In America’s largest state House district, six people vie for a seat in the Alaska Legislature

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A cloud-covered Mount Wrangell is in the distance in a view south from the Tok Cut-Off on April 27, 2022. The area is part of Alaska House District 36, the largest state House district in the U.S. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/Alaska Beacon)

When Republican Rep. Mike Cronk of Tok suddenly became a Senate candidate earlier this year, it set off a scramble.

His decision to seek Fairbanks Republican Sen. Click Bishop’s seat meant there was no longer an incumbent representative in America’s geographically largest state House district. Six candidates, acting on short notice, signed up to fill the gap.

On Aug. 20, the state primary election will winnow those six options to four.

Before then, four Republicans, one Democrat and one Libertarian are traveling from Delta Junction to Fairbanks, Fort Yukon and beyond, trying to make their case to voters in a Republican-leaning rural district.

Cole Snodgress, a gold miner running as a Republican, has traveled more than 2,700 miles by road and another 250 by air while campaigning since June 1.

“Just getting out there is pretty tough,” he said. “Meet-and-greets really don’t tend to work the best, so you’ve just got to get out there and knock on some doors and put a name to a face.”

House District 36 is the largest state House district in the United States, covering a rough-horseshoe swath of Interior Alaska that stretches from the Canadian border west, across Delta Junction, Tok, Glennallen, parts of northern Fairbanks North Star Borough, Nenana, then along the Yukon River to include smaller communities like Huslia, Ruby, and Kaltag.

“It’s huge,” said Republican candidate Pamela Goode, noting that only parts of the district have roads. “You have to either drive, or you could take a canoe, or you could fly.”

Rebecca Schwanke, another Republican candidate, has served on the Copper River School District board for six years and has years of experience in the region as a wildlife biologist, but even with a network of friends and acquaintances, it isn’t easy to campaign.

“I wrote a candidate introduction letter, and I have been stuffing envelopes darn near every night at home, and I’ve had a little bit of help from different friends and family that have been able to physically help me do that,” she said.

District 36 is also one of the poorest districts in the state, ranking 38th of 40 state House districts for household income, and its poverty rate is the fifth-highest among the 40 districts.

More than a third of the district’s population identifies as Alaska Native, the fifth-highest proportion among state House districts.

While most of Alaska’s rural, predominantly Native state House districts vote Democratic, voters in District 36 lean Republican, even after accounting for lines redrawn in 2022.

“I look at our district as like a 60-40,” Goode said, referring to the split in voting by party.

The Libertarian candidate in the race is James Fields, a longtime member of the state school board, while the Democrat is Brandon “Putuuqti” Kowalski, a biology grad student-turned-welder.

Snodgress, Schwanke, Goode, and Dana Mock of Delta Junction are the four Republicans.

Mock explained how he sees the differences between the four: “I’m probably more to the center of the line when we start talking about Republicans. And then you probably have Becky (Schwanke) to my right, Cole to my right, and then Pam to the far right.”

Other candidates expressed similar views or outright agreed with Mock’s description.

“I think that’s pretty fair,” Cole said, adding that he feels he’s maybe “5-10% different” from Goode.

Schwanke said she’s spoken with all of the Republican candidates and said, “I feel like we all really come from a fairly conservative mindset.”

Goode said she doesn’t agree with Mock’s description of the race.

“I take offense. I don’t go left or right, I go up or down. Do you want more liberty or less liberty?” she said.

Goode said she doesn’t see herself as far right but as “centered” on constitutionality and the rule of law.

Some of her competitors noted that Goode worked as an aide to Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, and speculated that if elected, she might govern as he does. Goode rejects that idea and said it’d be a mistake to put her in “a box.”

“He’s his own person, and I am my own person, and I don’t think it’s fair to any candidate out there when people try to put them in a box that is not their own,” she said.

“You don’t go into the Legislature to be elected, to follow in somebody else’s footsteps. You go in there on your own, representing your district,” Goode said.

James Fields Fields, 52, was born in Oregon and has lived in Alaska for 22 years. A small-business owner with ownership shares of a convenience store, hardware store and other real estate in Glennallen, he’s a foster parent with six children, including three he adopted through the foster care system.

A member of the state school board, Fields also has been involved with schools at the local level, including as basketball coach for the Glennallen High School boys team, where he won two state titles over 10 years as coach.

Fields describes himself as a “conservative libertarian,” meaning that government and bureaucracy should be limited as much as possible and that the state’s education system “should give the parents and students as much choice as possible, for not every child learns the same way.”

For example, Fields said, “I don’t think there should be a federal Department of Education. I think it should be the states. They should just block grant money and get out of the way and let the states figure it out.”

