November 9, 2025
The following is adapted from a speech I gave in early October supporting Anchorage efforts and progressive poitical collegues and their work.
Good evening
I want to start by acknowledging and Thanking all of You for being a part of electing a Mayor who has brought her private and civic experience, leadership skills, and vision to the office, and for being here tonight as a community of people who believe government can work — when we put the right people in charge of it.
When I was asked to close tonight’s program, I was told initially I’d have 15 minutes. Then I was told, maybe 6 minutes. That is not going to happen.
Now that I’ve got the mic, your attention — and a room full of problem solvers — I need a little more than six minutes. In fact, I need the next year of your attention.
Because the work ahead of us is urgent. And it’s work worth doing.
Before I get in to a policy message, I have to brag for just a minute about my district — House District 9 — the gateways to the Chugach Mountains from Basher to Girdwood, through the Ashton Memorial tunnel to the Prince William Sound at Whittier, and extending in to the Kenai Peninsula down the Seward Highway and Alaska Railroad.
We’ve got glaciers, a world-class ski resort and a lifetime of places to explore in the Chugach State Park and Chugach National Forest. We have salmon and hooligan runs, and Belugas! And the Wildlife Conservation Center, Iditarod Trail, and Flattop, the most climbed mountain in Alaska.
We’ve got two airports; and in Whittier, a ferry terminal, cruise ship docks, barge dock and transfer yards, and the rail barge and railroad. And we’ve got energy in a regional gas pipeline and electrical transmission line connecting the Kenai Peninsula to South Central and beyond to Fairbanks.
We’ve got amazing people – teachers, engineers, nurses, contractors, managers, and retirees — some living in yurts and others in executive homes, all in the same community.
Some of your may know of my work asking the question, “What’s Next Alaska?”. I started asking that question because we are not lacking for people or opportunity, or even money and resources.
What we’ve lacked is focus and a positive, bold opportunity narrative about our future rather than our current challenges — the unity and courage to rebuild a virtuous cycle of improvement, rather than getting stuck in a vicious cycle of decline.
We’ve been satisfied to complain and manage our decline rather than investing to build our future.
When I ran as an Independent, a few folks accused me of being “just a lying Democrat.”
I told them, “No — I’m just an Alaskan who’s tired of politics getting in the way of progress.”
With the support of pragmatic people like you, we flipped the seat I won to moderate representation focused on education, opportunity, and building the next economy for Alaska — one rooted in diversification, innovation, and people who stay because they can see a future here.
And with that seat flipped I ultimately had one job to do – support education funding including, if necessary, be prepared to be the vote to override a veto – that was the job I was asked to do, and I’m proud to have gotten that job done!
That’s one example of a “Get it Done” Result, and I have you to thank.
But with that optimism in the campaign last year, reality has set in.
I said during my campaign last year that I didn’t want to use the word “fight.” I didn’t want to tell voters I was going to Juneau to “fight for them”. That was not me, or how I have gotten work done in the past and its not how wanted to work with others or get work done in the future.
I wanted to solve problems, collaborate, negotiate, innovate… in the fall of 2024 that made sense; there was work to be done, and decades of work in the community and business taught me to work with diverse people, not against them, as if they were the enemy.
It didn’t want to be fighting the people I wanted to work with. I wanted the words and ethos of “fight” to be left out of the campaign.
But I’ve changed my mind.
There are in fact people who are harming our communities and have weaponized their political tools.
It needs to end.
Our country has shifted from its government being known for its potential for what we can do together, to being a government, that is becoming, for lack of a better word, MEAN.
This must stop.
I had to wake up and realize that it is time to fight, to fight for what others have fought to create and defend.
Because when democracy is under siege — collaboration isn’t enough.
We need to fight.
Not against each other — but for each other.
For our communities, for the institutions that keep us safe, and for the belief that efficient, competent, and effective government is worth supporting and defending.
Look at what’s happening right here in Anchorage.
The Mayor inherited a mess — years of dysfunction, distrust, and damage — and she’s been quietly, persistently, rebuilding competence. Frankly, I told her when she started that I was concerned that it would be too much ever to fix or to put on a path of improvement in a single term as mayor and get a chance to finish the work.
But look where we are at. Snow removal works again. Finances are stabilizing.
The city’s tackling housing and homelessness with a real strategy, not slogans.
Her administration has rebuilt our wildfire defense capacity — protecting places like Basher and Bear Valley with smart, long-term planning, and strategic projects to protect our community.
