Republican state Rep. Bill Thomas and his Democratic challenger Robert Beedle sounded similar themes but differed on specifics during recent interviews.
Thomas, 63, is a Haines fisherman and former lobbyist seeking a fourth term. Beedle, 52, is a Cordova fisherman and refrigerator mechanic who serves on the Cordova city council.
Beedle said Thomas is too closely allied with corporate interests and hasn’t done enough for constituents on issues like the price of fuel, ferry service, and value-added products. Thomas said Beedle lacks experience and points to capital projects funding he’s secured and legislation he authored for renewable energy and the “click-pick-and-give” program.
The two differ sharply on matters including the Constantine mining prospect. “I’m not excited by it,” said Beedle. “There are too many examples in the past of accidents and our fish, our original permanent fund, is right downriver. If we lost our fish, we lose our commercial fishery and our tourism sportfishing. We’re trading one industry for another.”
Said Thomas: “Haines needs jobs and if they do it right, this could be a great addition to Haines. From what I’ve listened to and watched, I don’t see any major problems. The (environmental impact statement) process will show if there’s an impact. If there’s an impact, I’d be concerned. But if there’s no impact, it will show. I don’t think it’s any different than when cabins went up on Chilkat Lake. The (EIS) study shows what will happen.”
On the Juneau Road, Thomas said he favors a west canal road, as opposed to an east Lynn Canal route to Katzehin supported by the state. “(A west side road) would open up borough land and state land and federal land. They could put a ferry terminal in at St. James Bay. They could open up that whole west shoreline to development. There’s Native allotments, gold mines, all kinds.”
Said Beedle: “A road is not a popular idea here. At this point, the money would be better spent on the ferry system. The ferry is our road system. A shuttle ferry (across Lynn Canal) is going to be shut down in bad weather. There’s the cost of plowing and maintenance and loss of critical habitat area. We need to really look at it.”
Thomas said he supports study of Connelly Lake project as a potential hydroelectric source; Beedle says he supports Schubee Lake as an alternative. “If there’s an option, we don’t want to trade cheap power for fish.” Power Creek, a Cordova hydro project similar to Connelly, was studied for more than 50 years before technology developed to make it feasible, he said.
Thomas said he supported the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), which provided state money to a Canadian firm to build a natural gas pipeline that will link to buyers in Canada and the Lower 48. Construction of such a pipeline could mean jobs for Haines, Thomas said, pointing to recent highway upgrades between the ferry terminal and town that would accommodate heavy truck traffic. “I don’t want to wait another 30 years to get the gas going.”
Beedle said the project amounts to shipping out a raw product, then having to pay more for the finished product. “We’re going to export our gas to extract oil from (Canada’s) tar sands. We get one third of our gas from Canada. Are we giving cheap gas to buy expensive oil? We should be building up our infrastructure in state to use our natural gas here,” he said.
Thomas and Beedle both cite the cost of energy as a prime issue to the district. Beedle said legislators need to address the price of fuel. “Is there a reason our prices are so high? Are there alternatives? It’s crazy that we’re an oil-exporting state and we can’t afford to heat our homes. Thomas has been there a long time and we have the same situation.”
Thomas points to legislation he authored that created a statewide $300 million renewable energy fund that he said has stabilized the cost of electric in Cordova and helped reduce by one fourth electricity costs in Gustavus.
“We’re meeting the energy needs of the people. We’re funding a hydro system in Hydaburg” and retired debt for utilities in Cordova and elsewhere, Thomas said. “(Beedle) obviously doesn’t know what the (the renewable energy fund) does. It sounds like he’s building stories as he goes.”
Beedle said Thomas’ seniority didn’t work in fending off reductions in the cruise ship head tax pursued last year by Gov. Sean Parnell and other Republicans. “Money for these (head-tax funded) projects is going away and Thomas’ seniority didn’t stop it… We’re just saying, if you’re going to use our infrastructure, make it work.”
Thomas said: “I fought that all the way through the committee process. (Beedle) never said a peep. I tried to protect emerging ports. My bill was to spread port fees out equally among all communities of impact… You don’t win all your battles, and if he gets elected, he’ll find out, he’ll probably win less.”
Thomas said the cruise industry’s decision to drop a lawsuit it filed against the head tax is an important precedent that validates payment of port fees by cruise ships in the United States.
Beedle said the ferry system “definitely needs help.” He said Kodiak recently went without service an entire month. “Every community has issues with ferries. They want service that’s reliable, consistent and affordable.” New ferries should be built at the Ketchikan shipyard, where many are maintained, instead of Louisiana, he said. “They know what works and what doesn’t. Why are we going to export jobs again?”
