Alaska Elections

The Haines Borough Assembly has an emergency meeting scheduled for Friday morning on the latest redistricting map.

The latest incarnation, revised for Southeast, would put Haines and Skagway in the same House district as the Mendenhall Valley.

Haines Assembly members are expected to decide whether the Borough should jump into the lawsuit objecting to the redistricting plan.

The Haines Assembly has already gone on record objecting to being in a Juneau district. They would prefer to remain in a Southeast rural House district with a sufficient population of Native voters to satisfy the federal voting rights act.

A new redistricting plan pits Juneau Rep. Cathy Munoz against Haines Rep. Bill Thomas, and separates downtown Juneau and Petersburg.

The Alaska Redistricting Board Monday adopted significant changes to Southeast’s political boundaries. Munoz’s current Mendenhall Valley district expands to Haines, Skagway, Gustavus and Funter Bay.

The board also redrew the Capital City’s other House district – represented by Beth Kerttula — to include downtown, Douglas Island, the airport and Fritz Cove Road. The redistricting board originally paired downtown Juneau with Petersburg.

The fishing town has argued that it doesn’t have enough in common with Juneau, which is more dependent on government and tourism.

Thomas says he can now make that argument.

“I don’t think we have much in common with Juneau, other than we’re all people, so I guess that’s one way to look at it. But if you look at just Haines, we’re again primarily a fishing town so I think that’s the same dilemma they have in Petersburg,” Thomas says.

Thomas currently represents what’s known as the Ice Worm district, comprised of Native villages and fishing communities all the way to Cordova.

Munoz and Thomas – both Republicans — have already filed to run for re-election — in districts that look far different than the latest proposal. They have until June first to decide if they will run against each other in the August Republican primary.

Munoz believes the redistricting board’s latest plan will be challenged by Alaska Native groups.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty in the plan because of the issue surrounding the Voting Rights Act and the elimination with this plan of the Native voting rights district. I’m not sure what, if anything, will change from this Option A that was adopted today and what might eventually come out of the Department of Justice ruling on this plan, but I do anticipate there will be challenge from Native organizations in our region,” Munoz says.

Hoonah and Angoon – previously in Thomas’ district — are now with Sitka, Petersburg and Wrangell as well as several small towns on Prince of Wales Island, and a number of other tiny communities, including Tenakee Springs, Elfin Cove and Pelican.

Under the latest plan, the southern Southeast district is Ketchikan, Saxman, Metlakatla, Craig, Klawock and Hydaburg.

The Redistricting Board redrew the Southeast boundaries to comply with an Alaska Supreme Court order that the map be based on state constitutional requirements. The new plan comes before the court on Tuesday for consideration.

Even if it’s approved by the state Supreme Court, it still must pass scrutiny by the U.S. Justice Department. The board’s attorney, Mike White, says that process could take 60 days.

Southeast Alaska lost population in the last census and the number of House districts in the region are shrinking from five to four.

The Juneau Canvas Board met today (Tuesday) and certified the results of last week’s municipal election.

City Clerk Laurie Sica says the board added nine absentee by mail ballots that came in over the weekend and were postmarked by the October 4th deadline.

Newly-elected Juneau Assembly members Randy Wanamaker, Jesse Kiehl and Carlton Smith will be sworn in next Monday at the assembly’s next regular meeting.

Sally Saddler and Sean O’Brien will be sworn in to the school board at its next meeting, currently scheduled for October 18th.

Carlton Smith has been elected to the Juneau Assembly.

The race for an area wide seat was the only one in doubt after this week’s local election. Tuesday night, Smith held a slim 53 vote lead over Loren Jones, with Geny Del Rosario in distant third place. After nearly 14-hundred absentee and questioned ballots were counted this morning (Friday), Smith had expanded that lead by 21 votes.

The final tally was Smith 2,777; Jones 2,703; and Del Rosario 946.

Smith says he’s ready to get to work. He says the assembly’s priorities will be balancing the budget and searching for a new city manager and finance director to replace Rod Swope and Craig Duncan – both of whom plan to retire in 2012.

“Both of them have timing issues connected with them,” says Smith. “The budget, of course, that shows a 7.3 million dollar deficit, that’s in front of the assembly right now. And as far as the search for both the finance officer and the manager, since those processes take several months, we’ve got to get going on that right away.”

Jones says he expected a close race. And while the result was disappointing, the first time candidate wouldn’t rule out another run for office.

“I might. This wasn’t that bad. But that’s down the road a ways, at least a year or two,” says Jones.

No other outcomes from the municipal election changed significantly with today’s count. The results will be certified on Tuesday. Smith and new assembly members Jesse Kiehl and Randy Wanamaker will be sworn in on Monday October 17th.

Voter turnout increased to 30.8 percent from 25 percent on Election Day.

Hoonah voters have elected Seferino “Nino” Villarreal to serve as mayor for the next three years. He was the top voter getter in Tuesday’s municipal election in a four-way race.

