Anchorage

In Anchorage, another election is just beginning

Anchorage: If you thought election season was comfortably past us, think again. The race to elect the city's next mayor is only just beginning.

Assembly member Amy Demboski of Chugiak-Eagle River, who has declared her candidacy, held her first campaign fundraiser Thursday night at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Anchorage. Several dozen people, including Assembly member Bill Evans of South Anchorage and Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, ate spring rolls and picked up bright yellow buttons, stickers and yard signs that read, "Amy Demboski -- Mayor."

So far, Demboski and former Assembly member Dan Coffey are the only two major candidates who have said they're running. Alaska political veterans Mead Treadwell, Andrew Halcro and Hollis French have all said they're considering bids but none has formally declared.

Assembly members Dick Traini and Elvi Gray-Jackson also say they're mulling over whether to run, as well as Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn.

The Nov. 4 election did answer the question of who would be the mayor of Anchorage in the meantime. A victory for the Parnell-Sullivan ticket would have left the city with an interim mayor starting Dec. 1. But, with Parnell's concession last weekend, Mayor Dan Sullivan is staying put until July.

In an interview with Alaska Dispatch News this week, Sullivan was upbeat, insisting he and his administration have a "full agenda" to tackle over the next seven months.

"To be quite frank, I was starting to get, as it got closer to Election Day, a little trepidation about turning the keys of the mayor's office over seven months early," Sullivan said. "I was really starting to get some heartburn about that a little bit."

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly was an ADN staff reporter.

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