Fairbanks House Race: Moderate v. Incumbent

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 29 October 2024 13:28

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By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    Two years ago, redistricting turned a tossup state House district in Fairbanks dark red.
    Now, this year’s election is between two different Republican approaches in House District 34 as moderate challenger Joy Beth Cottle faces conservative incumbent Rep. Frank Tomaszewski.
    Tomaszewski defeated Democratic Rep. Grier Hopkins in 2022 and has been endorsed for re-election by the Alaska Republican Party and the local Republican Party committee.
    He’s a longtime resident of the district and well-known locally, partly from his prior service on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly.
    In the August primary election, he earned 53.6% of the vote; Cottle had 46.4%.
    But Cottle isn’t a stranger to tough fights. She’s a firefighter, a captain of the department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the first woman to work as a firefighter at the Fairbanks Fire Department.
    A University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate, she started as a trainee firefighter at the university before moving to the city department, then back to the university. An expert in weight training, she’s helped other women gain the strength needed to pass the firefighters’ physical certification exam.
    “The physical test is quite arduous, and we do a training program that I designed during their initial firefighter training. And as a result, a great percentage of them actually are able to pass it. And it feels really good to be a part of that,” she said.
    Cottle and Tomaszewski are running in a large suburban and rural district that resembles a backward letter “C”. It covers the suburban Farmers Loop and Fox areas north of Fairbanks, swings east to cover the state’s unofficial dog mushing capital, Two Rivers, then south to Eielson Air Force Base and back west to Salcha after arcing around North Pole.
    The district is whiter and wealthier than Alaska’s average, with the second-lowest poverty rate among the state’s 40 House districts. Only 19% of residents identify as nonwhite, ranking it 37th out of 40 districts.
    Cottle is a political newcomer but decided to run for office on the last day of the filing period for a three main reasons, two stemming from major differences between her and Tomaszewski.
    Like many of the state’s firefighters, she supports reviving a pension program for public employees, she said during a September interview.
    Despite multiple attempts to schedule an interview, Tomaszewski couldn’t be reached through his office or his listed phone numbers. During the legislative session, Tomaszewski voted against advancing a pension bill and said he was concerned about the potential cost.
    During the legislative session this year, Tomaszewski cast one of the deciding votes against a bill that would have permanently increased the base student allocation, the core of the per-student funding formula for public schools.
    Tomaszewski initially voted for the bill, but after Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it, Tomaszewski voted to sustain the veto. The veto was upheld by one vote.
    Cottle disagreed with Tomaszewski’s vote, and it became another reason to run for office.
    “There are a fair number of families here in the district who have been or are looking into the future at being affected specifically by that education funding,” she said.
    Until shortly before the candidate filing period, Cottle was a registered “undeclared” voter. Her switch to being a registered Republican caused some local Republicans to call her a fake.
    That’s wrong, Cottle said.
    “I grew up in Delta Junction and spent some time out in Two Rivers living with no electricity or running water, and I very much subscribed to the Alaskan sort of mindset of privacy and freedom,” she said, “And I believe that I align more with the Republican Party in that way. Now, I’m not necessarily aligned with their social agenda, but the Second Amendment rights thing — I hunt, I fish, and have all my life. I think the party does a better job of protecting the values that I hold near and dear to my heart than the Democrats do.”
    Cottle and Tomaszewski have different positions on a plan to truck mined ore through the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Cottle has concerns about the plan, and Tomaszewski has been generally supportive. As a member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, Tomaszewski’s opposition helped kill a statement criticizing the plan.
    Tomaszewski has governed under evangelical Christian principles; in office, he cosponsored legislation that would redefine the definition of personhood, effectively outlawing abortion and most forms of fertility treatment.
    “I think in today’s environment where reproductive rights are under attack, that’s a pretty big difference between the two of us,” Cottle said.
    In an Oct. 21 candidate forum, Tomaszewski said he would not support a bill that would allow women to get up to 12 months’ worth of birth control medication at a time. Cottle said she would support it.
    Tomaszewski voted against advancing a bill that would have prohibited businesses and landlords from discriminating against someone because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
    It remains legal in Alaska — in places without local rules — to discriminate against someone because they are gay or lesbian.
    Tomaszewski also voted in support of a bill that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls school sports teams.
    Those positions caused Planned Parenthood’s campaign arm to oppose Tomaszewski’s re-election.
    When it comes to the transgender sports issue, Cottle said she would prefer that local school districts decide policy, not the state.
    “I’m not a particularly discriminatory person, and I recognize there needs to be safeguards in place, but I respect the school system to handle those sorts of matters. I don’t think that it’s the place of the state to get involved,” she said.
    Through the start of the month, Cottle had kept pace with Tomaszewski in terms of fundraising, an important measure of campaign support.
    Through Oct. 4, Cottle had raised more than $40,000 in support of her campaign. Tomaszewski had raised over $35,000. Updated financial figures were expected by today.
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https://alaskabeacon.com/james-brooks

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