in Anchorage, Democratic Reps. Zack Fields and Harriet Drummond are now in the same district. Fields has filed for reelection and Drummond had not through Friday. 

Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, said he is considering a run for state Senate against Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, but hasn’t yet decided. 

Though most lawmakers said the expected turnover will make work more difficult next year, Micciche both downplayed the size of the change and its effects.

“I don’t think it’s anything new,” he said. “There are transitions to every political body, periodically.”

“The dynamics will change, and that change may be positive. I don’t see that as a negative thing. I don’t have a fear of who replaces us. … That change in dynamics may be what it takes to get some of these longstanding issues, statutory improvements, that are much needed. I think groups kind of dig into their positions, and new faces may be the catalyst that shakes things loose on some very positive forward motion for the state,” he said.