Election preview House 12: Veteran representative facing challenge from Chugiak rookie

There’s a two-way race for House of Representatives District 12, with the incumbent, Rep. Cathy Tilton, facing a rookie candidate from Chugiak, Stephany Jeffers.

Rep. Cathy Tilton began her career as a legislator in 2015. She was born and raised in Alaska and owns her own business. Tilton serves on House Finance and two House Finance subcommittees, Administration and Health and Social Services. Tilton also worked for the mayor of Wasilla prior to being elected to the House. Tilton was at the heart of the SB91 discussion at the debate at Mat-Su College.

“I believe that we should have a limited government, and that we don’t need to depend on the government for everything, and to get into our lives. I think that some of the challenges that we have with public safety, I was one of the people who was a no vote on 91, and one of the reasons I want to continue to run is to continue to work on fixing that public safety issue that we have now,” Tilton said. “As far as what I’m hearing at these town halls, crime is number one. Is it all because of SB91, most likely not...I was a no vote on SB91. I was a freshman. It was my first time. It wasn’t popular, but I listened to my constituents. I ran it in front of them and I saw this bill getting out of hand, and if you can’t feel confident that what you’re voting on is the right thing for the people, you should not be voting.”

Tilton earned two degrees in state, and was involved with the American Red Cross, the Big Lake Lions, the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Motor Mushers Club.

“Her time as a legislative staffer provided her the insight into the agencies, departments and processes of state government. After lengthy consideration with family, friends and key advisors Cathy decided that it was time that she put herself forward. As a lifelong Alaskan and long-time Valley resident, she knows the issues. As an active member of our community, successful businesswoman and experienced legislative staff for Mat-Su, she understands the issues. As a candidate and legislator, she will lead on the issues,” Tilton’s website says.

Tilton hopes to continue work on repealing SB91 to make the Valley safer.

“I also put forward the repeal amendment because I felt that strongly about where we were going to go in Alaska. If we let that bill go forward, it didn’t pass at that time but two years down the road, and that is what the people are crying for. ‘I wish you would’ve done a repeal,’” Tilton said. “The little patches and the little fixes aren’t working. We need to repeal it and we need to start over. We need to protect our citizens. Public safety is number one.”

Stephany Jeffers got into the race just in time. Jeffers is a former Miss Alaska title-holder who grew up in a church in Chugiak. She used her pageant success to fund her education, studying science and theater at UAA and then UAF, and also earned a certificate of sustainability science from Hokkaido University as a guest scientist helping to identify alternative energy sources following the Fukishima disaster. Jeffers has a good relationship with Tilton, with whom she communicates frequently, but wants to see more action.

“If you just want someone to vote republican, she’ll do that. That’s fine. But I want someone to do more than that...Name one thing that is different because you’re there, that you are an advocate for, not anyone else,” Jeffers said.

Jeffers teaches arial silks courses, not ready to put her degree to use quite yet. She was hoping to find a perfect political candidate to oppose Tilton, but stepped up when no one else did.

“Somebody should do something, and my mom always used to say ‘if you think somebody should do something, you should become somebody fast,’” Jeffers said.

Jeffers tires of constant campaign rhetoric and infighting between parties, hoping to put a stop to the undoing what the other has accomplished.

“One of the most infuriating things about campaign season is people are saying ‘we’re going to cut your taxes, we’re going to give you your full PFD, we’re going to increase police protections and we’re going to increase your roads and… math. That sounds great, but also math,” Jeffers said.

Jeffers denies that she is a single-issue candidate, but she has been incredibly vocal about reversing the alarming rates of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence in Alaska.

“My number one issue is addressing the backlog of rape kits that we have in state, and also reducing the ridiculous number of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence,” Jeffers said. “I’m tired of it! I’m tired of it being the story that is incredibly unsurprising and also horrifying… Part of why I’ve been pushing my one issue because it’s something that i know we can get done now.”

Jeffers was involved as a graduate student at UAF in getting better pay and benefits for grad students, and constantly battles to teach students that science is not hard, it’s fun.

“A lot of the focus was on teaching kids about climate change and encouraging them to get involved with science and have it not be such a scary thing,” Jeffers said. “Pushing for renewable energy not just casually doing it. I can’t believe that our hugest push is for this LNG pipeline when we know we need to be pushing for renewables. We know we need to be combating climate change and making certain that people are aware of climate change. Apparently we’ve done a terrible job as a science community and as a state that is more affected by climate change than anywhere else in the nation of saying ‘hey guys this is a real thing that will cost us money.’”