There are two races that SEAS is concentrating on heavily this fall.
1. Senator Bert Stedman has been an outstanding supporter of commercial fisheries throughout Southeast Alaska. his district spans from Haines to Hydaburg and Ketchikan, with Wrangell, Sitka, Hoonah , Angoon, Pelican, PA, Klawock, Craig and Kake in between.
Senator Stedman has been a major fixture in Southeast since appointed in 2003 by then- Governor Frank Murkowski.
We are very supportive of his candidacy as we have always been.
2. For House races, our focus has been on Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins of Sitka. His district is a subset of Stedmans- make that Chairman Stedman's- district. Kreiss-Tomkins has spent 2 long dinners at the Alaska Fishermen's Building this fall already and he has knocked on each and every door in the district, which includes Sitka, Haines, Pelican, Hoonah, Angoon, Craig, Klawock, Hydaburg Kasaan, Kake, and Port Alexander.
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is running in a district that processes 40% of all the salmon caught in Southeast Alaska. The fishermen who live in his district harvest around 1/4 od the salmon and the streams and rivers in his district produce about 1/2 of our salmon. For those of you SEAS members and businesses in the Sitka and Craig areas or if you do business with fishermen in these areas this is the most important race you have had in your lifetime, aside from the Stedman race, which we view as equally important.
Kreiss Tomkins is a 23 year old Yale grad -- almost a grad, with a couple credits to finish up.
He has a very balanced approach to commercial fisheries and has made a committee to treat all commercial fishermen fairly and not to place undue pressure on ADFG managers but to allow them to do their job without political interference. We are impressed with his eagerness to listen and learn and his long attention span. One of our dinners was over 4 hours with most of it being a Thorstenson-Wallace monologue.
No comments:
Post a Comment