Here are the results of the election as provided by Hoonah City Clerk Alice Williams:

Mayor:
Seferino “Nino” Villarreal, 231 votes
D. Joyce Skaflestad, 62
Ed Phillips, 50
Warren Sean Sheakely, 7

City Council, the top two vote-getters each serve a three-year term:
Mary Erickson, 195 votes
Hope Anderson, 124
Harry Sharclane, 92
Royal Tanohill, Sr., 87

City Council, the top vote-getter serves a one-year term:
Chris Erickson, 141 votes
Johanna Dybdahl, 121
Alf Skaflestad, 71

Incumbents Robert Hutton and Sandy Howard were unopposed as they ran for another 3-year term on the School Board.

Richard Jennings was also unopposed for a one-year term.

Gordon Greenwald was also unopposed for a three-year term on the liquor board.

Hoonah City Clerk Alice Williams says 366 people turned out to vote Tuesday at City Hall, which she says is a “good” turnout. She recalls that the total number of registered voters as approximately 640, which would put the turnout of registered voters on Tuesday as well over 50-percent.

The Canvas Board was expected to meet Thursday afternoon to certify the election. Williams says newly elected officials will be sworn-in on Monday. The next City Council meeting is Tuesday evening.

Gustavus City officials say they’ll release the results of their municipal election after absentee and questioned are counted Friday evening.

Juneau election officials were to begin counting absentee and questioned ballots at city hall on Friday. Those ballots will be important in settling the race for the areawide Assembly seat. Carlton Smith leads Loren Jones by 53 votes.

A controversial proposal to allow CBJ officials to opt out of state financial reporting requirements resoundingly failed on a vote of 4,288 to 1,511.

Under Proposition 1, Juneau Assembly, School Board, and Planning Commission members as well as the city manager would have disclosed their income to the city instead of the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

State law requires municipal officials annually report all sources of income over one-thousand dollars; all gifts over 250 dollars; capital gains, real property, loans, contracts and leases. Disclosure also applies to each official’s spouse, domestic partner or dependent children.

The state allows municipalities and boroughs to opt out, as long as they craft a local financial reporting law and voters approve. More than 116 communities across the state have done that.

But Assembly members couldn’t convince Juneau voters to allow it.

Randy Wanamaker – who ran unopposed for a District 2 seat – says he’s not surprised.

“It was clear to me the public believed in the APOC process and thought that city step might be a weakening of disclosure,” says Wanamaker, who has served nine years on the assembly and filled out the forms every year.

“I can work with the APOC process and believe the public has a right to be able to trust in the integrity of their elected officials,” he says.

But a number of Assembly members, including Mayor Bruce Botelho, believe the more rigorous regulations have a chilling effect on potential candidates for city offices.

It’s a complicated issue and Botelho says he expected a decisive defeat.

“I’m disappointed because of my concern about losing good people who might otherwise run for office,” Botelho says. “But I think that’s the price one pays for requirements we have in place. People put a premium on disclosure and making sure there are not conflicts of interest.”

Under the proposed CBJ ordinance, officials would not have to report the amount and source of income over one-thousand dollars.

After three terms on the Assembly, outgoing member Merrill Sanford says he’s had no trouble with the state requirements, but also believes they deter good candidates.

“For me, it’s not a big thing because I don’t have a bunch of money and I’ve lived here all my life. But for a business man I would think that it would be a real pain in the rear end to do that every single year and disclose all those accounts that you have over a thousand dollars,” Sanford says. “That bothers me that we may be disenfranchising people who may want to run to not run.”

The Alaska Municipal League supported Juneau’s effort to opt out of the state disclosure law. AML says more individuals would run for local official or serve on boards, especially in small, rural Alaska communities.

Meanwhile, Juneau shoppers will not have to pay for the plastic bags they get at the store.

By more than two to one, voters yesterday rejected Proposition 5, which would have levied a 15-cent tax on plastic grocery bags at certain retailers.

The measure failed with 4,193 no votes, and just 1,850 votes in favor.

Organizers of the citizen’s initiative described it as a way to encourage people to bring reusable shopping bags, and pointed to pollution caused by plastics.

Opponents argued the fee unfairly targeted larger stores – those with annual average gross sales of 15-million dollars or more in the last five years. And most of the tax would be passed on to customers.

Though it failed, the proposed tax raised awareness of the problem of plastic pollution, says Assembly member-elect Jesse Kiehl.

“I think there’s a chance to work with some of the stores here in town and hopefully to try and change some of the culture, so that perhaps we can encourage people more to use reusable bags, and just cut down on the amount of plastic trash that we’re generating,” says Kiehl.

Assembly member Merrill Sanford wasn’t surprised the plastic bag tax failed. But he says the conversation should continue, because the public needs to be educated on the issue.

“I know you won’t get everybody that way and it’ll take a longer time,” Sanford says. “But I think that’s the way to do it, instead of making more regulations or more laws.”