From election sidelines, Mayor Koelsch campaigns against assembly member Troll

Juneau Mayor-elect Ken Koelsch addresses his supporters on election night at City Hall, March 15, 2015.
Mayor-elect Ken Koelsch addresses his supporters on election night at Juneau City Hall, March 15, 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)

Candidates for the Juneau Assembly raise thousands of dollars for a chance to win or maintain a seat in office.

While Mayor Ken Koelsch isn’t up for reelection this year, he is actively working to unseat incumbent assemblymember Kate Troll.

Koelsch has shared more than 80 photos from assembly incumbent Mary Becker and candidate Norton Gregory’s campaigns on his personal, but public, Facebook page. Until recently, his cover photo was a campaign poster from his mayoral run.

In one photo, Gregory is running the Klondike Road Relay. Koelsch comments, “good luck on the Klondike & the race for the assembly.” Gregory is running against incumbent Kate Troll.

Koelsch’s support for these candidates is financial, as well. He’s personally donated $500 to Becker, the maximum allowed under state law. He and his wife have donated a combined $500 to Gregory, too.

As mayor, Koelsch said he’s still entitled to his rights as a private citizen.  He says there isn’t a conflict.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Because when I ran for office the last time, several of the assembly people supported me and supported my opponent.”

Which campaign finance disclosures verify. In fact, Kate Troll donated to Koelsch’s mayoral opponent.

Sitting assembly members at the time also tried to overtly influence who the next mayor would be, which played out through endorsements and disagreements over a campaign flyer.

Koelsch said Gregory had helped him campaign. This time around, Koelsch said he’s supporting Gregory.

“He is very passionate about affordable housing, and serving the community, great runner, (he) would bring diversity to the community, and bring youth,” Koelsch said.

Gregory, who is 37, serves on the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission. Troll is the assembly’s liaison to the commission.

There’s no legal problem with a mayor picking favorites, but, former four-term Mayor Bruce Botelho said it may be bad form.

Bruce Botelho. Photo courtesy Alaska Municipal League.
Bruce Botelho
Kate-Troll_250
Kate Troll

“It is a better practice for elected officials to minimize their role in campaigning for possible colleagues,” he said.

Botelho is the campaign chair for Kate Troll, who declined to comment.

He said he heard about the issue, and that his opinions shouldn’t be taken as a personal attack against Koelsch.

Botelho said he made financial contributions to an assembly member’s campaign while mayor, too. But he didn’t overtly assist them with campaigning.

“The greater dissonance is that, particularly with Ken who ran on a campaign of wanting to unify the community, that being partisan in a broad sense, of aligning with one side (of) candidates versus another, makes it more difficult to have that working relationship,” Botelho said.

Koelsch is a Republican, Gregory is undeclared and Troll is a Democrat. Juneau’s municipal elections are nonpartisan. Election day is Oct. 4.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Kate Troll’s role on the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission. Troll is the Juneau Assembly’s liaison on the commission, not the commission’s chair. 

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