Senate District F: Chugiak, Fairview, Butte

Stoltze - Chesbro

Bill Stoltze

There is not an incumbent in this race but if there were it’d be Stoltze, a longtime legislator who represented the Palmer/Butte/Chugiak area in the State House of Representatives before he decided to seek a promotion to the Senate.

Stoltze was the victor in a bruising primary with Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson earlier this year. He said he is interested in reigning in spending but wants a hard look at operating expenses (salaries and benefits and department costs, as opposed to capital costs, one-time expenses typically for roads or buildings). Stoltze said that operating costs, if unchecked, will consume all the state’s revenues by 2023.

Pat Chesbro

The democrat in the race, Chesbro is a former educator and an Alaskan since 1974 who has never been elected to office. She has been a teacher, a principal, a superintendent and even dean of the College of Education at the University of Alaska.

In an interview this summer, she said that education is an “economic issue” that can’t be solved “just with money.”

She said she also believes the state should set aside money to provide seed funds to promising businesses.

On her website, she said she believes in honesty, humility and bipartisanship.