In the most recent legislative session, lawmakers voted to sustain Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that would have permanently increased the state’s per-student funding formula.

Cronk, the current representative from House District 36, voted to sustain the veto. Fields said he would have done the same if he had been in office.

Fields preferred Dunleavy’s alternative approach, which would have offered cash bonuses to teachers. Simply increasing the per-student formula runs the risk of having money diverted to administration, he said.

Lawmakers this year also were divided about whether to revive a state pension program for public employees. Fields said he doesn’t support that idea; he prefers to approach matters from the perspective of a small-business owner, with a 401(k)-style approach, rather than a pension.

Fields said that while he hasn’t served in state elected office, he has ample experience in the Capitol as a member of the state school board.

“I may be walking in as a freshman legislator but I won’t be treated as much like one, because I know a lot of the players and have dealt with them and negotiated with them, and that’s where I think I have something more to offer,” he said.

Fields reported raising $600 for his campaign, mostly from Jim Jansen, a Lynden Transportation executive.

Pamela Goode A 65-year-old former legislative aide, Goode grew up in a military family and holds a degree from the University of Houston, in Texas. She has lived in Alaska for 15 years and is married to James Squyres, a Republican candidate for state Senate.

Goode worked for NASA in Houston, including on the space shuttle program and with the International Space Station, and circumnavigated the Earth on a sailboat with her husband before settling in the Delta Junction area.

Goode has never served as a state elected official, but she’s been a regular candidate. This is the fourth time she’s run for office, she said.

She had been considering a state House run even before Cronk’s decision to run for Senate, she said, explaining that she wasn’t satisfied with Cronk’s performance in office.

During the most recent Legislature, Goode lost her job as an aide when the House’s predominantly Republican majority reduced Eastman’s staff allowance. She said she doesn’t hold a grudge.

“If I’m elected, I have no problem working with anybody, because you’ve got to remove yourself from the pettiness of the personality clashes and start focusing on what’s best for the people of Alaska,” she said.

Goode is a supporter of the traditional Permanent Fund dividend formula, which hasn’t been used by state lawmakers since 2015 because of its cost.

Goode said lawmakers could afford to pay that traditional dividend if they are willing to access “pots of money” that have typically been off limits.

One example: Legislators could shift petroleum property taxes from local governments to the state. Gov. Dunleavy proposed that shift in 2019, which would have resulted in $400 million in new state revenue, but legislators rejected the idea, in part because it would have required municipalities to make up the cost difference.

Goode declined to say whether she would have supported the governor’s veto of a permanent public school funding increase but said that if Alaska really wanted to attract teachers, a traditional dividend would be a powerful incentive.

She said she’s “always a hawk” on privacy issues and has extensive experience and knowledge of issues pertaining to the unorganized borough, the broad swath of Alaska that exists beyond organized local government boundaries.

“What I normally tell folks, is that if my district elects to send me down there, they’re not sending a legislator who’s new. They’re sending somebody down there with a whole lot of experience, and actually some more experience than some legislators already have down there,” Goode said.

Goode’s campaign has been mostly self-funded, with more than $12,600 in cash and materials coming from the candidate herself.

Brandon “Putuuqti” Kowalski The youngest candidate, at age 30, Kowalski was born in Fairbanks, raised in that city and Kotzebue, and graduated from West Valley High School before attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“I’ve kind of lived a life of broad experiences,” he said.

He pursued a master’s degree in biology at the university before switching careers and becoming a certified structural welder.

“I wanted to work with my hands, and it’s an incredibly useful skill — welding,” Kowalski said. “I think careers in the trades are kind of undersold to our students.”

In his 20s, he worked a variety of jobs, including as a driller’s helper at Red Dog Mine near Kotzebue, and as a laborer.

On the campaign trail, “for the most part, education is on the forefront of almost everyone’s minds,” Kowalski said, but he’s also heard plenty from prospective voters about the ongoing subsistence fishing crisis, particularly along the Yukon River.

Kowalski said that if elected, his main goals are to support a permanent increase to the state’s per-student funding formula, grow the economy while supporting unions, and protecting traditional subsistence hunting and fishing.

Though he’s running as a Democrat, Kowalski said his first priority is the residents of his district.

“If I were to be elected, I’d go to Juneau understanding that, and I would feel more beholden to the people of the district than I do to any party ideology,” he said.

Kowalski’s campaign had raised about $15,700 through Wednesday, with large donations from family members and union groups.

Dana Mock Mock is a 50-year-old defense contractor employed at Fort Greely, near Delta Junction. Born in Florida, he’s lived in the Delta Junction area for 19 years.

