Third in a series of stories on the candidates for Anchorage mayor
On a brisk September morning last fall, the topic on KFQD's "Bernadette and Berkowitz" was plastic bags.
"Their ban on plastic bags," host Bernadette Wilson was saying, referring to a California law, "is ridiculous."
Her co-host and liberal foil, San Francisco-born Ethan Berkowitz, challenged whether she actually recycled plastic bags. Their sparring on the topic extended over a commercial break.
"Look at you putting the 'conserve' back in conservative," Berkowitz jibed.
It was the type of banter that made Wilson, a conservative commentator, and Berkowitz, a former Democratic state representative, popular on the air. As a counterpoint to Wilson, Berkowitz was constantly questioning her sources of information and wondering what controversies like President Barack Obama's "latte salute" said about society.
As Berkowitz put it during a recent mayoral forum, he "ventured into right-wing radio for a while and survived." But for Berkowitz, it was yet another mark of a political career in which he has scorned partisanship as counterproductive and has reached across political divides, whether on fiscal policies or on the airwaves.
"Ethan is just somebody that doesn't get wrapped up in politics," said David Shurtleff, Alaska vice president for Strategies 360 and a former campaign spokesman for Berkowitz. "He has a job to do and he does it."
It's a career that has also included three failed runs at statewide office. In his campaign for Anchorage mayor, Berkowitz will have to prove he's the right person for the local job and not just a politician looking for another office.
Focus on energy infrastructure
As a state legislator from 1997 to 2006, Berkowitz advocated for renewable energy and resource development. His efforts included a 2002 carbon sequestration bill that was signed into law by Gov. Frank Murkowski. The bill directed a committee to look at whether the state could make money by finding ways to reduce carbon emissions through reforestation or other means.
Between 2006 and 2010, Berkowitz made three unsuccessful runs for statewide office -- lieutenant governor, U.S. House and governor. He won the Democratic primary in each race, but not the general election. After losing his gubernatorial bid to Sean Parnell in 2010, Berkowitz swung his attention back to energy infrastructure in the state.
"When I returned to the private sector, things I had a passion for in Juneau … I pursued those," Berkowitz said in an interview in his West Anchorage home.
In 2011, Berkowitz signed on as a senior vice president of the Anchorage branch of Strategies 360, a Seattle-based marketing and consulting firm that works in both the business and policy arenas.
Berkowitz was hired to work with clients on resource development, renewable energy and power transmission projects, said Shurtleff, who founded the Alaska division of the firm in 2009 and previously worked as a spokesman for Berkowitz on his congressional campaign. (Shurtleff also served as the interim chief operating officer for the merger of the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch in 2014.)
An effort to bring geothermal energy to Nome marked perhaps Berkowitz's most prominent project as an energy consultant. The city of Nome, confronting high energy costs, hired Berkowitz in 2013 to review the community's energy policies. Berkowitz then coordinated with public and private entities to explore developing geothermal energy at Pilgrim Hot Springs. Crews have developed the power source and are in the final stages of looking at how much more power could be produced, Berkowitz said.
Berkowitz has been mostly uninvolved with the firm's political projects, though he did help in 2012 with a campaign supporting an Anchorage gay rights measure. Voters ultimately rejected that measure.
Otherwise, Shurtleff said, apart from helping with the Fire Island wind turbine project, most of Berkowitz's work for the firm on energy issues has taken place in other parts of Alaska and out of state.
Berkowitz was a salaried employee of Strategies 360 but is on unpaid leave for the duration of the campaign, Shurtleff said.
Separately, Berkowitz was involved with a group seeking to install a fiber optic cable around Western Alaska. When stimulus money for that project fell through, Berkowitz and other members of a private Anchorage-based startup called Bortek scaled down their ambitions and focused on developing a cable between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay.
That project has nearly all the permits it needs and some construction has begun, Berkowitz said.
Bernadette and Berkowitz
In 2013, Bernadette Wilson was hosting a TV show and looking to put together a panel of different political viewpoints. Someone suggested she talk to Berkowitz.
She thought of a political ad that had run against Berkowitz, tying him to the nation's Democratic president: "Obama, O'Begich, O'Berkowitz? That O'Berkowitz?"
"I thought … there's no way on earth (he'd agree)," Wilson said in an interview. "And I called him up, and he agreed. He was totally game."
When Wilson moved to a radio show on KFQD, Berkowitz came with her. The pair doesn't agree on much politically, and that made for good talk radio.
But outside the studio, the two have formed a solid, even affectionate friendship. Wilson was spotted wiping away tears at Berkowitz's campaign kickoff event on Feb. 10. In the interview, she said she was planning on taking his kids to Westchester Lagoon soon to skate -- she's one of the state's top figure skaters.
But she makes no secret that she's not impressed by him as a candidate for mayor.
"You're looking at someone that has run for statewide office three times … and I'm always leery of, do you really want this job?" Wilson said. "Do you want to be mayor, or do you simply want to be elected?"
Berkowitz said he's always been committed to public service. But he said he's decided that local government is the best place to directly address people's needs.
"The federal government's dysfunctional, and Juneau's broke and broken," Berkowitz said. "If you want to get anything done, you're going to get it done at the mayoral level."
Berkowitz would not be the first Anchorage mayor to first serve in the state Legislature rather than the Assembly. Tom Fink, who was mayor from 1987 to 1994, was a Republican representative in the state House between 1966 and 1975 and served as speaker.
Anchorage School Board president Eric Croft, a Democrat who served in the state House at the same time as Berkowitz, ran for mayor in 2009. He said Berkowitz's intellect and work ethic would help him navigate city government: "He's a quick study."
Berkowitz also contends he already has the right experience. He dealt with mayors for a decade while he was in the state House, he said, adding that the "general rules of politics" at the Legislature also apply at the Assembly level.
On the campaign trail, he's seeking to harness his knowledge of Juneau as a major strength.
"What is the city most concerned about? The state budget. I'm adamant about this, if the municipality doesn't start to engage the state, and help the state fix the state's fiscal problem, the state is going to wind up inflicting its decisions on Anchorage," Berkowitz said.
Tomorrow: Andrew Halcro