Gov. Bill Walker faced a deadline today to pick a state representative for District 40, which covers North Slope and Northwest Arctic boroughs. Walker hadn’t announced a decision by 5 p.m.
The seat became vacant on Dec. 25, when Dean Westlake resigned following allegations of sexual harassment by female legislative aides and women outside of the Legislature.
Walker spokesman Austin Baird said Walker chose to look outside of the first three candidates nominated by the local Democratic party.
“Gov. Walker, after reviewing the three initial candidates that were forwarded by House District 40 — he did do interviews in person here in the state Capitol with all three of those candidates — in addition, though, after communicating with the Democratic Party in House District 40, is also going to interview two other people,” Baird said.
Those new candidates are Kotzebue resident John Lincoln and Utqiagvik resident Abel Hopson-Suvlu.
Baird said Walker wants someone who is well prepared, but declined to say why Walker didn’t limit his choices to the original nominees: Kotzebue city council members Eugene Smith and Sandy Shroyer-Beaver and Utqiagvik resident Leanna Mack.
The pick must receive support from a majority of the 16 state representatives who are Democrats before taking office.
District 40 Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Winzer said Walker’s office consulted with the local party. But Winzer said she’s frustrated that the local party didn’t have the time to open up the application process again. State law requires the government appoint a replacement within 30 days.
“If they wanted another list of three, to me, the only fair way to do that is reopen an application and so forth,” Winzer said. “But by the time that they were really looking at that, it was too late.”
Winzer said many of the qualified residents in the District avoid partisan politics due to their work with Alaska Native corporations. And some potential candidates would have taken a pay cut to join the Legislature.
“Even if they can work the rest of the year at their regular job, it is still going to be a significant financial blow, probably,” Winzer said. “Especially the last couple of years, with not knowing how long the session’s going to last.”
Kotzebue’s John Lincoln is the vice president responsible for managing lands for NANA Regional Corporation. Abel Hopson-Suvlu of Utqiagvik is adviser to the president of Arctic Slope Native Association.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