He has two sons, Benjamin and Joseph, and is a U.S. Army veteran, honorably discharged in 2002 after 10 years of service, he said in his official candidate profile.

President-elect of the Association of Alaska School Boards, he’s president of the Delta Greely School District’s board.

Mock is the only Republican in the race to say that he would have voted against Dunleavy’s veto of this year’s education bill.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to do what’s best for our communities, so I think I definitely would have voted against the governor’s veto and (in favor of) trying to get the budget increase,” he said.

Mock said in his statement to the Division of Elections that the state’s lack of a pension program is hurting public school teachers and public safety personnel. He also said the state should “fund the PFD as designed.”

Those positions have garnered Mock some support from traditionally Democratic supporters, and his Democratic opponent, Kowalski, praised him.

“Dana’s a great guy, and we share a lot of the same viewpoints, especially when it comes to education,” Kowalski said.

Mock has raised about $3,700 for his campaign, with most of that total coming from labor union groups. Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, has also donated to Mock.

Rebecca Schwanke An assistant hunting guide, wildlife consultant and small-business owner, 48-year-old Rebecca Schwanke was born in Fairbanks and is a lifelong Alaska resident.

Schwanke has one son, Caden, and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

She has lived in the Copper River Basin for 22 years and has served on the Copper River School Board since 2018.

“I feel like I’ve been able to connect with an awful lot of different individuals on so many different issues,” she said of her campaign to date.

“I’m a subsistence fisherman. My son is a commercial fisherman. I am a subsistence hunter. I hold an assistant guide license. I have worked as an assistant guide periodically. I have friends that are guides,” she said. “I live in rural Alaska. I am a member of large conservation groups because I really, truly feel like we are stronger together — rural Alaska and urban Alaska — we have a lot more in common than we have differences.”

She said maximizing the state’s economic potential without destroying its natural resources is a key priority.

By phone on a drive from Wasilla to Nenana, she said her candidacy was inspired by the position of her son, now a teenager.

“Knowing what I do about the state of education in our state, having lived in rural Alaska most of my life in the last 22 years out in the Copper River Basin, and six years on our local school board, I have a lot of concerns for our young people, and they really are not prepared well for job searches in the state,” she said.

If Schwanke had been in office during the past year, she would have voted to sustain the governor’s education veto, she said, explaining that she would have liked to see more “accountability measures” to ensure that the money was spent properly.

She also opposes the revival of a state pension program and supported a bill banning transgender girls from girls sports teams, based on her experience coaching coed youth hockey.

She said she seeks herself as like Cronk, the incumbent, and wouldn’t “step into a Democrat caucus” if she were elected, but knows that success in the Legislature means getting along with everybody.

Schwanke’s campaign had raised about $12,500 through Wednesday, with donations from people throughout the district and some prominent Republicans outside it, including Joe Balash of Santos, former state Rep. Ralph Samuels, and Heath Hilyard, chief of staff to Speaker of the House Cathy Tilton.

Cole Snodgress Born and raised in Fairbanks, Snodgress met and married his wife in 2015, and they have two girls. A senior mine engineer for Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., Snodgress lives north of Fairbanks and at age 32 is the second-youngest candidate in the race.

He said that in the 48 hours of turmoil following Cronk’s withdrawal from the race, he thought deeply about what it might mean if “one big-government-spend candidate who doesn’t understand how the state gets its money” were to be elected, affecting Alaska’s next 20-30 years.

“And so that kind of spurred me on to go down to the Division of Elections, to file and make a candidacy run and see what the people have to say,” Snodgress said.

Snodgress has never held public office and said that if elected, he’d be interested in constraining spending in order to help pay a traditional Permanent Fund dividend.

The state doesn’t have enough revenue to pay for a dividend under the traditional formula without also making severe budget cuts, so Snodgress said he would be willing to support a statewide sales tax if needed.

He’d like to see more public land in private hands in order to encourage agriculture. Only about 2% of the state’s food comes from within Alaska, he said, and that’s a problem that needs attention.

As he’s traveled through the district, he’s also had his eyes opened about the scale of the ongoing salmon crisis in rural Alaska, he said. Fishing restrictions due to low runs have stopped subsistence fishing for years now.

“When I was in Fort Yukon, I knocked on every inhabitable building I could find — that was probably over 200 doors,” he said. “And the No. 1 issue was, ‘Why in the world are we not allowed to put our wheels or our rods in the river and pull from a source that we’ve been doing for hundreds of years?’”

Through Wednesday, Snodgress had raised about $9,000 from a variety of donors inside and outside the district.

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