Party politics are creeping into what's supposed to be a nonpartisan contest for Anchorage mayor.
By city charter, the April ballot won't say whether a candidate is running as a Republican, Democrat or otherwise. But in January, mayoral candidate Dan Coffey changed his voter registration to Republican for the first time in his political career, apparently to shore up support from a wavering Republican party establishment.
That led another candidate for the job, Amy Demboski, to sarcastically welcome him to her party and at the same time boost her own Republican credentials.
Coffey, 68, was registered either Democrat or nonpartisan in the 1970s and '80s. Since 1996, he's been consistently registered nonpartisan, a fact he made a point of noting, including in an October op-ed column for the Anchorage Press.
In the mayor's race, Coffey has pitched himself as a conservative. Last month, without a formal announcement, he changed his party affiliation. He said in a brief interview that his campaign advisers suggested it, "because I've been acting like a Republican for 20 years."
"It just made it easier for my many, many friends in the Republican Party to support me," Coffey said.
Demboski, who is also trying to win conservative votes, seized upon Coffey's newfound affiliation. Her campaign sent a tongue-in-cheek email last week with the subject line "Amy Demboski welcomes Dan Coffey to the Republican Party."
The idea of a nonpartisan local government is rooted in the national reform movements of the late 1950s with the intent of focusing local government on local needs, said Gerald McBeath, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For the purposes of fixing roads and educating children -- the lifeblood of local government — the party politics of the state or national level were thought to be counterproductive, McBeath said.
Jane Angvik, a former Anchorage Assembly member and member of the Anchorage Charter Commission, said that when the municipal charter was being written in the early 1970s, local government was seen as "a community service kind of thing."
"Police service is not a partisan issue. Schools are not a partisan issue," Angvik said. "It's simply the service we provide to our community."
But Angvik noted that seeking office requires raising money for advertising, polling and other expenses, more so now than in past decades. She said political affiliation is a pathway to clarifying where the candidate will be garnering support.
In a nominally Republican state, that affiliation can be helpful, McBeath said.
"It's understandable why people would want information out to the effect of identifying with the Republican Party, even though it's politically and constitutionally irrelevant," McBeath said. "So it's all for the matter of getting votes."
In an interview, Demboski said she agreed that party affiliation isn't part of serving in local government. She said she was more interested in pointing out that Coffey appeared to have flip-flopped on his earlier registration.
But Coffey said he hasn't changed his mind. He said he never claimed, "I'm a nonpartisan, and therefore I should be mayor."
Andrew Halcro, another challenger who is registered as a Republican but campaigned as an independent in the 2006 gubernatorial race, said he also questioned the timing and motives of Coffey's party switch. But he said he wasn't planning to make it an issue. The race is nonpartisan, he said.
"There's nothing Republican or Democratic about fixing potholes or putting police on the street," Halcro said.
Party affiliations almost never come up in Anchorage Assembly politics. Former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom said he doesn't recall talking about who was Republican, Democrat or independent with respect to those serving on the Assembly. Assembly members are more likely to be characterized as "liberal" or "conservative" in their voting habits, Mystrom said.
In Coffey's case, "I don't think a change to Republican makes any difference in his philosophy," Mystrom said. "He's still going to be the same person."