Almost No Changes In Rank In Anchorage Mayor Race From Tuesday to Thursday

Here are the results from Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night in the Anchorage Mayor's race.  There is almost no change in the rankings from night to night.  From Tuesday to Wednesday a couple of people traded ranks.  The biggest shift is due to a tie for 11th place on the first night.  There were NO changes in rank for the top eight candidates from night to night.

From Wednesday to Thursday there are no changes in rank.  

I'm guessing that, at least in part, this is due to mail in voting.  Instead of votes coming in from different precincts which often are more politically homogenous, they came in from all over.  

Mayor Race	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	-----------	----------	--------	------
EVANS, Bill	999    (4)	3,871  (4)	4,782 (4)
SWANK, Albert L., Jr	36  (9)	139 (10)	157 (10)
MARTINEZ, George	321 (6)	1,272  (6)	1,658 (6)
MOMIN, Reza	12  (11)	35  (13)	39 (13)
FALSEY, Bill	1,281 (3)	5,312  (3)	6,703  (3)
HERNDON, Heather	91   (7)	303    (7)	337  (7)
ANTHONY, Anna	63  (8)	190   (8)	233  (8)
BRONSON, David	3,116  (2)	12,986  (2)	15,953 (2)
BROWN, Jeffrey	33  (10)	147   (9)	196  (9)
VERSTEEG, Jacob	11  (12)	31  (14)	35  (14)
ROBBINS, Mike	745   (5)	3,097   (5)	3,766 (5)
DUNBAR, Forrest	3,701 (1)	13,711 (1)	16,458 (1)
COLBRY, Darin	8  (14)	18  (15)	21 (15)
WESTFALL, Joe	12 (11)	48  (11)	61  (11)
KERN, Jacob Seth	9  (13)	38   (12)	41 (12)
Total	10,438	41,198	50,430

Looking at the numbers  makes me wonder about the standards for getting on the ballot.  I think we wasted a time at candidate forums by having candidates who couldn't even get 100 votes out of 50,000.  While I do think candidates without a chance of winning can add different points of view to the debate, having too many candidates at a forum means the public gets to question the main candidates less.  

I wanted to do the same thing for the other races, but I needed to think this through better technically before I started.  But I'll leave Wednesday night totals for the recall and school board races below.  I don't think there are any changes in rank, but some races tightened, others widened. 

You can get to the totals for each night on the Municipal Election Page.

Candidate	Party	Total
YES		3,417	42.34%
NO		4,653	57.66%
Total Votes		8,070

Candidate	Party	Total
ELEDGE, Judy Norton		16,697	37.28%
STEWART, Marilyn		5,240	11.70%
COX, Mark Anthony		5,051	11.28%
LESSENS, Kelly		17,801	39.74%
Total Votes		44,789

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		371

Candidate	Party	Total
HIGGINS, Pat		15,188	34.06%
HILDE, Alisha		5,780	12.96%
BLATCHFORD, Edgar		3,624	8.13%
BLAKESLEE, Rachel		4,426	9.92%
GRAHAM, Sami		13,905	31.18%
WILLIAMS, Nial Sherwood		1,673	3.75%
Total Votes		44,596

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		383

Candidate	Party	Total
SANDERS, Marcus		6,988	15.92%
PAULSON, Kim		14,321	32.64%
LORING, Dan		2,374	5.41%
WILSON, Dora		20,199	46.03%
Total Votes		43,882

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		423

Candidate	Party	Total
VAKALIS, Elisa		20,641	48.20%
JACOBS, Carl		22,186	51.80%
Total Votes		42,827

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		737

Early Results Of Anchorage Election - We'll See later How Many In The Lead Now End Up There [UPDATED]

[UPDATE: Wednesday April 7, 2021 8:30am: I have only been able to get the original early results marked as 8:42pm. I tired various times last night and again this morning.  No changes.  I just talked to Brandy (Brandi?) at the Municipal Clerk's office.  She told me those are the only results so far.  They are working on them and probably will have an update tonight. (In the past there were regular updates as the ballots came in.  That didn't happen this time.)  Brandy also told me that if you want to be alerted when the numbers are updated, you can text "Start" to 907 312 1012.]

