Citizen pols

WASILLA — Bellyaching over Alaska’s governing bodies from the governor’s office to the legislature has made more than a few in The Last Frontier decide they’d had enough.

A select few have gone the extra mile, rolling up their sleeves and deciding they could, in fact, do more than just cast their vote to ‘throw the bums out.’ They might dare to become one of said ‘bums’ themselves.

Tim Hale, a construction site surveyor by trade, remembers his final step into the political arena being in something like a fugue state.

“I like to joke around that I had a little bit of a psychotic break when I walked into the Division of Elections,” Hale said of his registering to run as a non-affiliated candidate for Senate Seat F.

Gaining experience and confidence every day, Hale has been steadily chasing veteran politician Shelley Hughes, who is looking to jump from the house to the senate in the seat of the outgoing Bill Stoltz.

Hale said that what got him into politics in the first place was an aspiration to possibly open his own cannabis dispensary.

“After it passed I was looking to cultivate, so I started following the legislation, then started following everything else more closely,” Hale said. “I was testifying in front of subcommittees by telephone and writing letters to Assembly members, pretty soon I found myself doing public testimony that wasn’t even related to cannabis. We had all these special sessions; all this wasted money and nothing got done for a stable financial future for our state.”

Always speaking from the top of his head with little filtration, Hale often puts forth clever, if not so practical suggestions, such as building a man camp in Juneau for legislators to reside until they get a budget deal done.

“I don’t have any kind of money, this is a completely grassroots campaign,” Hale said. “I’ve been knocking on doors every day the last six weeks. That’s really the basis of my campaign — I talk to voters.”

Unlike Hale, House District 11 candidate Bert Verrall also had a somewhat surreal experience walking in to register, mere hours from the deadline.

“I went in and said, ‘has anyone signed up to run against the party in charge?’” Verrall said. “The woman there said, ‘no’ and I said, ‘well, I can’t believe I’m doing this’ and started to turn in my paperwork. She said, ‘that’s what everybody says — I never thought I’d be doing this.’”

As a non-affiliated candidate, Verrall shared the stage with Republican hopefuls Richard Best and DeLena Johnson in District 11 in candidate forums, and after a rocky beginning, started to find his footing in public speaking and in generating support.

On Saturday, his supporters flooded the intersection of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and the Glenn Highway with “Bert in the House” signs.

Always quick to point out the Republican has won the District 11 seat for 11 consecutive elections, Verrall likens himself to the long-suffering Chicago Cubs finally winning the World Series.

“The learning curve is huge… there’s so much to learn if you get elected, no many nuances we don’t even know yet,” Verrall said. “I kind of think of Juneau as a secret little club, and we’ll find out if it still is on Tuesday.”

Contrary to the assumption that the secret to getting elected in small districts in a small state is to knock on as many doors as possible, Verrall has employed the tactics of the first Republican to start the streak Johnson is looking to continue. In 1994, Scott Ogan, who, Verrall said, used the supervoter list to start calling strategically.

“I initially got the sense after hours on the road that talking three people an hour, I thought I could make better use of my time,” he said. “A lot of Alaskans don’t like strangers coming to their door — and not just out of town — in what I call trick-or-treat neighborhoods, too.”

So, he paid the department of elections $20 for a list of ‘supevoters’ and bought a bunch of postcards.

“I tried to make myself available on the side or the road with signs explaining who I was and I wrote 2,500 personal postcards… Maybe that will be my secret weapon.”

Meanwhile in District 7, Sherie Olson is a newcomer to the political scene as the Democratic challenger to Wasilla City Council member Colleen Sullivan-Leonard.

Olson, who was previously an independent, and only became a Democrat when forced to in order to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary, cited a rather unexpected origin for her sudden political ambitions.

“My kids are adults, so I was unaware kids in school no longer have to learn cursive writing,” she said. “It makes no sense to raise a generation of people who can’t read the Constitution because it’s in cursive.”

Olson identifies with cursive writing in an equally unexpected way.

“As an African-American and knowing there was a time when people had no signatures and were (kept from voting) deliberately,” Olson said. “(Cursive) is necessary for individuality.”

Olson also cites what she sees as underfunding of senior citizens in the Mat-Su Valley as a reason for her candidacy, but what’s most affected her path was a car crash in Wasilla on June 6, 2012, which resulted in multiple fractures up and down her body.

“I was in a 100 mph head-on collision on Seward Meridian and Bogard,” Olson said. “After surviving that it took me a year-and-a-half to learn how to walk again. I am opiate-free and I self-medicate with medical marijuana and I do have a (card).”

Olson believes marijuana can be used as an alternative to opioids, and when informing her doctor of this plan before finally walking out of the hospital, he was dubious, to put it mildly.

“He put his hand to his forehead and said, ‘Sherie, out of all the years I’ve been a doctor, you’re the only patient to ask me to take them off all pain pills,’” Olson said.

Of the three newcomer longshots, Olson’s shot is the longest, but she remains confident in her chances, despite accepting no campaign money.

“I have been going to Sacred Heart Church over 30 years and I know quite a few people who live within my district,” Olson said. “Finger Lake district is on my block even; I have tremendous ties here. Honestly, I’ve already envisioned myself winning.”

Hale, 38, said that even if he doesn’t upset Hughes, he’s just getting started, though he doesn’t see himself vying for a party’s nomination.

“I don’t agree with enough of each party’s platform that I feel I can self-identify as one or the the other. On the other hand, they do give a lot of advantages, so, probably not — but that can all change,” Hale said. “They got me talking now and I’m not going to shut up.”

Verrall said that even if he loses Tuesday, it won’t be the last we see of him on ballots.

“I’m not a Republican or Democrat, I feel I’m bi-partisan. There’s things on the right I like, things on the left I like. I am what I am,” Verrall said. “It’s a good year to be an independent.”