ADN Politics

Anchorage voters will soon decide a hugely consequential mayor’s race.  Unlike the last mayoral election, the city is no longer in the middle of a pandemic, but Anchorage is still dealing with significant challenges.  After three tumultuous years, incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson faces nine opponents who promise to lead the city in very different ways. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to...

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy made good on his threat last week, vetoing a $200 million education bill that had passed the Legislature on a bipartisan vote. This week — amid immense pressure on all sides — lawmakers fell one vote short of overriding that veto. Now the future of state education funding for Alaska schools this year is murky, at best.  In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to rep...

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy this week threatened to veto a hard-fought bill to increase funding for Alaska’s public schools, unless the Legislature agrees to back some of his own education priorities. Now, lawmakers in Juneau and school districts across the state are scrambling to sort out what to do next. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to reporters Sean Maguire and Iris Samuels to di...

A recent cold snap in Southcentral Alaska raised the profile of a looming problem for the region: Natural gas from Cook Inlet powers a big chunk of Alaska, including Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and the Mat-Su – but energy companies say that gas won’t be available for much longer. How is that possible, in a state that has enormous gas reserves? And what does that mean for future energy bills? An...

The New Year has arrived, bringing with it an election year and the next Alaska legislative session. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to Daily News reporters Iris Samuels and Sean Maguire about the top storylines they are tracking in 2024 — from continued battles over education funding and ranked choice voting to notable people and issues on the ballot in November. For more local and...

Part of a little-known state agency is near collapse, and it’s not clear what will happen to the vulnerable people it serves. Daily News reporter Iris Samuels recently dug into issues at Alaska’s Office of Public Advocacy. Facing severe staffing issues, it turned to a private nonprofit to help it provide guardianship services for over 100 people. But that nonprofit ran into issues of its own, leav...

In this episode, we return to the topic of snow plow politics in Anchorage. In November, once again, the city was hit with back-to-back snowstorms. And once again, the roads were a huge mess. For a winter city that relies on plowing so residents can get to work and schools can open, snow plowing quickly becomes a political issue — especially with a mayoral race coming up. Host Elizabeth Harball ta...

In 2018 and then in 2020, two women were found dead on the same property in the Northwest Alaska community of Kotzebue. The women were 25-year-old Jennifer Kirk and 30-year-old Susanna, or “Sue Sue,” Norton. They both had been in relationships with sons of Kotzebue’s now-former mayor, who owns the property where they were found.  Kirk’s death was declared a suicide, and Norton’s, a homicide. No ch...

As Western Alaska communities face a shocking decline in the salmon runs they depend on, fishing operations called factory trawlers are drawing more scrutiny than ever before — the vessels are not going after salmon, but they can still scoop some up in their nets. With support from the Pulitzer Center , the Daily News recently published a two-part series diving into factory trawling in the Bering...

Anyone who has tried to buy or rent a home in Anchorage recently has been faced with the realities of the city’s housing crisis. Costs have shot up, while at the same time, there isn’t a lot of inventory to choose from. The issue has wide-ranging implications for the city, impacting everything from attracting and retaining workers to efforts to address homelessness. Host Elizabeth Harball talks to...

A top official in Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration resigned this month after being accused of breaking election laws. It’s a complicated saga that has unfolded over months – an investigation into the mayor’s IT director involving a challenge to this year’s city election results.  In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball speaks with ADN reporter Emily Goodykoontz, who broke the news abo...

This week, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed $87 million in education funding passed by the Legislature — half of a one-time funding increase for public schools that education advocates said was badly needed.  Almost immediately, some lawmakers were calling to override the veto.  Host Elizabeth Harball talks to ADN reporter Iris Samuels about the likelihood of a veto override, what it would take to...

It took marathon negotiations behind closed doors, strained relationships between lawmakers, tens of millions in additional capital spending and a one-day special session, but this week, the Alaska Legislature managed to pass a budget. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to ADN reporters Sean Maguire and Iris Samuels in Juneau for the inside story on how Alaska lawmakers got to a deal. N...

The Alaska Legislative session is entering its final days – at least, officially.  Meanwhile, lawmakers still haven’t passed a budget, figured out the size of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend or agreed on whether to permanently increase funding for public schools. Can they?  In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to ADN reporters Sean Maguire and Iris Samuels, who are in Juneau tracking...

Anchorage’s Sullivan Arena is entering its final days as a mass homeless shelter.  This week, many of the people staying there were forced to leave. And for many of them, there isn’t anywhere to go.  ADN reporters and photographers were on the ground talking to people as they made their way out of the Sullivan. Host Elizabeth Harball speaks with ADN reporters Michelle Theriault Boots and Emily Goo...

Last week, the Daily News and ProPublica published a report that included secret recordings of a top Anchorage Library official, in which she calls Alaska Natives “woke” and “racists” and bemoans “the left’s” influence on libraries. That official is Judy Eledge — a longtime conservative stalwart in Alaska and the Anchorage Library’s deputy director under Mayor Dave Bronson. Eledge is now the subje...

This year’s Legislative session in Juneau is in its fourth quarter, with just a month left for lawmakers to finish their work. But even with that deadline looming, some of the biggest political issues we’ve seen over the last couple months remain unresolved. We’ll talk about where things stand with the budget, a controversial education proposal and more. In this episode, host Zachariah Hughes talk...

ADN Politics will return next week! For more local and state news, subscribe to the Anchorage Daily News today. This episode of ADN Politics is sponsored by SteamDot Coffee .

Campaigning in this year’s Anchorage election was defined by voter fatigue with bitterness and drama in city politics. Ballots are still being counted, but so far, results show definitive leads for most candidates aligned with the current Assembly majority — a group that has consistently been at odds with conservative Mayor Dave Bronson.  In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks with reporter...

The German Ambassador to the United States, Emily Haber, is in Alaska for the first time this week, while participating in the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks to Ambassador Haber about her visit, changing dynamics in the Arctic, energy development, climate change, and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting those issues. For more local a...

This month, a commission that decides salaries for the Alaska Legislature, the governor and top state officials voted to give all of them a significant raise. If the proposal goes through, state lawmakers could receive a 67% pay raise, alongside a roughly 20% raise for the governor and his cabinet. It happened in a 15-minute meeting – with a commission that had been entirely replaced by the govern...

President Joe Biden this week approved ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The approval came despite massive pressure from environmental groups to kill the project, who see it as a black mark on Biden’s broader efforts to deal with climate change. Meanwhile, Alaska political leaders — especially the state’s bipartisan congressional delegation — are celebrating Willow’s appr...

This week, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy rolled out a “parental rights” bill that would put new limits on sex education in schools and prevent transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, among other measures.  Christian conservatives are welcoming the bill, while a Democratic lawmaker immediately branded it “the most divisive piece of legislation” the Legislature c...

The Anchorage municipal ombudsman has been at the center of several recent news stories about turmoil within city government. That includes a recent incident when municipal employees accused someone in Mayor Dave Bronson’s office of saying they were checking surveillance videos to see who was going to the ombudsman’s office. But what exactly is an ombudsman? And how does the position fit into what...

Last year, a record 18 people died while in custody of the Alaska Department of Corrections. Seven of those deaths were suicides – also a record.  To better understand the circumstances behind the deaths, Daily News reporters obtained Alaska State Troopers investigation reports and medical examiner records, and spoke with family members, advocates and prison officials. In this episode, host Elizab...