 Early Anchorage election results from the Municipal Election page:

Mayor:

EVANS, Bill		999
SWANK, Albert L., Jr.		36
MARTINEZ, George		321
MOMIN, Reza		12
FALSEY, Bill		1,281
HERNDON, Heather		91
ANTHONY, Anna		63
BRONSON, David		3,116
BROWN, Jeffrey		33
VERSTEEG, Jacob		11
ROBBINS, Mike		745
DUNBAR, Forrest		3,701
COLBRY, Darin		8
WESTFALL, Joe		12
KERN, Jacob Seth		9
Total Votes		10,438

Rivera Recall

Candidate	Party	Total
YES		638
NO		939
Total Votes		1,577

School Board B

SCHOOL BOARD SEAT B (1-YEAR TERM) (Vote for 1)

Precincts Reported: 0 of 123 (0.00%)

	Total
Times Cast	10,606 / 236,619	4.48%

Candidate	Party	Total
ELEDGE, Judy Norton		3,376
STEWART, Marilyn		1,173
COX, Mark Anthony		1,081
LESSENS, Kelly		3,699
Total Votes		9,329

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		80

School Board E

Times Cast

10,606 / 236,619

4.48%

Candidate	Party	Total
HIGGINS, Pat		3,264
HILDE, Alisha		1,264
BLATCHFORD, Edgar		830
BLAKESLEE, Rachel		906
GRAHAM, Sami		2,692
WILLIAMS, Nial Sherwood		360
Total Votes		9,316

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		79

School Board F

Precincts Reported: 0 of 123 (0.00%)

	Total
Times Cast	10,606 / 236,619	4.48%

Candidate	Party	Total
SANDERS, Marcus		1,463
PAULSON, Kim		2,888
LORING, Dan		539
WILSON, Dora		4,260
Total Votes		9,150

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		85

School Board G

	Total
Times Cast	10,606 / 236,619	4.48%

Candidate	Party	Total
VAKALIS, Elisa		4,166
JACOBS, Carl		4,726
Total Votes		8,892

		Total
Unresolved Write-In		174

You can check here till all the ballots are in.

Easy To Sort Out The Top Anchorage Mayoral Candidates

I'm going to make this as brief as I can and encourage others to find their way to other forums so they can judge for themselves.  April elections tend not to have that many people voting, and with so many candidates, there's a good chance that there will be a runoff in May.  Those have even fewer people voting.  So your vote counts a lot.  On the other hand, the Municipality has a vote by mail election, which tends get more participation.  

 I watched the mayoral forum hosted by about 20 non-profits that one would have to say lean toward protecting the environment, diversity, and those in need.  The zoomed through a lot of questions and it quickly separated the candidates into, what seemed to me, the well qualified and the less qualified.  

Just as any large private or non-profit business would focus on people's experience and knowledge of the organization and or similar ones, when we elect a mayor we should be hiring someone who isn't going to be learning on the job.  So the first thing that struck me about the candidates was:

Knowledge and Experience With the Municipality

Basically, there were four candidates that stood out as reasonably well versed in what's happening in Anchorage and would be reasonably well prepared to start from day one.  These are folks who, unsurprisingly, have been very involved with the operations of the Municipality:

Bill Falsey - is a former Municipal Attorney and the he was the City Manager.  The first position gives you a ring-side seat and the second actually puts you in the ring.

Forrest Dunbar - is a current Assembly member.

Bill Evans - is a former Assembly member.  

George Martinez - has a lot of government experience in New York and has been involved with community organization in Anchorage since at least 2008.  He worked as a special assistant to Mayor Berkowitz so he has a handle on a number of municipal issues.  He's currently head of Leadership Anchorage at the Alaska Humanities Forum

All four were familiar with the various programs and issues that were raised in the forum and were able to speak to the questions with obvious detailed knowledge of the issues.  

In my mind, these are the people qualified to step into the job and be able to do the do real work from Day One.  The others are going to have to learn on the job.  That's not really what we need.

Articulate and Able to Represent the Municipality Well

The four above were all good spokespersons.  I found George Martinez to be the best speaker - very fluent, clearly had his thoughts well organized and articulated, and conveyed a sense of caring.  Dunbar and Evans were next.  I found Falsey about wonky.  He knew the technical details and was able to say a lot, quickly, but I didn't feel a lot warmth.  High on rationality, not so high on charisma.  

