Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott opened campaign headquarters in Juneau on Friday.
“Whenever I’m in town, I will spend time here. The fact of life is that in Alaska, half the population lives in Southcentral, in Anchorage, in the Matanuska Valley, and on the Kenai and, of course, Fairbanks and the road system, and just necessarily, I’ll have to be spending a lot of time in those places, but this space will be the campaign headquarters,” Mallott says.
Mallott officially launched his run for governor Oct. 14 in his hometown of Yakutat. So far, Mallott has made stops in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Kotzebue, Nome, Saxman, Ketchikan, and Sitka. Another campaign office is planned for Anchorage.
Mallott doesn’t have a concrete platform. He says he’s still developing his ideas on the state’s key issues, “Oil taxes, education, the fiscal cliff, the state’s revenues or the lack thereof, how we fund critical services like education and public safety and health, how we continue to grow jobs in this state – all of those are crucial and have to be addressed in this campaign and into the future. They are very, very important and critical.”
Mallott does know his campaign will focus on listening to Alaskans.
“The idea of Alaskans being engaged in crucial decisions that affect their lives and a candidate reaching out to them, having conversations, learning, trying to create the kind of state government that involves, that is responsive to, that cares deeply about Alaskans and their everyday lives and their sense of future for them and their children is what my campaign is all about,” Mallott says.
Mallot is a former mayor of Juneau and Yakutat and has led the Department of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, and Sealaska Corporation.
Later this month, Mallott is heading to Anchorage, Kenai, and the Mat-Su Valley. He’ll also be traveling to Washington, D.C.
