Karen Hess has launched a write-in campaign for Assembly Seat E.
She’s opposing Greg Goodman, whose name will appear on the ballot and was the only candidate to submit paperwork before the filing deadline.
Hess said she’s running because people should have options in an election and because she wanted to see balance on the assembly. She said she’d be a voice for the business community.
She said she hadn’t filed because she expected to be out-of-town for knee surgery and therapy at the time of the election, but recently learned she could have the surgery in Juneau and the therapy in Haines.
“I was thinking about it all this last year. I wasn’t sure about my knee and I thought it wasn’t fair to the community to get elected and have to be gone for a long time,” she said this week.
She said the assembly does not have a conservative edge. “I think we need a liberal-conservative balance. To represent the community, we all need to be at the table. You have to have all opinions. Just like it wouldn’t be right to have an assembly of all conservatives.”
Hess is co-owner of shore excursion business River Adventures and Duck-In Car Wash and served five years on the Haines Chamber of Commerce board of directors, including four years as president.
She also is one-third owner of the Haines-Skagway Fast Ferry and served more than three years as Haines deputy magistrate.
“I don’t believe the assembly is fiscally responsible. They’re spending on things that aren’t as necessary as other things might be,” Hess said. For an example, she cited an assembly decision to not sell the old primary school in early 2009.
“I think we need to listen to the business community. That’s not being done as well as it should be. The business community has something to say, but they’re working and they can’t be at every assembly meeting,” Hess said.
“We have a business community in Haines that needs help. We need a year-round economy,” she said, including more special events.
Hess said her court experience, which included working as interim magistrate in Haines and clerking at a district court in Oregon, gave her training reading legal documents that would help on the assembly.