Soldotna’s Tuckerman Babcock filed his letter of intent to run for Alaska’s State Senate District D seat, currently held by incumbent Senate President Peter Micciche. Babcock formerly served as the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party as well as having previously served as Chief of Staff for Governor Mike Dunleavy.
Babcock told KSRM of the importance of going to high school with Tom Begich, who is now the Senate Minority Leader:
“It just goes to show you that it’s a small state and you develop relationships and friendships even if your politics are very, very different. That’s important for what I see in Juneau right now which is so much deadlock and so much inability to move forward on a fiscal plan, move forward on a plan to preserve the dividend and fund the dividend in a predictable manner. With my relationship with the governor and with other legislators, Kristie and I, my wife, we just decided it was our duty and obligation to run for the State Senate.”
Babcock says that he aims to earn the trust of prospective constituents on the Kenai Peninsula:
“What I’m going to do is work hard to introduce myself to people and ask for their vote and earn their trust. One of the things is that I’ve helped many people and I love helping people get involved in civic affairs and encouraging people to because the challenge of self-government is very demanding. For 40 years, it’s been something that’s really driven me to be involved and to encourage other people to run. I realize when you run it’s all about trust and so reaching out to people and asking for their vote and campaigning, I’m not going to bank on anything. I will, of course, point out my experience and my knowledge of the system and of the people who are there now and my motivation out of principle.”
With ranked-choice voting, all candidates running for a specific office run in the primary together, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. Then, voters rank the candidates by their political preference.
The final day to file as a candidate for the Primary Election in Alaska is on or before 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, 2022.