Thomas pointed to new ferry terminals Metlakatla, Hoonah, Angoon and a new dock to allow ferries into Gustavus for the first time. “We have reliable ferries. It’s just that we have so many of them. They have a maintenance program. We don’t manage the ferries. The schedule’s set by (staff). We have a budget process and people come and tell us what their needs are. He’s never come and told us what he wants in Cordova.”
Beedle also faults Thomas for voting against a defined benefit for state workers.
“There are a lot of people with 401Ks that have to go back to work. Your retirement’s gone and you still have bills. Now the government and people have to pay for your medical. You’re a ward of the state.”
Beedle said the state’s current defined contribution system encourages workers to put in five years to become vested in the program, then quit, making the state a training ground for other employers. “It costs the state more because of turnover. Under the current system, you have to be a financial expert to know how to invest your 401K. Do you want the state trooper stopping to check his stocks?”
Thomas called Beedle’s a “union position” and said “no one’s seen” a high rate of turnover as a result of changes in state worker benefits. “The potential’s there but there are 14,000 state employees in that position. At the rate that we were going, we couldn’t afford to go forward with the retirement program we had. They made a big compromise with the municipalities. (State employees) have about the best medical program in America, to top it off.”
Thomas said the Tier III retirement program that the Legislature discontinued would have cost the state $22 billion. “If you go back, then we take away (the state’s contribution municipal worker retirements) and the cities go broke. That was a big compromise. But I was not in the room when they did that.”
Defined benefits allow residents to stay in rural communities and help support economies there, Beedle said.
Beedle said a quarter of Thomas’ campaign funds over the years have come from the cruise industry. “I don’t see his stripes changing after all those years as a corporate lobbyist. Is he representing corporations or people? Who’s he representing?”
Thomas said: “At what time do you shed the lobbyist (label) after six years in the legislature? My experience is in the legislature. My lobbyist experience helped me achieve a lot of projects for the district.”
Thomas countered Beedle advertisements that he took money from Canadian mining executives, saying the contributions were from workers at Constantine mine site. He also characterized a charge of “doing favors for friends” as inaccurate, saying he works for all his constituents.
Beedle also contends that Thomas hasn’t done enough to maintain roads in the district, a charge Thomas said is refuted by district projects listed in the state’s capital projects bills passed during his tenure.
Beedle said he wants to encourage projects like a fish-processing plant that’s a joint venture between Silver Lining Seafoods, the City of Craig and fishermen.
The town erected the building, Silver Bay equipped it and fishermen were invited to buy into the venture. “The whole community went in with the company to make this happen. Things like this have spinoff.”
Prince of Wales Island’s inter-island ferry is another example of communities working together to improve the region, he said.
With cheaper fuel prices, communities in District 5 could afford to process raw products timber instead of exporting them. “If we ship everything out in the round, then we pay a fuel service charge to get them back again.”
Beedle said he’s concerned about the flight of rural Alaskans to urban centers. Cruise lines and other corporations often get their resources from rural Alaska but don’t make a commensurate contribution, he said.
“We need industry. We need corporations. But they need us, too. If we can’t afford to live here, or we can’t afford their products, it’s a lose-lose. Let’s change that around,” Beedle said.
Beedle said he’s seen one situation where the state Department of Fish and Game didn’t have funds for research that would determine whether a new fishery was feasible. “They didn’t have the research to open it.”
“It keeps coming back to this corporate thing. Their only obligation is to their shareholders. If nothing else, let’s get them out of our legislative process. We need them but we don’t need them in charge of our rules and regulations. At our expense,” he said.
Thomas said he’s been unfairly cast as a corporate candidate and said Carlile Trucking and Ocean Beauty Seafoods were the only corporate supporters of his campaign. He faulted Beedle’s union support as comparable to corporate backers.
Thomas said he sees the “same old issues” for the district, including lack of jobs and the cost of energy. “If we can stop the increase in the cost of electricity and get it down low enough, people can try to keep their villages solvent.”
“There’s very little year-round economics in any of the communities. What they do have in some places is mining, but that’s in Juneau, and a little far for most people. People have to try to find something that will sustain them year-round, which is very, very hard.”
“I’ve always said, I don’t have an agenda. The communities have an agenda. They tell me what they want and we work together. A good example is Cordova. They said they wanted a convention center. We helped secure some funding for them and we’re going forward from there,” Thomas said.
Thomas also said his position on the House Finance Committee has been a boon to securing funds for the district.