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Senate race gains another write-in candidate

Willow King

The race for Senate District O has been one of the more turbulent on the Peninsula this election season. Senator Peter Micciche narrowly won the Republican primary in August. That prompted his challenger, Ron Gillham to launch a write-in campaign. And now, with less than two weeks until election day, another write-in candidate has thrown her hat in.

Willow King of Soldotna hopes to offer voters a different choice on the ballot.

"I was born in Soldotna. I was named Willow because at the time of my birth, the state of Alaska was considering moving the capital to Willow.”

And now, Willow wants to move to the capital. At least temporarily as a state senator. Even though the 38-year old mother of three just recently announced she’s giving a write-in campaign a shot, she’s been considering running since this spring.

“I was approached back in April by several community members asking if I would consider starting a campaign for Senate District O to run against Peter Micciche. At that point, it didn’t seem feasible that I could pull that off. I did have all of my paperwork lined up and ready to go and then at the last minute (decided) not to do that. Then the primaries happened and Ron Gillham and Peter Micciche were very close, at which point I started thinking again what that might look like and how I might be able to have an effect on the election.”

Not counting a portion of her childhood spent in Hawaii, King has always lived on the central peninsula, growing up in the commercial fishing industry. She says she wants to offer voters a choice.

“When I listen to these people that may become my representative, I’m not hearing (many) similarities to the way I think or the way that many of the people that I know in our community think about issues. And I get really tired of having people not represent the things that I find important."

At the top of the list is salmon. King is a supporter of ballot measure one, asking voters to approve updates to statewide habitat laws for fish. Both Micciche and Gillham are opposed. King says it’s past time for legislators to draft new language in Title 16 of state code dealing with fish habitat.

“I was an author on that original letter that recommended to the Board of Fish that they should recommend to the legislature that they should take a look at the wording in Title 16. All of that process went right on through until it got to the legislature and then...no such luck.”

King favors the two-track approach offered in the ballot measure, where small, routine projects throughout the state like roads, culverts, airport improvements are handled separately from bigger projects like deep pit mines. She says overall, there needs to be more transparency as the state is considering projects to develop its resources. Another issue King would be keen to address is the Permanent Fund Dividend. More specifically, the tax structures and other policies that feed the PFD with oil revenues.

“I don’t claim to be an accountant or a lawyer, but I think a more transparent oil tax law would benefit everyone, including oil companies and including the people of Alaska. I would like to see us get our permanent fund dividends, but unless we really modify the way that we tax oil companies and the way that we are able to go into the negative with oil taxes, we are not going to come out of this hole anytime soon.”

Statewide elections are November 6th.

 

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