4 Special Coverage

A local election shake-up continues as longtime Juneau school board member Emil Mackey says he has decided not to run for reelection after a nine-year tenure. 

Mackey said he changed his mind on running just this week.

“I’ve spent three terms on the board, including a consolidation process that was extremely taxing, emotionally and time-wise,” he said. “I think it’s time for somebody else to join the board, because I am just exhausted.”

His announcement comes just after board President Deedie Sorensen told KTOO on Thursday that she also is not running for reelection and will retire when her term ends this fall.

That means two full-term school board seats are open without incumbents for this fall’s municipal election. There’s also a chance to serve a partial term following former school board member Will Muldoon’s resignation this spring. 

The last chance to file for an open seat on the school board or Assembly is Monday, July 28, at 4:30 p.m.

Voters first elected Mackey to the board in 2015. He was then reelected in 2018 and again in 2022. He has a Ph.D. in public policy with an emphasis in higher education policy and a master’s in education from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Like Sorensen, he played a critical role on the board during the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision to consolidate Juneau’s high schools and middle schools. Both Mackey and Sorensen faced some public backlash for their vote in favor of the consolidation and were the subjects of a failed recall attempt in last year’s election. 

Mackey said he is far from being done with public service in Juneau, but needs time away to focus on his family and business. 

“I’m coming out of the ninth round of a heavyweight fight, and I don’t feel like I need to start the first round of a new one,” he said. 

He said he’s “scared to death” that no one will run for his empty seat because of the difficulty of the role and the tough decisions board members are likely to face in the coming years. He blamed the lack of funding support from the state and federal government as the root of most of the Juneau School District’s problems.

Palmer state Sen. Shelley Hughes, a Republican, announced Thursday that she’s running for governor.

Hughes has served in the Legislature for more than a decade and has been a member of the Senate since 2017, including a two-year stint as Senate majority leader.

Hughes is a staunch conservative and is currently a member of the all-Republican Senate minority. At a campaign launch event at a barn in Palmer, Hughes touted her work on a variety of issues, emphasizing energy, education, agriculture and technology.

Hughes said as governor, she would be willing to work with legislators of all stripes. She recounted her work on the Alaska Reads Act, a literacy initiative put forward by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and by Democratic Sen. Tom Begich.

“I think the good Lord gave me the gift of being able to build consensus without forsaking my values and my principles,” she said. “That is a skill set that is very, very important for a governor to have, because you’re not always going to be given the legislature that you would maybe hand-pick yourself.”

At the same time, though, Hughes said she was willing to make unpopular decisions to address what she called a “rough patch” in the state’s financial situation driven in part by declining oil and gas revenue. Alaska governors play a key role in determining the state’s budget. Hughes described herself as a “limited government gal” and said artificial intelligence could play a role in streamlining the state’s operations.

“We do have to look at our budget and be very strategic and prioritize, and I am willing to take the heat, and it will take heat,” she said. “Because when you do that, you can have people on all sides not happy with you, but you’ve got to have someone with a vision that will hold the line.”

Hughes said she was concerned by the large number of able-bodied Alaskans who rely on Medicaid, saying she wanted to provide them with job training. She said that would reduce the number of employees that contractors would need to import from Outside to work on megaprojects like the Susitna-Wantana Dam and the Alaska LNG pipeline, which she said was “real” and “closer than it’s ever been.” President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the 800-mile, $44 billion pipeline as a priority, though the long-dreamed project, now shepherded by developer Glenfarne, has yet to say whether it has the investors and customers needed for it to move forward.

Hughes also said she would continue Dunleavy’s push to expand the state’s role in promoting agriculture by elevating the state Division of Agriculture to a cabinet-level department. Lawmakers narrowly rejected Dunleavy’s proposal to do so earlier this year.

Hughes has in the past supported Dunleavy’s proposals to expand alternatives to traditional neighborhood schools, including homeschool and charter schools, though she did not address school choice in her campaign announcement. In prior interviews, she expressed support for school choice ideas like “backpack funding” and education savings accounts, which parents could use to subsidize private school tuition.

Hughes joins an increasingly crowded, all-Republican field for the 2026 governor’s race. She’s the seventh candidate to join the race. No Democrats have formally joined the race. The deadline to file is June 1, 2026.

