The Alaska Democratic Party may finally have at least one candidate in the race for governor. Hollis French, a state senator from Anchorage, announced today he’s considering jumping in.
French filed a letter of intent with the Division of Elections on Tuesday. He says that while he’s leaning strongly toward a run, he wants to wait to see how much money he can fundraise and if a campaign would be viable. He’s also using the time to develop his platform.
![Hollis French](https://media.alaskapublic.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Hollis-French.jpg)
“Obviously oil tax reform is number one. It’s the single most important issue confronting the economic future of the state, and I think the governor led us on the wrong direction.”
If French does decide to run, that would make it a three-way race for governor. Incumbent Sean Parnell has already registered as a candidate, and so has Bill Walker, a Republican turned independent. To make things more complicated, there’s an effort to draft Bill Wielechowski, a Democratic state senator, to join the independent ticket in the lieutenant governor slot.
French says he doesn’t know Wielechowski’s intentions, and that he hopes a three-way race could actually split in his favor.
“Having Bill Walker jump in as a third-party [candidate] I think made it far more likely that a Democrat can get elected. The last time a Democrat was elected who was not an incumbent was 1994 — that was Tony Knowles essentially in a three-way race.”
French has served in the state legislature since 2003, and says he will defend his Senate seat if he decides against running for governor. If he does launch a campaign, it will be his second gubernatorial race. In 2010, he lost to Ethan Berkowitz in the Democratic primary.
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