More than a dozen people gathered in the Chilkat Inlet Retreat Sunday morning to hear from gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. 

 Patty Brown, Haines local for the past 30 years, said she  “learned a lot about him.” Brown, a retired teacher, said she has known Kreiss-Tomkins since he was in high school because he would come to Drama, Debate and Forensic tournaments. Brown said she wanted to “pass the baton to the next generations.” 

Kreiss-Tomkins, 37,  is from Sitka. He was just 23 years old when he beat out the Chilkat Valley’s Bill Thomas to get elected to the state House of Representatives. He served for a decade and stepped down as the representative for District 35 which includes Hoonah, Sitka, Kake, Craig and others.

The campaign stop came together at the last minute. Reached with just 48 hours to go before the visit, Natalie Dawson, Heather Lende and others invited a few community members to attend. Lende said she supports and endorses Kreiss-Tomkins; Dawson said she helped out as an opportunity for civic engagement, not as an endorsement of any particular candidate. 

Before the meeting, Kreiss-Tomkins sat down with the Chilkat Valley News’ Lizzy Hahn to discuss the policies he is focusing on the most.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

Hahn: What made you decide to run for governor?

Kreiss-Tomkins: (I’m) very concerned about how Alaska is doing under Dunleavy, (I) want to get us back on track. We’re losing population. Schools are closing. It’s harder for people to get by. Alaska’s going (in) the wrong direction. Ideally, we have a governor who’s a part of the solution and not the problem.

If you were to get into office, what would be your first step to move in the “right direction?”

Reinvest in public schools, support our schools, so that, (its) not an issue in Haines, but schools across the state are closing, Anchorage, the MatSu, Kenai, Kodiak, Ketchikan, you name it. Forward fund schools so school districts, like HBSD, don’t have to guess on the education funding that’s gonna come out of the legislature, which they currently do every year. That results in teachers getting fired every spring. Then they wait for the education funding number to come in from the legislature and then they get rehired a couple months later. Forward funding, so you don’t have this incredibly dumb, destructive fire-then-rehire cycle every year. Which, can you design a better way to make somebody leave a profession than firing them every year? Like, that’s just awful. And it’s completely avoidable through a structural change in budgeting. I think getting our fair share from oil is a huge priority. 
The Hilcorp tax loophole, one of our two major oil and gas producers, pays not a dime, not a nickel of corporate income tax, is patently indefensible, and is a major revenue hole for the state of Alaska. So that’s a real high priority in lowering costs, housing, childcare, energy, and electricity. The state doesn’t have, you know, magic-wand level power and control over those costs, but for each of those areas, there are important substantive things the state can do to lead on lowering costs so that people can afford to live here.

A lot of villages are waiting to get their new summer influx of fuel, and everyone’s wondering, what is that cost gonna look like? How would you address the rising costs, whether it’s gas or housing, if you were governor?

In all candor, for price of gas, as much as I would love to say, there’s something the state can do, that is not realistically a cost that the state has any direct control over. I mean, the theoretical answer would be like the state starts subsidizing the cost, subsidizing gasoline, which is not gonna happen. So it’s just we’re at the whim of these global markets. There are consequences every time you start a war in the Middle East.

Do you have any plans for policies that may impact Haines or Southeast? If you are elected, what are some of the first policies that you’re thinking of that would maybe either impact the state as a whole or Southeast?

I want to restore balance in the Board of Fisheries which, right now, from my perspective, and perspective of many, has basically become sort of a wholly owned subsidiary of Kenai River Sportfishing Association, which is a sportfish lobby group in Kenai. I think [it] has little regard, to no regard, of the interests of coastal communities like Haines or Sitka or Southeast, Alaska. I want to fix the ferry system, which is pretty deeply broken at this point, which means bonding for new mainline vessels. We have a new generation of blue canoes. I think the most important change in the ferry system that I would like to see is to get the politics out of management and governance of the system. And right now the ferry system is managed by whoever the [Department of Transportation] commissioner is, which is a function of whoever the governor is. And it’s fundamentally a political governance of the ferry system. So every time you have a new governor, and I saw three governors come and go in my 10 years in the legislature. They often, well intentioned, although not always well intentioned, have a different, often radically different vision for what the ferry system should look like. Zooming out from any one governor, including myself, the goal should be to have a sober and coherent, long-term and sustained management vision, which means ultimately divesting the ferry system from the direct control of the governor, including as I’m governor. 
And that is the best interest, I think, of the ferry system. So similar to the Alaska Railroad, or similar to the University of Alaska, where those boards are not an extension of the governor, but they’re independently appointed and confirmed.

Another contentious issue is logging in the Tongass. This is something that politicians like Trump have been advocating for. Where do you stand on this topic?

I support a sustainable new growth timber industry. I’m generally cautious about old-growth logging. Old-growth logging is basically mining because you never really get to cut those trees again. Most of the old-growth harvest, that happens in Southeast Alaska, just gets exported in the round to Asia, and leaves very little economic benefit for the state. So that’s sort of my perspective.

In recent years, we’ve seen massive storms hitting the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Western Alaska. What role do you believe the governor serves in either climate change prevention or setting up these communities for future storms?

Halong and Merbok really clarified the stakes for Alaska, suffering property damage and loss of life. Kotzebue has been flooded two of the last three years. I have a friend in Kotzebue whose house she’s still not living in from flooding a couple years ago. So the state has to be ready and prepared to protect its residents from these storms and their impacts. I think it’s most acute in Western Alaska. I think it means working really closely with tribal governments and the federal government, to coordinate response and preparation. The question of adaptation itself is incredibly tricky. By adaptation I mean, like relocation for villages like Kipnuk, which are low lying and, you know, basically devastated from last fall, and it’s like kind of what’s the future, but the state, the resources are not obviously there to finance a multi-hundred million dollar relocation of just one village. So, I mean, I think the question is really important. The answer is tough. I don’t think anybody really has the answer but I’m very motivated to try to find it.

What are some of your goals for your first 100 days in office if elected?

I think the first and most obvious piece is like kind of stopping the bleeding with public schools and building an administration that Alaskans can have confidence in. 
And for me personally, it’s really important that the administration, the cabinet, reflects the breadth of Alaskans as a whole. Similar to the bipartisan coalition in the house, which I was a part of, and I’m a huge believer in, you know, it’s Ds, it’s Is, it’s moderate Rs. I really wanted an administration that looks like that too. 
So like Republicans in the cabinet. I’m running with an Independent, not a Democrat. So, I mean, even our ticket is sort of mirroring that sort of cross partisan Alaskans working together regardless of what the letter next to their name is. I think building that administration, building that team is one of my most important priorities. 

Is there anything else that you would like to mention that I ask? 

We’re really excited about our endorsement from Gov. Tony Knowles from a week and a half ago. I think a big piece of why I’m running is I think our ticket can win and for 10 years I represented and won in a district that voted for Trump. I’m the only Democrat running who can say that. In those 10 years, I ran substantially ahead of top of ticket Democrats. The high water markers, I ran 23 percentage points ahead of Biden. And that was the highest rate of over performance for any legislative Democrat in Alaska, that cycle. Which is just to say, I have a proven record of being able to bring in Independents and Republicans, even though I have a D next to my name, who can get behind the sort of vision I have offered as a legislator, so I’ve done that on a regional level. I’ve done that on a legislative level. And that’s the kind of record you want to look for for a candidate who can win statewide.