Correction:An earlier version of this story misstated Sen. Tom Begich’s title. He served in the state Senate.

The candidate filing period for Juneau’s local election opens Friday at 8 a.m.

Half a dozen seats will be open for the Oct. 7 municipal election — three on the Juneau Assembly and three on the Juneau School District Board of Education. There is no mayoral race this election. 

The Assembly seats currently filled by members Ella Adkison, Greg Smith and Wade Bryson will be up for the taking. All three told KTOO that they plan to run for another term. 

Both Smith and Bryson are closing in on the end of their second full, three-year terms. Adkison is finishing her first partial term after she was elected in 2023 to serve the remaining two years in the term of a member who resigned. 

School board seats filled by Deedie Sorensen and Emil Mackey will be open this election. Both confirmed their plans with KTOO to run for reelection. 

There’s also an opportunity to serve a partial term following former school board member Will Muldoon’s abrupt resignation this spring. Muldoon was reelected to serve a second three-year term last fall. He did not give a reason for his departure. His position is temporarily filled by former board member Steve Whitney. 

Two citizen initiatives will also be on the ballot this fall. Voters will be asked whether to place a limit on the city’s property tax rate and remove local sales tax on food and utilities.

The Juneau Assembly may ask voters whether to take on bond debt to fund repairs to schools and the city’s water and sewer systems, and whether to implement a new seasonal sales tax system next year. Members will decide whether to put those questions on the ballot later this month.

The deadline to file for a seat in this election is Monday, July 28, at 4:30 p.m. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters beginning on Sept. 19.

A retired school teacher and principal from the small Southeast Alaska City of Angoon entered Alaska’s 2026 governor’s race earlier this month.

James Parkin filed a letter of intent to run for governor on July 1. He is one of six Republican candidates who have filed, including Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, former state Sen. Click Bishop and Mat-Su Borough Mayor Edna DeVries. Retired Anchorage podiatrist Matt Heilala and Conservative activist Bernadette Wilson are also in the running. 

This is Parkin’s first campaign for public office.

In an interview on Monday, Parkin said he is a supporter of large Permanent Fund dividends, increased state funding to school districts and the revival of a pension plan for state employees. He also wants to eliminate homelessness. 

He said, if elected, he believes he can lead the state to achieve all of those priorities while still cutting back state spending. 

“I think what we need to do is work on efficiency — and I think that the state has been doing some good things in that direction — I’d just like to push us forward a little bit more,” he said. “I have some other ideas I think that will be helpful to move us towards a budget that’s more sustainable.”

The state would need to make severe cuts to services or dramatically increase its revenue to pay for a full statutory dividend. Its expenses would also increase if there’s a significant boost in funding to schools. While he said he has a few ideas to cut down on spending, it doesn’t include implementing a state income tax.

Parkin has lived in Alaska for more than 30 years, living in different parts of the state before settling in Angoon. Parkin is a retired teacher and principal at Angoon’s Chatham School District. He now works for Coeur Alaska’s Kensington mine near Juneau. 

He said Alaska voters should choose him over the other Republican candidates because he intends to work with the Alaska State Legislature — not against it — to make changes constituents have been asking for. 

“It’s a cooperative and collaborative thing — the governor and the legislature and the departments,” he said. “We’ve all got to work together to come up with some ideas — some new ideas, some fresh ideas — that are going to eliminate the waste, that are going to increase the efficiency.”

No registered Democratic candidates have entered the 2026 governor’s race so far. Current Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is terming out and cannot seek reelection. The deadline to file is June 1, 2026.

Democrat Mary Peltola, who was Alaska’s sole member of the U.S. House, lost her re-election bid last year.

But her margin of defeat of less than three percentage points, in a state that Donald Trump won by double-digits, showed that Peltola remains a formidable candidate.

And that means “every national Democrat is salivating” at the idea that Peltola could challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan next year, said Jim Lottsfeldt, a longtime Anchorage political consultant.

“I’ve been asked by some famous ones, by some less famous ones, ‘What can you do to convince her?’” Lottsfeldt said.

But many Democrats inside Alaska see Peltola as the party’s strongest candidate for governor next year, when Republican incumbent Mike Dunleavy is barred by term limits from seeking re-election. And they’re waiting to see which race she enters.

