Election preview House 11: Progressive facing incumbent for seat

Rep. DeLena Johnson is a lifelong Alaskan with a wealth of experience in Palmer. Eileen Pattersen moved to Alaska in 2014, bringing a great sense of enthusiasm with her.

The pair of women are running for the House of Representatives District 11 seat.

Johnson ran a small business before her successful mayoral bid where she served two terms in Palmer. She also ran the museum for two years. Johnson has a view of a vibrant, successful Alaskan future.

“On our license plate that I still have, it says ‘north to the future.’ I guess I’m one of those people that believes in that still, that we have a future we have a future in Alaska,” Johnson said. “I’m very optimistic about it. We’ve talked a lot of gloom and doom but I really think that if we look forward, there’s so much to be optimistic about.”

Johnson grew up in Talkeetna and earned her degree from the University of Alaska. She raised her five children in the Valley.

“I have a proven understanding of the challenges facing the people of the Mat-Su Valley,” Johnson’s website said.

There were very noticeable differences between Johnson and her opponent, Eileen Patterson, at the debate at Mat-Su College. Patterson attempted to answer every one of the questions on a sheet provided to candidates during her two-minute period. Johnson was asked if she supported second amendment rights and replied simply.

“Do I support second amendment rights? Yes,” Johnson said.

Johnson was not pleased with the lack action to repeal SB91 despite efforts by her and other legislators to fix a bill that many are blaming for the increase in crime.

“Police is one thing but if police are arresting people and putting them in jail and then the corrections are putting them right back out, or the courts are putting them right back out, it doesn’t matter how many police officers are there,” Johnson said.

Johnson carries an optimistic view of the future, and is hopeful that the price of oil will remain where it is currently.

“One of the things we’re seeing is we’re at over 80$ a barrel oil, and that means we may fully fund our budget from our income this year. No one’s talking about that! We should have fully funded budget this year. I’m excited about that,” Johnson said.

Johnson is further pleased with increased production from the North Slope.

“They did what we wanted them to do. We have some enormous finds on the North Slope,” Johnson said.

Johnson was not pleased with the PFD cut, and hopes to restore it to it’s original formula.

“I like the 50/50 plan. I like its simplicity. It’s a beautiful plan. The more I look at it, the more sense that it makes,” Johnson said.

Johnson defeated Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries by 523 votes in the primary election, and passed legislation to encourage lawmakers to get the state’s business done on time.

“I had a bill for ethics reform so we would stop the per diem at 120 days. I campaigned on that last time, and that got passed. That’s a big deal to me,” Johnson said.

Eileen Patterson’s name carries four E’s, but she is hoping to bring just two of them to Juneau: energy and enthusiasm. Patterson was inspired by a local lawmaker’s investment in Palmer to run for office. Patterson served in the military, including a tour in Iraq. She prescribed 90-day supplies of medication to soldiers, and recently realized she may have served as a cog in the wheel of addiction. Since moving to Alaska in 2014, she has become incredibly politically active, but is most proud of her service on the Opioid Taskforce.

“I got really obsessed with criminal justice reform,” Patterson said. “In my reentry work with Valley charities and with Mat-Su Opioid Taskforce, I was constantly trying to engage with my legislators because we run into political barriers. So we would invite all the legislators to come to public hearings, to come to wellness summits, the prevention summits, the meetings to talk and to meet, especially with our case management for reentry. Not one time to any of those invitations did DeLena Johnson show up.”

Patterson protested the Affordable Care Act in 2009, but has since changed parties from Tea Party to Progressive. Patterson has big dreams for national political reform that she hopes to start as District 11’s Representative in the House.

“Getting money out of politics, that’s a national level kind of thing. That’s a big thing, but I think we can start by modeling that behavior first,” Patterson said. “My enthusiasm and my positivity, I think was something that a lot of the Democrats were looking for. There was no District 11 Democrats meeting until I started chairing it.”

Patterson also has long-term goals of dismantling the patriarchy and striving for gender equality.

“I want to bring a values driven approach to the Democratic party, because I feel like that’s something they’ve been missing for a long time...Systems are in desperate need of reforms, and that was the beginning of my transition from Tea Party to Democrat, because Democrats work on system reforms,” Patterson said.

Patterson currently serves on the Mat-Su Borough’s Planning Commission after seeing a need and filling it.

“I’m the person that steps up. I don’t know s--t about planning and zoning, but I will do it if that’s what’s needed of me,” Patterson said.

Patterson is also concerned about food security in the state. Patterson describes a meeting with legislators at the experimental farm where she was one step ahead of lawmakers.

“I had all that information already because I went and sought it out. I didn’t have to wait for the industry people to come bring it to me and sit in a meeting and pretend to care, I wanted to know these things and I went and found it myself. That’s the kind of energy and enthusiasm I’ll bring to Juneau,” Patterson said.