East Anchorage Assembly member Karen Bronga says she will not run for reelection next year.
Bronga is a retired teacher who was elected in 2023 during a special election to fill a vacancy on the Assembly after former member Forrest Dunbar was elected to the state Senate.
“It was kind of always in my head that I was just filling a space while I waited for someone who really wanted to run for office to be ready,” Bronga said Tuesday.
Bronga said she’s proud to serve her constituents, pointing to her advocacy for cyclists and her deciding vote on allowing duplexes to be built in any residential zone in Anchorage.
“I love all the parts of learning about my city, but I’m just not really a person who loves all the meetings and, you know, digging through code and things like that,” Bronga said. “It’s just not my skill set, I guess.”
Bronga has endorsed Yarrow Silvers as her replacement. Silvers currently serves as a legislative aide and had previously written for the left-leaning political blog The Alaska Current. Bronga said she met Silvers when the two served on the Scenic Foothills Community Council.
“She was always the one who was going to whip up the resolution that made a statement of how the council felt on an issue,” Bronga said. “So you know, she’s familiar with that. She enjoys going to Assembly meetings.”
In a campaign statement, Silvers said she wants to “ensure the decisions affecting our community truly serve the needs of the people.”
In an email to Alaska Public Media, Silvers said her top priority will be addressing the lack of availability and the high cost of housing in Anchorage.
“High rent prices aren’t just affecting our unhoused neighbors but are pushing working families to the brink,” Silvers said. “I believe that if we can tackle housing affordability, we can create more stability for working families and be better positioned to help our unhoused neighbors get back on their feet with access to safe, permanent housing solutions.”
In addition to Bronga, Silvers said she has the endorsements of five other Assembly members, two state senators and an Anchorage School Board member.
So far, Silvers is the only person who’s filed to run for the East Anchorage seat. The next municipal election will be held on April 1, 2025.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
