House District 36 Candidates: Part I
NOTE: This article appeared in print August 1. Additional contact information for candidates was added to the online version, in addition to an editor’s note (also Allison Sayer), and a link to the Alaska Beacon voter guide published after the original version of this article.
By Allison Sayer
Six candidates are running to represent District 36 in the Alaska State House. After the August 20 primary, two will be eliminated. I spoke with the candidates to learn more about what they would do with the job if they got it. Candidates are listed alphabetically; The Copper River Record does not endorse any candidate for office, or any of the positions they describe. This is part one of a two-part series.
What are your priorities?
James Fields (Libertarian-Glennallen) lists “choice in education” and “making sure our rural communities have consistent emergency services” as high priorities. As a libertarian, he seeks “less regulation and less bureaucracy” in managing the state of Alaska. Electrical power is a high priority for Fields. He supports developing an electrical intertie and a mixture of grid and sustainable energy in the hope of stabilizing energy costs in the region.
Pamela Goode (R- Delta Junction) feels “The number one priority is the budget and the economy…all roads lead back to the budget and the economy.” She states “the scope and size” of Alaska’s state government is too large and that the state government has taken money away from Alaskans in its recent PFD distributions. She describes herself as a “huge supporter of property rights” and feels it is essential to rural living for the area to retain its non-borough, unorganized status.
Brandon P. “Putuuqti” Kowalski (D- Fairbanks (Goldstream)) describes himself as a pro-labor, pro-education candidate. His priorities include “fully funded education, a strong capital budget, and subsistence rights.” He added, “We have a salmon crisis in this region… I think there’s room for us to work together in Juneau to help remedy that.” Increasing the base student allocation in the state’s funding formula (BSA) is a major goal for Kowalski.
Dana Mock (R- Fort Greeley) lists education as his number one priority. “Care and feeding of our fellow Alaskans” and “protecting the PFD” also rank high on his list, in addition to food security including agriculture, hunting and fishing. Mock hopes to expand opportunities for “workforce development,” pointing to training that made locals eligible for specific jobs at Fort Greeley as an example of what he would like to see more of statewide.
Rebecca Schwanke (R-Glennallen) has a range of priorities, but says, “I can’t get too far away from the food security. It’s got to be number one for rural Alaska.” She identifies “federal overreach” as one of the obstacles towards maintaining wildlife populations. She also hopes for the range of Tribal, state and federal management to work together to increase the number of salmon that return to freshwater.
Schwanke’s list also includes cutting the state budget; “strong family values,” including prenatal and adoption care; rural energy; and education. She supports an increase in the BSA and advocates for career and technical education. Like Goode, Schwanke feels that PFD money has been taken away wrongly from Alaskans.
Cole Snodgress (R-Fairbanks) would like to see the state “live within our means and grow our way out of revenue shortfalls” by cutting the budget across all departments and increasing resource development. He would like to see more “accountability for the amount of money we’re spending” on education, and advocates for Alaskans to receive the maximum PFD. Snodgrass’ website also describes “protecting the unborn life” as a high priority.
Looking at last year’s legislative session, what do you feel were some successes and disappointments?
James Fields was glad to see the state pursue a reversal of a lower court ruling against allotments for homeschool students, which ended with the Alaska Supreme Court siding with the state. He also applauded the Alaska Reads Act, stating Alaska has “seen more positive growth for the first year of education than any other state.”
As far as disappointments, Fields was disappointed the Base Student Allocation (BSA) did not increase. He also felt the legislature should have given direct raises to teachers, saying it would help education to get “cash to school districts to try to function the best they can,” and to “get the money directly to the teachers.”
Pamela Goode felt it was a success that a broad-based statewide income or sales tax did not occur, despite being dismayed that it was discussed.
Goode felt the session overall did not meet her fiscally conservative values. “The budget is too large,” she said. She was also disappointed by the lengthy, 120 day session as opposed to the regular 90 day session. She continued, “If you follow the bills a lot increased the scope and size of government,” which she believes is the wrong direction for Alaska. Goode added, “They didn’t follow the law on the PFD and cut about $2,000 per person out of that.”
Brandon “Putuuqti” Kowalski felt that the legislative process around the BSA was both “’good’ and ‘could have been.’” He was glad that “there was a huge bipartisan effort to get a permanent increase to the BSA.” It was also disappointing that the increase was “vetoed and the veto override failed by one vote. Looking at this next session- I can be that one vote.”
Dana Mock was “pleased to see the united front initially on education,” but “we didn’t get it across the goal line.” He would have liked to see the state improve defined benefits for teachers and public safety officers and feels that would encourage them to stay in their positions for longer.
Mock also felt the discussion of transgender student athletes in the legislature “wasted a lot of time” and was “trying to change an issue when there’s not one,” due to the small number of students who would actually be involved, if any. He stated that local school boards should be able to make individual decisions rather than have the state dictate what to do. He added that if his son was transgender, “he wouldn’t love him any less.”
Rebecca Schwanke identified three bills that she would have liked to see go through that did not pass. One was House Bill 183, which contained a provision stating students must play on sports teams according to their biological sex at birth. Schwanke stated, “Alaska is doing what it can to maintain its conservative stance on protecting girls’ sports.” She also would have liked to see a bill pass that would have provided restitution to hunters if their game was confiscated and they were later found to be not guilty of violations.
Schwanke supported a bill that would have allowed school districts to “opt into the State of Alaska self-insured healthcare insurance pool,” to lower costs for school districts, and was disappointed that did not pass. She also felt the state budget was too large and disagreed with the PFD distribution.
Cole Snodgress was pleased to see a timber bill pass that amended state law to allow for a local use lumber program. He also was glad to see a bill pass to create an electrical intertie looping in much of the Copper Basin and go towards Tok.
Snodgress was disappointed that an effort to reallocate funding for state positions that went unfilled back into state coffers did not pass. “If you can’t get those positions filled, reallocate those dollars,” he said.
Please be sure to view candidates’ websites or contact them personally for more information:
James Fields:
Pamela Goode:
At press time, I did not have a working link for a website for Pamela Goode, she can be found on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/@goodeforalaska8693/featured
Brandon Kowalski:
Dana Mock:
Rebecca Schwanke:
Cole Snodgress:
Several candidates can also be found on various forms of social media.
To learn more about how, when, and where to vote in the August 20 primary, visit elections.alaska.gov or contact the Division of Elections Region III Office at (907)451-2835.
Editor’s Note Aug 5: It was a struggle for me to write this article! I want our readers to have information about the candidates leading into the primary. I also know that during the busy summer, our readers may not be able to read or keep track of six in-depth profiles. I strove to make the most salient points from our conversations, while thinking to myself that what each candidate said was in fact more detailed and nuanced than I had space to convey.
I hope that you will take that into account, and reach out to the candidates directly to have longer conversations about the issues that are important to you. Since the print publication of this article, the Alaska Beacon has published a voter guide with additional information from these and many other candidates. I recommend perusing that in addition to our local content!
The next part of this article, which will discuss the candidates’ thoughts on the budget in greater detail, will appear on our website on August 8 and in print on August 15. We are not printing a paper August 8.