Western

ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s rural communities are set to receive $27 million in federal funds to help improve sanitation.

KTUU-TV reports that the funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program announced Tuesday will support water, sewer and solid waste projects. The money will also be used to improve technical assistance and training, preliminary engineering and planning and solid waste management.

The village of Eek in southwestern Alaska will receive $5.9 million for a water and sewer project. Western Alaska’s Unalakleet is getting $6.6 million for a water source and transmission project, while Saxman, in southeast Alaska, has been awarded $3.2 million to improve its wastewater system.

Officials say the state is required to match one-third of the $27 million awarded by the federal government.

Alaska State Troopers say all five people aboard two small planes died in a midair collision in the western part of the state.

Troopers say the crash occurred northwest of the village of Russian Mission. Troopers say responders at the scene have confirmed there were no survivors on either of the planes.

Alaska National Guard officials say the collision occurred just before 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Officials say the planes involved in the crash are a Hageland Aviation Cessna 208 Caravan carrying three people and a Renfro’s Alaskan Adventures Piper PA-18 super cub with two people aboard.

Representatives of Hageland, which is operated by Ravn, Alaska, did not immediately respond with comment. A Renfro employee said the company was not immediately releasing information.

The deadline to file as a candidate for the Bethel City Council election is this noon Monday, Aug. 22.

Three council seats sit open, and so far only one person has filed for candidacy: Mary Weiss, who already serves on council after taking Chuck Herman’s spot following his resignation earlier this year.

Council members serve two-year terms.

Byron Maczynski and Zach Fansler’s terms are ending this year, and neither of them have filed for re-election.
Fansler won the House District 38 Democratic Primary on Tuesday, and with no competitor, he’s expected to win the general election.

Bethel City Council elections are October 4.

Alaskans ejected as many as five incumbents from the House in the primary Tuesday. And they also rejected two House members who tried to move up to the Senate.

But not many people showed up to vote: It was the lowest turnout for a primary in state history.

Three Republican incumbents and two Democrats who caucused with the Republicans trailed their opponents in a primary that drew only 15 percent of voters, not counting outstanding absentee ballots.

House Majority Leader Charisse Millett attributed both incumbents’ headwind and the lowest-ever turnout to the same factor – low oil prices that have hurt Alaska’s economy and the state budget.

“When you are in a deficit, I think … it’s depressing,” Millett said. “People want  to get and vote for, you know, candidates that are upbeat, and it’s hard to be upbeat in this environment.”

A lack of highly competitive statewide races also contributed to the low turnout.

Millett, who was unopposed, said it was a tough year to run for re-election.

“People are looking for someone to blame for the falling oil prices and … a sitting legislator is an easy target,” Millett said.

It’s not yet clear how the primary will affect the balance of power in the Legislature.

If the current totals hold up and Republicans continue to hold the majority, then they will have to do so with two fewer Democrats joining them — Bob Herron of Bethel was defeated by Zach Fansler, and Benjamin Nageak of Barrow trails Dean Westlake of Kotzebue (by five votes).

Casey Reynolds, who edits the political blog The Midnight Sun, said this year’s special sessions kept incumbents in Juneau and away from their districts. With the apparent losses of Herron and Nageak, he sees the chances of a bipartisan coalition increasing.

“A bipartisan organization is more likely today than it was before the election,” Reynolds said. “And the general election is going to be very important. It’s really going to be the deciding factor on this one.”

One Republican who showed a willingness to cross party lines lost.

George Rauscher defeated Republican Rep. Jim Colver in a district that sprawls from Valdez through parts of Palmer to Big Delta.

Business groups targeted Colver after he voted to reduce oil and gas tax credits.

Other incumbents who lost include Wes Keller of Wasilla, defeated by David Eastman, and Bob Lynn of Anchorage, defeated by Chris Birch.

Rauscher had said Colver was likely to join a bipartisan coalition with Democrats, though similar comments aimed at other candidates didn’t succeed.

In Palmer, Richard Best lost after making a similar charge against DeLena Johnson. And Homer incumbent Paul Seaton won, despite, he said, being subjected to disturbing and unfounded charges..

“It was the most negative campaign I’ve ever seen on the lower peninsula,” Seaton said.

State Republican Party spokeswoman Suzanne Downing said the party has room for improvement in turning out voters in the November general election.

“Every single district could improve their voter turnout, and I think as a party we’re going to work a lot harder on that for the general,” Seaton said.

The only legislator who isn’t a member of either caucus – Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbold – was re-elected. The Republican caucus expelled her in 2015 after she refused to support a caucus-backed budget. She says she wants to rejoin the caucus and work with them to set their principles for the next term.

“And alls I’m asking is that we stick with those principles,” Reinbold said. “And that’s why it’s really important, the team that we send down there. And we’re just hoping that we’re lock-in-step and stay under the umbrella of our principles.”

While most competitive races were in the House, the state’s most expensive race was in an Anchorage Senate district, where Natasha Von Imhof defeated Rep. Craig Johnson and Jeff Landfield.

Another representative, Lynn Gattis of Wasilla, was defeated by David Wilson in her attempt to move up to the Senate. Rep. Shelley Hughes succeeded in winning the Republican nomination to succeed Sen. Bill Stoltze.

Tom Begich defeated Ed Wesley to be the Democratic nominee to succeed Sen. Johnny Ellis in his Anchorage district. Forrest McDonald defated Roselynn Cacy for the Democratic nomination to face Von Imhof.