“If she chooses to run for either U.S. House or U.S. Senate, I will absolutely run for governor,” said Tom Begich, the Democratic former state senator from Anchorage. “If she doesn’t choose to do that, but chooses to run for governor, then I’ll be supporting her.”

As for the potential candidate herself?

She’s biding her time.

Peltola, who declined to comment, earlier this year took a job with a national law and lobbying firm, Holland & Hart, where she works with her former chief of staff, Anton McParland.

Peltola has not made up her mind about whether to run for governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. House, said Elisa Rios, a former campaign manager for Peltola who still speaks with her regularly.

“It’s really just where she can make the greatest impact for Alaskans,” Rios said. “She is going to make that decision on her own time.”

While some operatives and prospective candidates may be impatient for Peltola to make up her mind, the filing deadline for the 2026 elections isn’t until June 1. And she can afford to wait, said Joelle Hall, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, the state’s largest organized labor group.

One poll earlier this year found that Peltola had higher favorability ratings than all three members of the Alaska congressional delegation, as well as Dunleavy.

“She’s Mary Peltola — she has 100% name ID, and she will raise money,” Hall said. “Is waiting, in any way, a problem for Mary? Absolutely not. She can decide on her own terms.”

Alaskans elected Peltola to the U.S. House two times, in quick succession, in special and regular elections in 2022 after the death of Republican Don Young, who held the seat for a half-century.

Peltola, a former member of the Alaska House, defeated Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin in both elections; she quickly became a star in national Democratic circles as the first Alaska Native woman elected to Congress.

In the U.S. House, Peltola established herself with a brand of centrist politics unique to her state: supporting abortion rights, crusading against factory fishing and salmon bycatch while also endorsing large-scale mining and oil projects.

Her term, however, was marked by the death of her husband Buzzy Peltola, who was killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed in September 2023.

Mary Peltola ran for re-election last year but lost to Republican Nick Begich III. Begich, a nephew of Tom Begich, won by a final margin of 2.5 percentage points after two other candidates’ support was redistributed in Alaska’s count of ranked choice votes.

Peltola  has largely kept a low profile since her loss. But in recent days, she has emerged publicly. On July 1, the same day Sullivan voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Peltola made her first post to social media in nearly five months.

“We can not secure Alaska’s future by increasing healthcare and energy costs for regular Alaskans, so millionaires, like many of my former colleagues in Congress, and their billionaire donors, can get even richer,” Peltola said.

Peltola also served as grand marshall at Anchorage’s Pride parade last month, sporting a rainbow scarf and flag as she told an enthusiastic crowd that it was “so good to be here with all these people who are pro-love.”

Officials with the Senate Democrats’ recruitment and campaigning arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

But Jessica Taylor, who tracks U.S. Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said that if Peltola decides to challenge Sullivan, she would “put that seat into play.”

“I think Sullivan would certainly not want to run against her, because she’s won statewide before,” Taylor said.

A spokesman for Sullivan’s campaign declined to comment.

Winning a U.S. Senate race would net Peltola a six-year term — two more years than she’d get by winning a gubernatorial race.

She has also proven to be a formidable fundraiser in federal elections, bringing in more than $12 million total for her campaign in 2023 and 2024.

But political observers say there are also reasons that a U.S. Senate campaign might be less attractive for Peltola.

If elected, she’d have to resume a 3,300-mile commute to Washington. She’d likely face millions of dollars in attack ads from conservative groups.

A U.S. Senate campaign could also complicate her job at Holland & Hart, the law and lobbying firm.

While Peltola is barred from lobbying Congress for a year after leaving office, the the firm, whose clients include oil and gas companies, mining businesses and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, does have contact with members of Congress.

That includes Sullivan, who Peltola would be running against. McParland, Peltola’s former chief of staff, has visited Sullivan’s office in his new role at the law firm, according to a person with knowledge of the visit.

In a bid for governor, meanwhile, Peltola would not have to face an incumbent. Of the multiple Republicans who have announced campaigns so far, only Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom has held statewide office.

“When she enters, it’s going to be Snow White versus the seven dwarfs,” said Lottsfeldt, the consultant. “The governor’s race is just wide open for her.”

