Statewide issues were discussed as KSRM’s coverage of Decision 2022 focused on the House District 6 race. The Tuesday evening radio forum focused on the race to fill a two-year term seat for the Alaska House District 6.
Incumbent Sarah Vance and challengers Ginger Bryant and Louie Flora spoke on issues impacting the State of Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula in advance of the General Election on Tuesday, November 8.
The subjects discussed included the Ranked Choice Voting, party politics, abortion, Homer large vessel port expansion, permanent fund dividend, and labor shortages.
The candidates discussed what steps they would take as a house representative to move the Homer Large Vessel Port Expansion forward.
Sarah Vance:
“Oh, this is a project that I’m very excited about. And last year I knew that we needed to get the Army Corp. match funding on that and I worked ahead and went to talk with Senator Micciche about that because, and with our Senator, knowing that we needed to get that funding in place to take advantage of Federal dollars. I’m going to continue to advocate that and work with our Senators, because the capital budget originates in the senate. To see what we can do to prioritize that, but I’ve also spoke with with Mayor Bronson of Anchorage as he’s putting the pitch for our Port of Alaska. And getting the conversation about the overall support that we need to have for all the ports that they are not in competition with one another, but they are supportive together as a whole. And so I’ve been advocating across different voices on the importance of the Port of Homer and how important it is for the entire region.”
Ginger Bryant:
“I would try and get all funding sources on board and bring everybody to the table. We need to make sure that this project goes forward and thank you Sarah for being the one on this. And we to bring it home, because we can go with the Department of Defense, because it could be one of the strategic places for them. It’s also our food source, I mean if something happens, if we have a earthquake or some many Alaskan things that is the number one port that brings in our food. Department of Transportation, it is the marine highway, it is for so they can bring in projects and it’s also tourism, I mean it’s the number one thing so, all of these things and all of these reasons it is the number one thing that we need to do and we need to train maybe bring up the young women, train them in the marine arts, train them with the skills needed and let’s move forward.”
Louie Flora:
“Well this is another instance where it really you know, it’s really important to have a law maker in Juneau representing the district that is going to vote for budgets. You know we can’t rely solely on Senator Stevens to get the funds necessary for the port expansion and the studies. So, as a lawyer maker the first thing I would do is support a strong budget and work through the capital budget process to bolster funding there, but I would also work with the Governors office to get the Governor and other lawmakers to work on capital funding and from Washington DC and work with our congressional delegation, because I think there’s a significant amount of infrastructure money that’s available and Alaska needs to aggressively go after that. I do not believe the current administration is working hard enough to access funding for infrastructure projects , so I would definitely work hard with the administration to pressure them into going forward and seeking those grants.”
Click the player below to listen to the candidate election forum in case you didn’t have an opportunity to:
