From 1990 to 2018, the Homer area had been represented in the Alaska House by one Democrat and three Republicans: Mike Navarre, Gail Phillips, Drew Scalzi and Paul Seaton. All were politically moderate and all worked with others in the Alaska State House to write and pass legislation important to Alaskans on the lower Kenai Peninsula. All of them communicated regularly with constituents via newsletters and/or interviews on our local public radio station KBBI.
This changed in 2018 when Sarah Vance won in a primary over Paul Seaton, who had previously been voted “the most effective legislator” by his peers in the Alaska House. He lost primarily because he chose to work with all sides to pass legislation and keep the state running.
Well, we got what a majority of voters wanted, an ineffective legislator who is beholden to special interests. Since Vance’s election she has closely aligned herself with the far-right representatives from the Mat-Su Valley and Gov. Mike Dunleavy. A few years ago, she closeted herself with these representatives, away from Juneau, depriving the House of a quorum during critical negotiations about the budget, a budget that affected all of us on the southern peninsula.
In March she cast the deciding vote to uphold Dunleavy’s veto of the education bill. This bill was negotiated and passed with bipartisan support (and Vance voted for this bill initially). However, when it was vetoed, instead of supporting the students in her district, she followed the direction of the governor and voted to sustain his veto. This vote deprived Alaska schools of much needed funds, funds that have been stagnant for a decade or so.
Her supporters try to justify her vote by saying “test scores are poor and need to improve before more money was granted.” How ludicrous is this argument? Teachers and employees of the school districts have been working with limited funds for years, most are underpaid and overworked. Classes and programs have been cut and eliminated. How can anyone expect any organization to excel under these circumstances.
Those who say increasing the base student allocation is “throwing money at the problem” are sadly mistaken and as a result another year passes with underfunded schools and undereducated students.
Vance’s vote to sustain the veto shows who she represents: Gov. Dunleavy and the block who primarily support charter schools and who are content to see public education fail. She has not represented the vast majority of us who support the backbone of our nation, public education.
In addition she has vocally opposed women’s right to reproductive health care. She was “excused” from voting on the bill that allowed pharmacies to dispense one year of contraceptives to women instead of the limit now of 90 days. This bill eliminated the need for women to travel to pharmacies every three months (often a significant journey for women in rural areas). This bill was negotiated over eight years and passed with a large bipartisan vote. To date Vance hasn’t given a reason for being excused. So we’ll never know if she feared going on record in support or opposition to this bill. By the way, Dunleavy has since vetoed this bill.
This last week the Anchorage Daily News reported that during the last legislative session Vance torpedoed her own election reform bill that would have made it easier for rural Alaskans, who primarily vote by mail, to have their ballots counted. In an interview this week House Speaker Cathy Tilton (who is a Republican) thinks this late opposition to the bill happened because some Republicans thought this bill might have increased the Native Alaskan vote for Mary Peltola!
Since Vance is more supportive of the extreme right wing of the Dunleavy Republican party than she is of her constituents here on the southern peninsula she does not deserve another term in the House. We need a representative who is centered, not radical, one who will whole-heartedly support education, not vote the whims of an anti-education governor. One who supports reproductive freedom, not someone who shies away from voting on a bill that assures Alaskan women consistent availability of contraception. One who will communicate regularly with their constituents, unlike Vance, who only meets occasionally in a local coffee house.
We need to return to the kind of representation we had for the 30 years before Sarah Vance. Brent Johnson will fill those shoes admirably.
Hal Smith, MD, is a retired emergency physician who was medical director of the South Peninsula Hospital Emergency Department from 1987 to 2017.