Lottsfeldt, citing the state’s economic woes, said he wants Peltola to run for governor — even though he often earns substantial sums as a local consultant for national Democratic groups when high-profile candidates like her run for congressional races.

“It would be a crazy amount of money. And, you know, I suspect I would do very well — you can quote me,” he said. “But I live in Alaska. The state is failing. The need for a governor is our highest priority right now. And so we have to focus on that.”

A draft ballot measure proposal under review by the Alaska Department of Law would decriminalize “magic mushrooms” and similar psychedelics, allowing home cultivation and personal use, as well as their use for medical and traditional reasons.

The measure does not allow commercial sale.

“For most people, their lives will not change, but for people who really need support, they may be able to find it,” said Ismail Ali, interim co-executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a national nonprofit devoted to studying psychedelic substances and advocating their safe use.

The “Alaska Natural Medicine Act” is modeled after Colorado’s Proposition 122, which was approved by voters in that state in 2022 and became effective this year. Oregon has also decriminalized the growth and use of psychedelic mushrooms.

If the Department of Law approves the measure for full-fledged signature-gathering, supporters would have to collect at least 34,099 signatures from registered voters, including specific minimums in at least 30 of 40 state House districts, in order to put the measure in front of voters.

If supporters gather the signatures before the Alaska Legislature convenes in January, the measure could be up for a vote in 2026. If the signature-gathering ends after the Legislature convenes, the measure would be subject to a vote in 2028.

The new measure is being supported by Natural Medicine Alaska, a group that submitted its initial draft with 230 signatures on June 18. In a post on social media, the group said it is attempting to get the issue on the ballot in 2026.

Members of the group did not return multiple calls and emails seeking comment.

One hundred signatures were needed to start a legal review, a prerequisite before full signature gathering begins. The review, usually a formality, is expected to finish by Aug. 17.

The text of the ballot measure states that it would no longer be a crime to possess, use, display, store or transport “fungi containing psilocybin or psilocyn, psilocybin or psilocyn in extract or other concentrated form, or plants or fungi capable of producing psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), or mescaline (except from Peyote).”

The possession or use of those psychoactive chemicals would be restricted to people at least 21 years old.

Personal cultivation would be restricted to an area no more than 12 feet wide by 12 feet long.

The sale or trading of personally cultivated psychoactive fungi would be prohibited, and public consumption would still be banned.

In many ways, the measure would legalize practices that already happen quietly in Alaska.

“There’s millions and millions of Americans who use psychedelics every year, and most of the time that goes off without a hitch, and people don’t even know about it,” Ali said.

He said Alaska’s proposed ballot measure is similar to the one enacted by Colorado but also takes into account subsequent rulemaking by that state.

In addition to permitting personal use and setting up a regulatory system for medical use, the measure also creates a third channel of regulation, for traditional, Indigenous use of psychedelics.

“This is the first time that I’ve seen an advocacy group that includes a number of Native leadership and people who are not just geographically local, but also of the Indigenous tribes there,” Ali said.

Alaska setting up a way to allow and regulate traditional use of psychedelic substances is something new, he said.

“I find that really beautiful and really ambitious, because it is something that comes up a lot, and it’s sort of like direct Indigenous to Indigenous conversation, which is happening increasingly in other states as well,” he said.

Psychedelic mushrooms remain a Schedule I drug and illegal under federal law, except for clinical research, but Colorado, Oregon and more than a dozen cities have decriminalized them.

In those places, federal officials have not prosecuted people and businesses that use psychoactive substances, which has allowed individual states to experiment with different ways to regulate and use them, Ali said.

There is growing interest in psychoactives’ ability to treat people with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.  Clinical studies have found varied results, and additional research is underway at a variety of universities and laboratories nationwide.

In 2024, the Alaska Legislature voted to create a task force to draft recommendations for psychedelic medicines if approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

That task force released draft recommendations in May.

Because the FDA rejected an initial psychedelic medicine application, those recommendations have never been implemented. In addition, the task force did not consider personal, recreational use as proposed by the ballot measure.

Currently, only one ballot measure — proposing new limits on financial contributions to candidates for public office — has been approved for the 2026 ballot. A second measure, seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, is gathering signatures and is expected to garner enough support to also appear on the 2026 ballot.

If it does so, it will be the third time in six years that Alaskans have voted on the issue of ranked choice voting.