Alaska
Wright and Eischeid face off again in a close state House race to represent East Anchorage district • Alaska Beacon
In Anchorage’s North Muldoon and Russian Jack neighborhoods, two candidates are facing each other for the second time in two years for a seat in the Alaska House.
While Republican incumbent Rep. Stanley Wright is seeking reelection, Democrat Ted Eischeid is on a mission to unseat Wright in the rematch.
In 2022, Eischeid lost to Wright by 72 votes.
This year, Eischeid said he retired early from his job as planner for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough so he could redouble his campaign efforts —“I knocked a lot of doors two years ago, I’m doubling that effort this time,” he said.
Eischeid led the race in the primaries with a 3% edge over Wright, although only 8% of registered voters turned out.
Any flipped seat could be consequential in a closely divided House, so an Eischeid victory could tip the balance of power away from the current Republican majority.
Wright is a Navy veteran from South Carolina. He followed his wife to Alaska where they raised their children. Before representing House District 22, Wright worked as a community systems manager in Anchorage’s Community Safety and Development office. His previous public service roles include work in the state governor’s office and for the state’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
Eischeid had a career as a middle school science teacher in the Midwest before he, too, followed his wife to Alaska where he found work as a planner for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. His previous public service was two terms as a nonpartisan county board supervisor in Wisconsin. He said the value of listening to all viewpoints was driven home to him in that role.
“Sometimes I voted conservative, sometimes I voted progressive. I let people’s public testimony and I let the data guide me. And I listened very closely, tried to suspend my bias as much as I could,” he said.
As part of his campaign, Eischeid said he heard that the district’s main concerns are education, public safety and infrastructure. He said the value of a good education is a priority for him in part because he grew up poor in Iowa after his father died when he was very young.
“I’m a food stamp kid. I’m a free and reduced lunch kid. And because I had good public school teachers, I got a good education. I was able to earn that college degree, and I entered a good middle-class lifestyle,” he said, adding that, if elected, he will bring that history — and the sense of compassion it instilled in him — to Juneau.
That sentiment points to a similarity between the candidates. In 2022, Wright told the Alaska Beacon that a “pretty rough” childhood on a South Carolina farm and, later, in a housing project, taught him about the value of public assistance. He sought federal grants for low- and moderate-income housing as a city employee in Anchorage, according to his campaign.
Eischeid described himself as a moderate Democrat who will listen, but doesn’t want to “waste time” fighting culture wars.
“People don’t want professional politicians, and they’re not asking for much, but they want somebody that represents them and knows them and puts people over party,” he said.
Wright did not respond to the Alaska Beacon’s requests for an interview for this story. But his voting record has at least one striking example of putting concerns raised in his district over the leadership of his party: In the last session, he was one of the seven members of the Alaska House’s majority caucus who voted with members of the House minority in a failed attempt to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of an education bill that included a permanent increase for state education funding.
At the time, Wright said one of the schools in his district had been threatened with closure and that “really weighed heavy on my heart.”
In his first term in office he co-sponsored a number of bills that became law, including the measure that led to state recognition of Juneteenth, and passed a law that is intended to streamline the certification process for counselors in order to increase access to mental health care.
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Alaska
VOA Alaska to hold annual Fall Festival
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Another fall tradition will be hosted this weekend by Volunteers of America.
Nonprofit VOA Alaska will hold its Fall Festival on Sunday at the Nave in Anchorage’s Spenard neighborhood.
Engagement Manager Maricar Yuzon joined the News at 4 crew to talk about the organization and the Festival activities.
Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska
Alaska Army National Guardsmen deploying to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – A group of 20 Alaska Army National Guardsmen within the 207th Aviation Troop Command are scheduled to deploy in mid-Oct.
According to a press release from Alaska National Guard Public Affairs, the deployment will last approximately one year in order to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection as part of the federal Southwest Border Mission.
The unit’s headquarters, located on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), will be hosting a departure ceremony on Oct. 7.
The Alaska Guardsmen will be teaming up with Guardsmen from other states to provide aviation support for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in their operations.
The Alaska Army National Guardsmen were initially notified about this deployment in January and have since started pre-deployment training. They will be deploying two UH-72A Lakota helicopters, aircrews, a maintenance team, as well as support personnel to the border.
Download the Newscenter Fairbanks apps today and stay informed with the latest news and weather alerts.
Copyright 2024 KTVF. All rights reserved.
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