Anchorage Daily News

West Anchorage voters who like their longtime Assemblyman, Dan Sullivan, have a natural choice on Election Day. So do voters who don't.

There's even a candidate for people who want something completely different.

Sullivan can't run again because of term limits, and wants the mayor's job in 2009. West Anchorage, meet your new choices for the April 1 election:

• Sherri Jackson, 52, a Republican who has Sullivan's endorsement.

• Harriet Drummond, 56, Democratic School Board veteran and former Sullivan opponent.

• Bert Hoak, 56, a wild card world traveler looking to shake up city government.

While Hoak is an unknown in Anchorage politics, Drummond and Jackson come from opposing corners.

Left-leaning Assembly members Sheila Selkregg, Allan Tesche and Matt Claman have donated to Drummond's campaign, along with Mayor Mark Begich and local unions.

Sullivan, a member of a right-leaning Assembly majority, is one of Jackson's campaign treasurers. So is state Republican chairman Randy Ruedrich, while Jack Frost -- who ran against Begich in 2006 -- was listed as the host of a fundraiser.

The contest presents one of the clearest divisions between the leading candidates on the April 1 Assembly ballot.

"The progressive folks on the Assembly have been marginalized by the conservative majority and they've got ideas that aren't even being heard," Drummond said. "And I'm not going to put up with that."

Jackson says she wants to take a close look at whether jobs created under the mayor's watch are necessary and talks about rethinking how the city does business.

"We need to take a look at how other cities are turning their economies around," she said.

Hoak is registered as a Republican. He's also a union laborer who says he had to leave a business behind in Cambodia in 1997 because he was too outspoken about human rights.

SALES TAX, PROPERTY TAX

The 11-member Assembly writes local laws and approves the city's spending plan.

A first-time candidate, Hoak is calling for drastic changes in local government. The city should do away with the assessor's office and charge property taxes based on flat rates rather than the value of a house, he said.

He said a sales tax and liquor tax would make up the difference in revenue.

Until he paid them this week, Hoak had been about $3,800 behind on his own 2007 property tax payments, according to the city.

"The fact that I'm having difficulty paying for it is probably not a whole lot removed from what a lot of people are going though," he said.

Drummond says there's already a state alcohol tax, and she'd like to see that money used to combat alcohol-related problems before she supports a local tax.

Jackson said alcohol taxes are already high, and couldn't think of a scenario where she'd support a new one.

As for a sales tax, Drummond said people in Anchorage have been turning down that idea for 50 years.

"If the voters don't want it, there's no way I'm going to ask them to vote on a sales tax," she said.

Jackson said she supports a sales tax -- maybe 8 or 10 percent -- that would get rid of property taxes altogether. "We'd just live on a consumption tax, though I know it's kind of a foreign idea for some people to think about."

In a potentially close race, Jackson received some unwelcome publicity early in the campaign when a recording of Assembly members Dan Coffey and Bill Starr talking about contributions aired on a local radio station.

Coffey had talked about taking in $1,500 in contributions for Jackson's campaign, though he wasn't registered as a treasurer for her campaign at the time, as required by state law. No complaint was filed against Jackson, who said she's returned the money and since listed Coffey as a treasurer.

As of March 22, Drummond had raised about $56,600, more than twice as much as Jackson. Hoak filed paperwork with the state saying he doesn't plan to raise or spend more than $5,000.

Here's more on the West Anchorage candidates:

BERT HOAK

Hoak is from Buffalo, N.Y., and moved to Anchorage in 1973. He'd heard stories about Alaska, and that the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was going to ruin the state. He figured he'd visit before that happened, and ended up working on the pipeline as a driller.

In Alaska, Hoak has held a mix of jobs -- counselor for Alaska Children's Services, laborer for the railroad, supervisor at the Brother Francis Shelter. He said he's also trained health care workers in Haiti and supervised election planning in Cambodia for the United Nations.

He said he received a law degree in 2004 and is awaiting his results from the February bar exam. He worked for about 10 months, beginning in 2004, on bail and parole cases in Anchorage, he said.

One reason he's running for election, he said, is that he was once tasked with finding a third-party custodian to watch over a local 19-year-old man accused of a violent crime.

Hoak said he asked the teenager if he knew any men about his father's age with a clean police record.

The man couldn't think of a single one. "This is symptomatic of a society that's just crumbling," Hoak said.

HARRIET DRUMMOND

Drummond grew up in the Bronx, where she attended the Bronx High School of Science. She earned a design degree at Cornell University and arrived in Anchorage just before Fur Rondy in 1976.

"I followed an old boyfriend up here, who's long gone," she said.

A graphic designer, Drummond won a seat on the School Board in 1994 and served nine years.

Drummond says that her years on the School Board, including a stint as president, taught her how to trim large budgets and that she plans to seek out fat in the city's spending plan.

"I know how to cut a budget. You don't have teachers strike unless you're tightening the reins on the contracts," she said, referring to a teachers union strike her first year on the board.

A former chair of the Federation of Community Councils, Drummond ran for Assembly in 1999, losing to Sullivan.

Drummond said this time is different.

"There's a lot of energy in the population right now -- in the voting population -- for change," she said.

SHERRI JACKSON

Jackson finished second in last year's crowded four-person race for a West Anchorage Assembly seat. While eventual winner Matt Claman raised $103,000 to Jackson's $22,000, she came within 3 percentage points of a win.

Past president of the Sand Lake Community Council, Jackson works as a checker and recruiter for the Jewel Lake Carrs store. She also manages two facilities for independent seniors.

"What I can bring to the Assembly is common sense. That seems to resonate with the hard-working taxpayer," she said.

Jackson's former opponent, Claman, noted that Jackson and her husband had been sued in 2001 for $25,000 in unpaid debt by Providian National Bank.

Jackson said she's still paying it off. "My husband was hurt on his job and was out of work for a long time. And life happened and we did what we had to do to survive," she said.

Jackson said that along with crime, voters most often want to talk about property taxes. She said she wants to see the city create a user-friendly Web site that lists all its spending, and would like to see more competition to provide city services as a way to trim the budget.

"That mentality of just spending everybody else's money ... we end up, you know, with an ever-increasing budget and declining results."

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Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.

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Candidate biographies

Harriet A. Drummond, 56

Occupation: Owner, Drummond Design

Spouse: Elstun W. Lauesen

Political party: Democrat

Neighborhood: Near West High

Education: Bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

Public offices: Anchorage School Board, 1994-2003; ran unsuccessfully for School Board in 1993 and Assembly in 1999.

Campaign Web page: harrietdrummond.com

Campaign phone: 279-7763

Bert Hoak, 56

Occupation: Hoak said he's most recently worked as a union laborer.

Spouse: Sokim

Political party: Republican

Neighborhood: Off McRae Road

Education: Law degree from Ave Maria School of Law; master's in international administration from the School for International Training; bachelor's in psychology from State University of New York at Fredonia.

Public offices: This is his first time running.

Campaign e-mail: bert_hoak@yahoo.com

Campaign phone: 223-8184

Sherri Jackson, 52

Occupation: Facility manager for senior housing complexes; customer service rep and recruiter for retailer.

Spouse: Mark

Political party: Republican

Neighborhood: Off Raspberry Road

Education: West High School; ongoing and continued education in housing management.

Public offices: None. She ran for Assembly twice before.

Campaign Web page: sherrijackson.com

Campaign phone: 980-2634

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