In the House, Jennifer Johnston defeated Ross Bieling, who ran the best-funded House primary campaign, to be the Republican nominee to succeed Rep. Mike Hawker in Anchorage. Gary Knopp defeated three opponents to be the Republican nominee to succeed Rep. Kurt Olson in the Kenai Peninsula. And Don Hadley deated Lisa Vaught to be the Republican nominee to face Democratic Rep. Ivy Spohnholz in Anchorage. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard will be the Republican nominee to succeed Gattis in Wasilla. And incumbent Republican Representatives Dan Saddler, Liz Vazquez, Lance Pruitt, David Talerico and Mark Neuman defeated challengers.

The state Division of Elections still has to count absentee and questioned votes, and the results will remain unofficial until they’re certified in early September.

Anne Hillman of Alaska Public Media and Shahla Farzan of KBBI contributed to this report.

A hunting trip near pilot station went awry earlier this week resulting in the drowning of a resident of Pitkas Point.

Late Monday night, Alaska State Troopers from Emmonak investigated a boating accident in a creek near Pilot Station. Derek Sipary, Noel Tinker, and Thaddeus Riley were on a moose hunting trip when their boat struck a submerged log, causing them to be thrown from the boat.

All three Pitkas Point locals swam for something stable, but Riley, 25, was taken underwater by the current and did not surface. Sipary, 20, and Tinker, 24, were located safely by search operations and brought back to Pitkas Point without injuries.

Riley was found Tuesday afternoon without a life jacket, and his remains were released to his next of kin.

A funeral service will be held for Riley at St. Mary’s school gymnasium on at 2 p.m. August 12th.

If you had to put the two Bethel House candidates somewhere on the political spectrum, they’d both be Democrats. But, maybe with a lowercase “d.”

Each accuses the other of not being Democratic enough.

House District 38 has one of the highest population of voters registered as Democrat. The district encompasses Bethel, the lower Kuskokwim River and several coastal villages.

With no Republican challenger, the race will be decided in the Aug. 16 primary.

Incumbent Bob Herron is running for his fifth term in the legislature. He said he’s been registered as a Democrat since the 1970s, but he votes with the Republican-controlled majority in the House. He’s even joined the Republican leadership team.

Party affiliation doesn’t mean as much in rural parts of the state as it does in urban areas, Herron said.

“When you live in Western Alaska, people vote for the person, not necessarily the party,” he said.

But, his party has had enough.

Democrats are hoping to build a bipartisan coalition in the House, and they see District 38 as key to that effort.

In an unusual move, state Democrats have thrown their support behind a challenger, Zach Fansler, who wasn’t previously registered as a Democrat. Fansler changed his party affiliation the day he filed to be a candidate.

He was either non-partisan or undeclared, though he said he doesn’t remember which.

Fansler’s liberal values align with the Democratic platform — and better reflect the district, he said.

“I’ve always been the person that has been kind of independent,” he said. “It always worried me when we see the exact situation that’s played out. You join a caucus and all of the sudden you are forced to do what they want you to do.”

The district includes more than 30 far-flung communities, from Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea to Russian Mission on the Yukon River and the regional hub, Bethel.

The district has some major challenges.

It’s among the poorest in the state and its schools are some of the lowest performing on the state’s annual exams.

For example, fewer than 10 percent of the Lower Kuskokwim School District students meet state standards for reading and math, according to the state department of education and early development.

In the Bethel census area nearly a quarter of the population lives in poverty, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Herron has a long history in the region. A former Marine, he served as Bethel’s city manager and was a legislative aide for more than a decade.  He also owned Bethel Cablevision and currently owns Golden Eagle LLC, a school bus transportation company.

The best way to represent the district is to join the Majority, Herron said.

“Historically, rural legislators joined whatever majority is, Democratic-led or Republican-led. By joining it you have a better chance of protecting your constituents,” Herron said.

Communities in Herron’s district have seen more than $600 million in capital project funds during his time as a legislator, he said. Programs like power cost equalization would have been harder to defend outside of the majority.

Herron has put the caucus above his district, Fansler said. As a member of the Majority, Herron is  required to  vote with House leadership on the budget, which means opposing amendments from Democrats to restore funding to programs that could benefit his district.

Fansler is a math teacher at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, an attorney and a former race manager for the Kuskokwim300 sled dog race. He’s currently a city council member in Bethel and works as the development director at Bethel’s public radio station, KYUK.

If elected, Fansler said, then he’ll vote differently, particularly when it comes to what gets cut during tough fiscal times.

“One, I won’t be in the Republican majority,” he said. “So, anytime there’s an amendment that comes forward that said ‘hey, let’s restore funding to Head Start.’ My vote would be yes, let’s do that. Not no, which is what the incumbent did. If there’s a restoration of funding to VPSO programs or to Trooper dispatches, my vote’s going to be yes, not no.”

Fansler will vote to keep money in the state’s revenue sharing program, which helps communities fund basic services, he said.

“If there’s a vote to have other revenue streams. My vote’s going to be yes, not no. Conversely, when it comes to oil tax credits, I’m not going to vote no time and time and time again to rolling those back,” he said.

Fansler is targeting one vote in particular: Herron supported the Legislature’s lawsuit challenging Gov. Bill Walker’s decision to expand Medicaid, which offers health insurance to low income Alaskans.

That vote wasn’t about rejecting the expansion, Herron said. It was about what he considers an overreach of the governor’s power.

The two candidates do agree on some things.

Both say Walker’s budget veto that capped Permanent Fund Dividend checks at $1,000 this year will have a disproportionate impact on the state’s rural residents.

Both are opposed to a statewide sales tax, but say an income tax would spread the burden of paying for state government more evenly.