By ALEX GIMARC
March 11, 2026 – It’s that time again to have your say on the direction Anchorage will be going over the next year or longer. If you are upset at the legalized theft of wildly out of control homelessness, the descent of downtown into a third world disaster zone typical for blue cities, property valuations completely disconnected from actual real estate activity, your opportunity is at hand.
Ballots will be mailed next week. Six Assembly members, two School Board members, and over $157 million in bonds are on the ballot. Elect enough conservatives to the Assembly and Mayor LaFrance will have to do something other than sign whatever Chris Constant (who is termed out) sends her way. Defeat enough bonds and we will get their attention, at least for a little while. Elect the right candidates to the school board, and they will at least have to consider and vote on proposals rather than let them die without a second, like they have been doing to Dave Donley for years.
Who do I think the most conservative candidates are this time around?
For the six Assembly seats open this election, we have:
- District 1, Seat B, North Anchorage – Chris Constant is termed out. Justin Milette is your best choice as an opportunity to pick up an open seat.
- District 2, Seat C, Chugiak – Eagle River. This is an open seat. Donald Handeland is the best choice to keep the seat conservative.
- District 3, Seat E, West Anchorage. Brian Flynn is the best choice to toss incumbent Anna Brawley for a pickup.
- District 4, Seat G, Midtown. Another open seat, as Felix Rivera is termed out. Dave Donley is the best opportunity to flip another Assembly seat.
- District 5, Seat I, East Anchorage – Cody Anderson is the candidate of choice to defeat incumbent George Martinez who has only distinguished himself by his dislike for taxpayers and homeowners in this town.
- District 6, Seat K, South Anchorage – Bruce Vergason is the best choice to keep this part of Anchorage conservative.
The two open Anchorage School Board seats are as follows:
- Seat C – Alexander Rosales is the best candidate running against a woman associated with the educrat-friendly Great Alaska Schools.
- Seat D – Sharon Gibbons is the best of three candidates.
We have over $157 million in school bonds on the ballot this time around. Half of it is a huge school bond. How much money for education is enough? How many empty buildings and unused classrooms for ASD is enough? Finally, how do we taxpayers tell the Assembly, mayor, School Board and ASD that enough is enough?
I plan on voting against all of them. You should at least consider that approach. The choice is yours. Refusal to vote, refusal to participate is also a choice, though a bad one, as it cedes power to those currently in office.
The future belongs to those who show up. It’s time to show up.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
9 thoughts on “Alex Gimarc: Sorting the wheat from the chaff on the Anchorage ballot”
I don’t understand how any conservative thinks this assembly race and bonds will go any different. Unless the election is moved to November, any conservative in the race will lose. Once we got lucky with Bronson during Covid lockdown but never again. The Union phone banks and the Muni workers motivate and get the vote out. Everyone else doesn’t. Change won’t come from the current assembly. The people running don’t matter. The politics matter.
Here is the key. The Republicans can put the issue on the ballot with an initiative to change the date. To get everyone out to vote another initiative is put on the ballot to get rid of the current gas tax of twenty plus cents per gallon that Berko got put on. This will drive the conservative vote out and change the election date.
Otherwise, it’s just the same result.
Dude, if you refuse to play without even firing a shot, the left has already won. These are the rules under which we play the current game. Refusal to play for whatever reason is refusal to win.
I am baffled by those purportedly on Our Side who are too cowardly or defeated to even lift a finger in their future defense. Go away. Find some rock to hide under. Go cry yourself a river. Whine about the indignity of it all for the next couple weeks / months / years / decades. We fight and we either win or lose. We don’t fight and we most certainly loose, and may do so for years as the left cements their advantage. Yet, this is an opportunity, so I choose to take it. How about you?
