Haines residents James Hart and Tom Morphet have filed to run in the Democratic Party primary for Alaska House of Representatives District 33.

Hart and Morphet are joined by Sara Hannan and Steven D. Handy, both of Douglas, in the primary. Independent candidate Chris Dimond will also run for the seat but has chosen to skip the primary and only compete in the general election. The primary will be on Aug 21.

Morphet and Hart both filed for candidacy on the last day possible before the 5 p.m. deadline on June 1. Both, however, expressed that they’ve been thinking about running for a long time.

“I did commit in my head. I was already committed. I just got around to doing it,” Hart said of the last-day declaration.

James Hart, 28, was born and raised in Haines. He’s a tribal council member of the Chilkoot Indian Association, a delegate of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, a summer culture camp teacher, and recently an apprentice of Wayne Price. He worked as a public policy fellow through the First Alaskans Institute in the most recent 30th legislative session in the office of Rep. Jonathan Kreiss Tomkins.

The idea to run sparked for Hart when he saw that incumbent Sam Kito III wasn’t going to re-run. He said that he started talking to people around the region and the state who encouraged him to run. He said his campaign goal is to talk to as many people as possible across the district and the state, and that “It’s not about my personal topics. It’s about the topics of District 33 and the topics of the state.” He said he also wants to make “decisions that last, not short-sighted decisions.”

Morphet is a Haines Borough Assembly member, a former publisher of the Chilkat Valley News, and a 32-year resident of Haines. When asked why he was running, Morphet said, “Mostly because I think the state isn’t living up to its obligations.” Decreased state funding served as an impetus for Morphet, which translated to the loss of the state trooper, the public health nurse, and new matches for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in the Chilkat Valley. The Big Brothers program is an important issue for Morphet. He had a little brother for a decade, and he said the cut is an example of what he sees as misguided efforts to cut costs by taking “a very short-sighted view of things.”

Morphet said he would support “at least a payroll tax” because of seasonal workers who live outside the state and benefit from untaxed paychecks. “It’s reasonable to expect that to fund the state that provides that wealth, a token comes off of those paychecks from the state.” Morphet also said he supports increased education funding, increased investment in fisheries, smarter development, and does not support a Juneau access road.

Morphet said he intends to stay in his Assembly seat through the campaign and if he were to be elected to the House in November, the vacancy would be filled by appointment.

Sara Hannan is an educator and a 32-year resident of Juneau with a 30-year teaching career. Now retired, the timing has worked out for her to run, something she’s considered for a long time, she said. “It’s now or never,” she said, “I’m finally in a position to spend time saying, ‘Well that’s not the right way to do it and that’s not the right answer.’ I think I should apply.” Hannan said her biggest issue is a stable economic future, and she supports new taxes to raise revenue. She named education and healthcare as top priorities.

Steve Handy is a former telecommunications worker who first came to the state in 1994 and “fell stone cold in love with it,” and has been a resident since the mid-1990s. He said his run is based on a desire to “hold the door open for people in the district and in the state to participate in legislative process.” Handy listed crime, education, and budget as top issues for his campaign, but prefaced his answer with, “I’m going to state things that I’ve seen as priorities, but my priorities will be redefined and set by constituents.”

Chris Dimond is from Juneau and works as an organizer for the Carpenters Union with a 23-year career in carpentry. He said he’s running because, “We haven’t been going forward as a state. We always tell our kids that you get in there to fix it yourself, and I’m living up to my word.” According to his website, his priorities are jobs, increased education funding, and ending partisanship.

He said in the past weeks he’s been on the fence about the primary, but ultimately decided to skip it because he believes partisanship is halting state progress. When asked if there’s anything else readers should know, Dimond said “The idea that I’m a Republican running under the guise of an Independent couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The primary for state Senate will have only Juneau Assembly member Jesse Kiehl on the ballot, after candidate Larry Cotter dropped out due to health concerns. Independent Don Etheridge will join Kiehl in the general election. Incumbent Sen. Dennis Egan is not running.

In addition to Haines, House District 33 and Senate District Q represents Skagway, Klukwan, Downtown Juneau, Douglas, and Gustavus.

Candidate websites and contact information can be found at http://www.elections.alaska.gov