ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s News Source hosted a conversation Friday between incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson and former Anchorage Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance.
The answers weren’t timed, but the candidates were redirected if one person dominated the talks.
The first fiery exchange began with the topic of homelessness.
Bronson was questioned about why he allowed the living conditions at the homeless camp near Cuddy Family Midtown Park to continue.
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He was also quick to point a finger at the Anchorage Assembly, which did not allow his mass shelter in East Anchorage to be built.
The Assembly in May 2022 set aside $6.2 million for its construction, but Assembly members stopped construction a few months later after learning that Bronson officials skirted city code, pushing ahead with millions in work without first getting the required contract approvals from the Assembly.
“We caught the mistake,” Bronson said. “We went to the Assembly and said we made a mistake. Let’s reappropriate. John Weddleton … former Assembly member at that time, says, ‘That’s happened before in the city several times. So let’s just keep going.’”
LaFrance said “maybe” similar mistakes happened in the past.
“But the fact of the matter is that the costs ballooned by millions of dollars,” LaFrance said.
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She went on to say the estimated costs didn’t look right.
“There is, you know, certainly a cost to homelessness, and the crisis response that we’ve seen over and over — again, it just wasn’t good stewardship of taxpayer dollars to say yes to something that didn’t have a viable plan and that had already failed,” LaFrance said.
Later, Bronson said the former Northway Mall could be used as a shelter. He also pointed out how difficult it is to truly solve the problem.
“If people drove around town and didn’t see any homeless on the street, they would think this problem would be solved. But I said it wouldn’t be solved,” Bronson said.
LaFrance’s homeless strategy has been criticized with critics saying her call for more meetings on the topic is not a solution.
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“The action plan now is to actually have a plan,” LaFrance said.
In a follow-up question, LaFrance said she’d have a shelter plan in place within 100 days of her becoming mayor.
“I do not support 1,000-person shelters in East Anchorage, or ,anywhere in the community,” LaFrance said.
Bronson said the city has put smaller shelters out to bid, but no one has shown interest.
Bronson has called LaFrance “woke,” and LaFrance has called him “incompetent.”
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“I bring up the word incompetent because it applies,” LaFrance said.
Bronson said being “woke,” among other things, meant men wearing “tutus.”
But then he shifted his criticism.
“I’ll call it this: tax and spend liberal,” he said. “She’s a tax and spend liberal.”
Inadequate snow plowing for two years that has led to schools being closed also resulted in a heated conversation.
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“At the end of the day, Miss LaFrance has to remember — when you criticize snowplowing, you’re criticizing the people that do it,” Bronson said. “Am I responsible for snow plowing? I’m responsible for everything in the city.”
“When I am criticizing the snow removal — or lack of — the last two winters, I am criticizing Mr. Bronson as the CEO of our city,” LaFrance replied. “I’m not criticizing the employees who have worked hard.”
Ballots were mailed to voters April 30. Runoff election day is Tuesday, May 14, and ballots must be postmarked on or before that date to be counted.
Voters may also return completed ballots to secure drop boxes around the municipality, or vote in person at one of the city’s voting centers starting May 7.
After the main debate, we asked the candidates to answer some of the questions from the local Community Councils. Hear their answers on Alaska’s Political Pipeline.
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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