I took a lot of notes, but what I've written above is probably more important than the details of the answers which were focused a lot on parks, diversity, outdoors, indigenous issues, and a little on downtown.  

The other candidates really were far behind in both factors above.  They were not people who had any real experience with Municipal government that was greater than any one off the street.  Mike Robbins said he was in the raise in response to how the Municipality handled the pandemic response.  Businesses were badly hurt.  I don't disagree with that, but I lean more to the side that believes they would have been hurt a lot more if the Muni hadn't take the strong action it took.  

Heather Herndon spoke about being fourth generation Alaskan, she said growing up in Alaska she was never aware of people being treated differently because of the race or ethnicity.  She made some cryptic references to indigenous people saying there were some in her family.  

Several candidates seemed to cast themselves as 'normal people':  Anna Anthony is a mother and a little one made noise in the background a couple of times.  Jeff Brown said he represented the 80% of Anchorage residents that agreed on most things.

Another factor might be generational - who best represents the future and will be best able to take us there?   Of the four most qualified, Dunbar and Falsey are the youngest.  At this point in the pandemic, those who kept forgetting to unmute are automatically disqualified.  It's ok for ordinary folks, but not for someone about to lead one of the biggest organizations in Alaska.  They just don't have what it takes to learn quickly to adapt to change.  T

Gender and ethnic diversity will be a consideration for others.  

Click to enlarge

Jeff Brown and Joe Westfall came in late, after I took the screen shot. Julie was the moderator.  Wikipedia lists five additional candidates who did not show up: 

Dave Bronson

Darin Colbry

Reza Momin[10]

Albert Swank Jr.

Jacob Seth Kern

Anchorage Mayoral Forum Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - Facebook - 5 - 630pm

Yes, we vote on Anchorage's next mayor April 6, 2021.  That's about six weeks away.  Wednesday (tomorrow as I write this, but today probably for most of you reading this) is a good chance to start getting a sense of the candidates.  Nine have accepted invitations for the Forum.  Start figuring out who you can clearly eliminate and who you want to support.  Too bad Prop. 2 which will give us ranked choice voting in 2022 on the State level, isn't in effect for this election.  We wouldn't need a runoff election if no one gets 45% on April 6.

[UPDATE Feb 17, 2021 - I should have said the quoted info comes from an email I received, as does the image.]

"The Alaska Center Education Fund, Anchorage Park Foundation, NAACP Anchorage, and other local partners are co hosting a virtual Mayoral Candidate Forum, tomorrow.  We are looking forward to engaging candidates about the issues that affect our community. Anchorage's parks, trails, climate and economy are critical for a healthy and sustainable future. We look forward to hearing the candidates’ visions for our city.
 
Tune in via Facebook Live from 5 - 6:30 pm Wednesday, February 17 or register TODAY on zoom to be a part of the conversation. Check out the Facebook event >> 

Anna Anthony

Jeffrey Brown

Forrest Dunbar

Bill Evans

Bill Falsey

Heather Herndon

George Martinez

Mike Robbins

Joe Westfall"

Click on the image below to see it bigger.

John Martin's Coming Home After Sailing To Russia And Getting Temporary Housing

The Anchorage Daily News had a story yesterday about John Martin being deported to the US by the Russian authorities.  Last year he set off to sail to China to find his ex-wife and his son.  He made it to Russia and was first in the hospital and then later sent to a Moscow jail.  But apparently the Russians are giving him back without demanding anything in exchange.

March 2012

I've written about John Martin a few times on this blog.  This link includes a video of him at the Assembly meeting when they passed a ban on sitting on the sidewalks which seemed to be aimed at John.

It has links to other posts I did, including when he was camped in front of city hall after the ordinance was passed.  I asked him why he thought he hadn't been kicked out.  He didn't know, but said that the Mayor went across the street to get some coffee and was bringing one back for him.


Michelle Theriault Boots did a good job in the the story about John's sailing to China - telling a lot more about his rather turbulent life.  That link is definitely worth reading if you want to get a better understanding of John.  It's one of the millions of stories of people for whom life doesn't always work out the way they'd like, but he's found ways to give his life meaning and purpose.