And, a shout out to my friends, neighbors, and colleagues in the Wildland Urban Interface Citizens Advisory Team for their work with the administration and the Wildfire Office. Under Mayor Lafrances’ administration, community wildfire prevention planning is quickly advancing with an unprecedented level of positive and productive community engagement.
That’s what good government looks like — practical people solving hard problems, with the community and administration working in a partnership focused on positive outcomes and a better future for the next generation.
This week, the Mayor, in a meeting with diverse Anchorage legislators shared the progress, challenges and an invitation to work together! And what we saw over and over in the reports was the quality and competence of the people the mayor had brought to her team to stabilize problems with limited resources and work with business partners in multifaceted solutions, and as she noted, solutions that would not just push the problem to our friends in Palmer.
That is what is happening and what we should expect.
But one of the things I’ll also remember from the meeting was the footer on the Agenda letterhead from the Mayor’s office. It read
”Good Government.
Safe Streets and Trails.
Building our Future!
(Yes with an !)
That’s what we need to fight to protect.
And, I wish that were where I could stop and get off the stage tonight… but there is more, and I’ve got the mic!
”Good Government. Safe Streets and Trails. Building our Future!
That’s why our “Get it Done” work matters.
Because we need to get something done and it’s about action. But what’s the right action?
Its going to come from electing leaders who will put People first, followed by good public Policy, working through practical Politics — People, Policy, Politics – in that order.
We’ve seen it upside down for too long — Does it make sense to put party politics first, followed by policy for power second, and people last? Party, Policy, People – it’s been in the wrong order – it is wrong.
It’s time to flip the priorities of power and purpose back where it belongs.
People. Policy. Politics.
That’s not a slogan — that’s the formula for getting the right work done, taking action to restore trust in local government and rebuilding Alaska’s confidence in itself. And it is a path to restoring the idea that your elected political leaders are serving people, and that politics, used to craft sound practical policy, is good work, and that politics can work FOR people.
We need good people in politics, not running away, like I did the first time I was asked a few years ago to run for the assembly during the assembly-administration mask wars.
We need efforts like the Get it Done to attract and support elected officials dedicated to the future of our communities.
If we want to save our democracy, it starts right here — in Anchorage, in local races, with candidates who have gone door to door and met people in the community on their doorsteps to learn about their challenges and their priorities, candidates who show and are committed to government that can actually work.
Because when people stop believing that government can work and create the vital infrastructure and programs we depend on, they stop participating and reject supporting public programs, and as we’ve seen they will support empty political promises and pandering candidates who will focus on breaking down our public systems rather than improving them.
And that’s when we all lose.
Economist Ben Friedman wrote the book The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth — (I recommend each of you read it to get a deeper understanding of our times and a path forward.) he had a simple point: when people see their future improving, they act with hope, not hate.
When they see stagnation and decline in lives, they turn inward and angry.
Where the middle class goes, so goes our democracy — and Alaska’s middle class has been packing up and leaving.
That’s why the Mayor’s work matters — it’s restoring the foundation that helps people at the core of our community believe again in their communities future and their own potential,
So here’s my ask.
Tonight, I’m asking you not just to clap when we are done, but to commit to the work ahead in the next year.
To commit your time, your voice, and yes, your money — to electing practical, capable leaders in 2026 who will rebuild confidence in government and make it work again.
Let’s show that Anchorage — and Alaska — still know how to get it done.
Why is that important?
Because I believe that expectations of government are set locally by the actions closest to a voter. What we do here in our local races and how our local government functions sets the tone and expectation for what voters will expect. Our local races and the conversations they create can change the course elections in the next year in our community, state, and country.
What we Get Done Here – Matters
It’s time to stop managing the decline of our communities.
It’s time to stop accepting it as unavoidable that we’ll be buying plane tickets to visit our kids in the Lower 48 or picking the next schools to close — and it is time to start building the kind of Alaska our friends and family want to not just visit us to Play, but to STAY, and come home to.
Together — with the Mayor, and with all of you — we can do that.
We can elect leaders who’s focus is on building a future that’s not just sustainable, but inspiring, and full of potential for future generations of Alaskans.
Leaders who are committed to building trust, competence, and vibrant communities.
A future where our public leaders get the priorities in the right order – People, Policy, then Politics
So let’s roll up our sleeves —
and let’s get it done.
Ky