State House candidates share views, policies and opinions

Jeremy Bynum, Grant EchoHawk and Agnes Moran are running to fill the state House seat vacated by 10-year incumbent Dan Ortiz, who decided not to seek a sixth term.

The election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the first count, the third-place finisher will be eliminated and voters who picked that candidate as their top choice will have their votes recounted using their second choice. Whoever has the most votes in that second count will win the seat representing Ketchikan, Wrangell and Metlakatla.

The Ketchikan Daily News interviewed the three candidates. The Sentinel edited the interviews for length and to focus on issues of interest to Wrangell voters.

Jeremy Bynum

Jeremy Bynum said he is running because "if you don't like what people are doing, the only way to change it is to be involved."

After serving in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, Bynum obtained a degree in electrical engineering from Portland State University and joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is manager of the Ketchikan Public Utilities Electric Division and serves on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly.

"The state has some tremendous challenges," including funding and management of the Alaska Marine Highway System and limitations on how Alaska can harvest its natural resources, such as oil. He also said housing and school funding are major issues in Southeast.

Bynum said he believes he's different from the other candidates in that he openly says what he stands for. "I'm not afraid to say that I'm a Republican. I know that's a scary thing to say sometimes with the political dynamic, but I believe in a free-market enterprise. I believe in trying to minimize taxes. I also believe in taking care of our communities."

Bynum said his policy and budget goals include effective education funding, a functioning state ferry system and state solutions for housing availability.

There are going to be things that he and the governor agree and disagree on, he said. His response to people who are frustrated with Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration is that "we're going to find a common ground where we can have successes for District 1; and those things that we disagree with, we'll talk about it, and we'll try to figure out how we can either change his mind on certain things or find some kind of common middle ground."

Bynum said he thinks the ongoing rift between many Southeast Alaskans and the Dunleavy administration over the ferry system is one example of communication problems between residents and the governor.

"Because down here, we don't feel like the governor and the administration care at all, right? We think they're trying to kill it," Bynum said. "We're just going to have to do better job of communicating our needs to the governor's office."

Part of Bynum's strategy for securing policy and budget priorities would be caucusing with the majority caucus in the state House.

"Given that there's an opportunity for Republican majority, I will be part of the Republican majority. But if that's not a possibility, I'm also not going to not be part of a coalition or the majority for the sake of the party. My priority is the district. So that means coalition, then I'm going to be the best advocate for District 1 as part of a coalition."

In an October follow-up interview, Bynum said the only thing he can think of that would prevent him from caucusing in the majority is if it has a "predominant Democrat majority."

Grant EchoHawk

Grant EchoHawk said he is running because he enjoys being a voice for and contributing to the community.

"And I thought that, with the different advocacy work that I do, that it would really just make a lot of sense of moving to the state so I can continue to advocate for school funding, for programs for our most vulnerable, and ensuring that we have strong infrastructure and make it to where our municipal and our local communities can get the things that they need to ensure prosperity into the future."

EchoHawk works as a business loan specialist at the Tongass Federal Credit Union and serves as board treasurer for the Ketchikan Tribal Business Corp. He also recently finished a term on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly.

He recognizes that housing and school funding are issues in the community and believes he has been more vocal than other candidates about keeping Alaska wealth in Alaska.

"I do not see any reasonable reason why our Alaska communities, and particularly in House District 1, shouldn't have all the resources that we need for infrastructure, for ferry service, for our school districts, (for) support programs for those that need it, let's say behavioral health or anything that we need for our children to lift them out of poverty," EchoHawk said.

He explained that he would focus on finding more revenue instead of cutting program budgets but would have to "look under the hood and see exactly where we have revenue opportunities."

"I'm very uncomfortable about very profitable corporations receiving any kind of tax subsidy, any kind of anything, any kind of rebates, any kind of handouts that are going to take away from revenue that we could use in our communities," he said.

"I think that if a corporation is in the position to do a stock buyback, then that should disqualify them from any kind of tax subsidies whatsoever because they are obviously doing quite well. A stock buyback only serves executive compensation and the wealthiest shareholders and I think that revenue - our revenue from Alaska - is needed in our communities, not sitting in the stock market."

He also said he has been more vocal about keeping the government focused on appropriate topics and responsibilities.

"I'm concerned about government overreaching and intruding in people's lives, intruding in people's homes, intruding into people's bodies, intruding into people's bedrooms," EchoHawk said. "I'm concerned about taking too much time, energy and resources and over-regulating the population, rather than taking that time, energy and resources to actually improve the lives of Alaskans."

To achieve his policy goals, which include securing proper school funding, EchoHawk said his borough assembly experience would benefit him if elected to the House. As an assembly member, EchoHawk said his colleagues told him that he was "respectful and courteous" while still offering his point of view and without attacking or being discourteous.

"I appreciated those comments and it meant the world to me, because that was kind of my goal of how I want to be a legislator - being cooperative, focusing on the areas that we agree on, and setting aside things that could prevent a conversation from moving forward due to ideological stances." He is running as a nonpartisan.

Agnes Moran

Agnes Moran said she is running because she wants to make sure her children have the same opportunities as she did while growing up in District 1.

"And currently that's just not the case," she said. "With the lack of affordable housing, the lack of economic opportunities, fisheries being on the ropes, it's a very different district from when I was coming up. I know what a thriving District 1 looks like, because I lived it and I'd like to get back to that."

Moran has an educational background in electrical engineering and is currently executive director of Women in Safe Homes and a member of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority board.

Born and raised in Ketchikan, Moran said she is familiar with Southeast issues.

"We have a lack of affordable housing, we've had flat funding for our schools, our fishing industry is in crisis, our marine highway system's in disarray, and we've had continual cuts to our Permanent Fund dividend."

She said her "established track record of identifying a problem, bringing a solution and getting the right people to the table" is what differentiates her from other candidates.

"I built a domestic violence sexual assault shelter - brought a new one online, renovated our community services building," Moran said. "I built a housing program. I built a food distribution program. I secured funding to place counselors and social workers into Metlakatla and Ketchikan schools. I developed a community services program that provides services and support to at-risk families."

Moran said the key to completing these projects was identifying the correct people to work with, and then being able to work with them.

"For example, when I was working with the police department, we went to them and said that there's this project we'd like to see if you'd be willing to partner with us," Moran said. "If we were to do that, what would you benefit most from? And what they wanted were training funds. So, then I wrote training funds into that grant, and so it was mutually beneficial for both organizations."

Moran said it's not possible to place a shelter in every community. By partnering with law enforcement for grant funding, officers in those communities - including Metlakatla, Sitka, Wrangell and towns on Prince of Wales Island - have been trained to handle domestic violence cases.

Moran said to achieve her policy and budgeting goals for House District 1 - which include a return to the state's defined-benefits retirement program for public employees such as teachers and emergency responders as well as adequate Alaska Marine Highway System and Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute funding - "you need to listen, talk, and hear other people's concerns, hear what they need to make things possible" before working to resolve it.

Once there is a "sufficient number of people on board," Moran said it's harder for the governor to veto legislation.

She is running as a nonpartisan.