A Lighthearted Look at Election Day
How's your election fatigue? Hang in there, we may have another month to go — here's a very lighthearted look at what we can expect tomorrow.
Recall Rivera
The bottom line on whether Assemblyman Rivera gets recalled is how voters in District 4 see the matter. The Recall Rivera group believes that Rivera did in fact permit a few more people into the Anchorage Assembly Chambers last year, making Rivera worthy of a recall, but that is an allegation and not a fact. The courts ruled that the recall could proceed but made no ruling on the allegation itself - that's just how it works in Alaska.
Last year, 10,937 voters were cast by District 4 residents in the race between Anchorage Assemblyman Felix Rivera and Christine Hill. Rivera won the race with only 179 votes separating the two candidates. 118 District 4 residents voted for a write-in candidate.
The entire recall effort, in my opinion, comes down to who is more motivated on the issue, especially in light of Anchorage Daily News reporting that thus far, Anchorage voter turnout appears to be low in comparison to the last mayoral election.
How vocal proponents and opponents of the recall are on social media isn't necessarily a good measure of what we can expect from the recall results, as issues often draw comments and posts from those not living in the district. However, a lot of money, time, and energy has been invested by both sides of the recall issue and when people are invested, they tend to be more motivated to vote.
If Rivera is recalled, proponents of the recall will likely champion that voters are sick of what is often referred to as the radical left. If Rivera survives, opponents will likely say that the recall effort was a vocal minority not representative of the district.
Anchorage's Next Top Mayor
The general consensus is that we won't know who the Mayor will be on April 6th since everyone in Anchorage is running for mayor this year, and by everyone, we're talking about fifteen candidates all vying to be Anchorage's Next Top Mayor — honestly, I don't even know half the names of the people running.
We do know that to be elected mayor, one of our many, many candidates need to win at least 45% of the vote in the April 6 election. If no candidate wins 45% of the vote on April 6, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in a runoff election held on May 11.
Team Blue
Anchorage Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar and former municipal manager Bill Falsey are vying to advance in the all but certain inevitable May runoff.
Dunbar says he's running against the "far-right" who have "embraced conspiratorial and anti-science rhetoric," and who support the "toxic partisanship of Save Anchorage and Must Read Alaska." He also says "we need fact-based leadership to beat COVID and get our economy back on track."
Personally, I would have liked to have heard more from the Dunbar campaign on how he plans to deal with the homeless crisis in Anchorage...in detail.
Bill Falsey says he's the "only candidate running that has significant executive and local government experience" and wants to put that to work. Falsey is highly qualified and super smart. When Falsey speaks, commonsense and reassuring calm flow from his mouth, and one feels reassured about the economy, COVID-19, and life overall.
Falsey hasn't raised as much money for his campaign as Dunbar but notes that Berkowitz wasn't a top fundraiser either and went on to win the 2015 mayoral election in a runoff. Falsey also has some of the most vocal supporters of all of the campaigns. Falsey's intricate knowledge of how the city works makes him an appealing candidate to those who want to see Anchorage reopen responsibly.
Team Red
There's been a bit of social media buzz as of late about Bill Evans, with some claiming the former Anchorage Assembly member and police officer may do better than expected and that there may be more bipartisan support out there for him than we think.
Evans has been appointed by both Republicans and Democrats to various positions including the Municipal Employee Relations Board, the Municipal Transportation Commission, and the State Mental Health Board. In 2015, Evans sponsored a 2015 equal rights ordinance while serving on the Anchorage Assembly — a position Evans says he's been attacked over by some recently.
Evans is arguably the most moderate and reasonable of the conservative candidates running for mayor this year, but can his centrist positions garner enough support to carry him into a potential runoff in May? If he does and goes on to win the whole thing, most people would probably sleep just fine at night.
Team Really Red
David Bronson and Mike Robbins are considered to be the most conservative candidates running for Anchorage mayor.
Bronson is a staunch anti-LGBT candidate whose solution to Anchorage's homelessness problem appears to be arresting the homeless for minor crimes and jailing them until they come to their senses and make a decision to change their lives. That's all I've got, but the Anchorage Daily News has a candidate profile that's worth reading.
Robbins told Anchorage Daily News that the city "over responded" to the Coronavirus pandemic and under his administration masks would not be mandated in the city except in the most grave of circumstances. He has decried the use of lockdowns and masks even in the face of a state Section of Epidemiology report "which showed COVID-19 pandemic restrictions helped slow the spread of the virus in Anchorage."
Both Robbins and Bronson support a bond issue that would fund body-worn and in-vehicle cameras for police officers, although Bronson has expressed concerns over some related costs associated with the storage of data.
Unofficial results of a Regular Municipal Election are posted after 8:30 p.m. on Election Day.