I am looking for fighters, not pussies. Should you choose not to fight, my reaction is begone from my sight, as you are not worthy of your manhood. Should you choose to fight, welcome to the battle, as you are among friends. We may lose horribly, and for a long time. But we will weaken the Other Side until we win a round or three. They aren’t invincible. They are arrogant, prideful and boastful, indicators that they think they are weak. We don’t prove that until we go for it. Come along. It’ll be fun. Cheers –
Best news is Constant is out!! I’m gonna party like it’s 1999! I’m thankful that Duncan wasn’t around in 1776.
Well said!
But I would say to ducan that if you don’t vote you should shut up about every result until you do vote.
Whining doesn’t win.
It isn’t whining, it’s a fact. I have voted in every election but the lefty’s know that most conservatives have lives and kids and don’t keep up with every vote on the assembly or when voting happens. The R vote does not come out so instead of trying to win a fixed election by scheduling it in the winter, do what Wasilla did and move it to the fall elections. But complaining about the messenger bringing news you don’t want to hear doesn’t get the R’s out to vote.
The Muni employee’s union know their future contracts are tied to the assembly and mayor. That is why they have phone banks and call each other to get out the vote. When was the last time a Republican phone bank called on the March elections. Each Muni and union employee knows that a D in the Assembly is worth thousands in their pay. They have a lot more vested in keeping this election to themselves….
I have some experience with the Muni. There are 3 groups of employees there – Executives, Non representatives and union employees, and at least 3 unions – police, fire and everyone else. Execs and non-reps have no union ties. The union employees are divided into the other 3 groups. The normal unioniized employees weren’t especially militant 2001 – 2018. Police has swung to the right in recent years. Fire is closest to legalized communists we have outside the IBEW.
2 biggest problems in Muni elections are turnout (getting Our Side to vote) and running idiots for elections. Both of these give the left just enough latitude to reliably win. Solve the idiot and turnout problem and we win reliably. Candidates know this, yet they persist in normal media rather than concentrating in turning out their voters, which is all the unions do. Do what they do and we have a fighting chance.
Apologies if I was overly harsh in my first response. I get tired of “we’re all gonna die” out of Our Side and responded poorly. I am more of a Patton fan: paraphrased – it’s not our job to die, it’s our job to make the Other Side die. Cheers –
Agimarc
That’s the Spirit! Spoken from a man pulling up boot straps and ready.
I hope you are just one man of the many men reading Alaska Story AKA Must Read Alaska attending your neighborhood council and maybe (God-willing) you guys will be a councilman.
Change takes time, patience, and efforts before seeing the fruit of one’s efforts. Do you think a gardener gives up his attention tending his garden after planting rows of seeds? Same thing is with community building.
It’s good the neighbors of a Right perspective and opinion are running so a Democrat doesn’t run unopposed. Even if the Right candidates still lose I hope they commit to attending Their once a month neighborhood council. It’s where changing the direction of community begins. What’s really discouraging the Millennial and GenX aged men is whenever they hear criticism from some of these older Republican members putting the councils down as the yes man to legislators and assembly members. I always want to tell them (my elders) what do you know anyway! What decisions came out the boomers generation that made Alaska better? If boomers, even GenX and millennials/GenY knew as much as they BS they say they know about building a community.Anchorage and Alaska wouldn’t look as it does today.
The community council is where men and women become the leaders of that community tomorrow.
Neighbors of the Right in Downtown, East, West, midtown, and South have a little ways to go before they elected a Neighbor on the Right. However this midtown election will be different. I’m fully confident. The only reason Donley will be an Assemblyman is because of his committment, work ethic, and relationships (on the left and right) built by attending community councils and knowing the district he lives in and which neighbors are the voters. His life in politics arena is a testimony for other Anchorage men to follow his steps to remaining electable in a town where the voting turn out us dismal but the left have slightly a higher turnout than the Right.
That school bond is RIDICULOUS. ASD already has nearly $127 million in “authorized but unissued” G.O. bonds. This district doesn’t need another freaking dime until it cleans up its act and shows results in the classroom.
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Total 🐂💩