Three of Alaska’s candidates for governor pitched their visions for addressing Indigenous issues during the Alaska Federation of Natives convention Friday.
Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Republicans Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor participated in the candidate forum. Republican Bernadette Wilson did not attend.
Over 75 minutes, candidates discussed a variety of issues, including the relationship between tribes and the state, rural public safety, the marine highway system and fisheries.
Taylor, former attorney general under Gov. Mike Dunleavy, said he aims to build trust with Native communities in his first year if elected.
“The state obviously recognizes tribes as sovereigns,” Taylor said. “Now it’s time to have those consultations. So I commit to work with the Legislature and the tribes to find out and figure out exactly what that consultation looks like.”
Bronson, a former Anchorage mayor, said there needs to be better communication between the state, Native corporations and tribes on economic opportunities. He used the impending Fighter Town expansion of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson as an example.
“There’s $7 billion of construction coming in, and guess what? We can’t do that without, say, the Eklutna tribe,” Bronson said. “We can’t do that without the Eklutna corporation. We can’t do that without our 8(a)s.”
Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state legislator from Sitka, said his first priority as governor would be strengthening subsistence rights.
“I will use the voice of the office to speak out if the federal subsistence priority and the federal subsistence board is undermined or dismantled by federal administration,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “And I will protect and uphold subsistence as the state’s most important priority and use of resources.”
All three candidates on-stage expressed support for making it easier for rural Alaskans to vote.
Bronson supported increased financial support for things like poll workers and having ballots in different languages.
“Like a lot of the challenges we’re facing in the state right now, we haven’t budgeted for the things that we really need to do,” Bronson said. “And if there was anything that was really important, it’s getting our voting right.”
Taylor said he’d “support legislation that basically allows you to track your ballot.”
“So that makes sure your ballot’s being processed appropriately,” Taylor added. “And that allows for a curing process, or at a minimum, informing the voter that their ballot was tossed and for what reason.”
Kreiss-Tomkins pointed to his experience in the Legislature supporting voting reform — vetoed by Gov. Dunleavy — that would’ve allowed ballot curing and tracking, more language access and prepaid postage for ballots.
“The origin of that piece of legislation actually was in my last term in the Legislature as the chair of the state affairs committee, which oversees elections policy in Alaska, and worked actually very closely with Kendra Kloster on AFN’s staff, who is very involved in the legislation,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “And it was ultimately a compromise between myself and Representatives Tuck and Mike Shower, who is the running mate of Bernadette Wilson, the empty chair on the stage.”
AFN also held candidate forums for the U.S. House and Senate races, but only independent House candidate Bill Hill and Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola participated. Incumbent Congressman Nick Begich and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan did not attend, though both provided updates to the convention on Thursday.
