The Municipality of Anchorage must certify the results of the last Assembly and School Board elections on April 26. Before then, on the 18th of this month, it will have awarded seats to new representatives. Early indications of these results in mid-April pointed to a moderate political situation. It appears that the city will have enough representatives in the Assembly to be able to control, and if necessary, overrule, the decisions of Republican Mayor Dave Bronson.
As this issue of Sol de Medianoche went to press, election data advanced to mid-April gave most votes in each district to Kevin Cross; Kameron Perez-Verdia; Meg Zaletel; Forrest Dunbar and Randy Sulte, in the Assembly, and Margo Bellamy and Kelly Lessens on the School Board. Based on each candidate’s campaign promises, let’s hope that the renewed Assembly will make it possible “to put people before politics in Anchorage” (Zaletel); that it will accurately reflect, and consequently respect, “the diversity of the city” (Dunbar), with “inclusive politics” (Sulte); with a Municipality that is sensitive to “the problems of all citizens” (Perez-Verdia) and, among these, “immigrants” (Cross), and that our School Board cares thoroughly for the health and safety of the entire school community and the quality of its teachers, hiring enough professionals and educators to ensure quality, supporting class size reduction, with integrated schools that improve outcomes for all students, and especially for students of color (Lessens and Bellamy.)
