Four candidates file to run for Juneau Assembly, five for school board

Traffic moves down Marine Way past Juneau City Hall on Sept. 25, 2017. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
Traffic moves down Marine Way past Juneau City Hall in September 2017. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)

Nine candidates have filed to run in Juneau’s 2019 municipal election.

Monday was the deadline to be included on the ballot on Oct. 1. Four seats on the Juneau Assembly and two school board seats will be up for grabs.

Assembly

Assembly incumbents Wade Bryson, Alicia Hughes-Skandijs and Carole Triem all filed early to keep their seats.

Bryson represents District 2 and Triem holds one of two areawide seats. Both are running unopposed as of now, although write-in candidates have until Sept. 26 to file.

District 1

The only competitive Assembly race so far is in District 1, where two seats are open. One is a three-year term and one is a one-year term.

Hughes-Skandijs was appointed to finish out this year in former Assembly member Jesse Kiehl’s District 1 seat after he resigned last January to take a seat in the Alaska Senate. That seat has one more year remaining in its term.

Greg Smith also filed to run in District 1 shortly before the deadline.

The District 1 candidate who receives the most votes will win the three-year term and the runner-up will take the one-year seat.

School board

Five candidates are running for school board. Former school board member Emil Mackey filed to run again after running unsuccessfully for the Assembly last year instead of seeking re-election.

The other candidates are Bonnie Jensen, Deedie Sorensen, Amanda Ryder and Martin Stepetin Sr.

This is Stepetin’s second recent attempt seeking a seat in municipal government. Stepetin also applied to be considered for Kiehl’s seat at the beginning of the year.

 

At the beginning of the filing period, Bryson said he thinks the community recognizes that the current Assembly has been effective and largely uncontroversial.

“It doesn’t surprise me that community saw how well this Assembly was working and it didn’t generate a tremendous amount of new candidates,” Bryson said.

All candidates have until the end of the week to withdraw their names if they change their minds.

The municipal ballot will be finalized next week.

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