Alaska House Candidate Justin Ruffridge was the featured guest at the most recent Kenai/Soldotna Joint Chamber Luncheon. The event was a House District 7 Candidate Forum where Ruffridge is challenging incumbent Rep. Ron Gillham, who was invited, was not in attendance. Both candidates are Republicans. The question-and-answer subjects ranged from constitutional convention, ranked choice voting, the fishery industry, vaccines, legislative and special sessions, state spending, education funding, and the AK LNG project.
Ruffridge spoke on staying in touch with his constituents if he is elected:
“I think talking to people is imperative. I’ve been going door to door for four months now, talking with people and I ask one question – what are the issues that are important to you? There’s a lot of consensus amongst people, it’s surprising actually, how many people agree on what they want to see done in Juneau, some of the concerns they have. I think that, frankly, it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to go door-to-door, but I don’t know any more efficient way of getting to know people. It’s very difficult to get people to attend events, even, or seminars or town halls. Often times, you do have to just go to where they’re at and that’s home and say, ‘what’s important to you’, and I’ve really enjoyed that process. I was initially a little nervous about what that looks like.”
Ruffridge talks on what can be moderate the divide in state politics:
“Yeah, I have been in the spotlight, in the hot seat, I guess on some politicization or some polarization of some issues since the day I sat on City Council. We’ve had some hot button topics come forward, and I think, especially this process of going door-to-door has proved to be an invaluable opportunity because you find that there is a huge amount of common ground amongst people.”
The candidate forum was hosted by KSRM’s Merrill Sikorski. The House District 7 race has Ruffridge challenging incumbent Rep. Ron Gillham, which will be determined through Ranked Choice Voting in the general election, which is dated for November 8, 2022.
Click player below to listen to entire candidate forum: