Four candidates are seeking three seats in both the Assembly and school board races this fall
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 29
Nano Brooks challenges Wade Bryson in the only competitive Assembly race; at least two newcomers set to join school board as incumbents opt not to run again
This story has been corrected to remove a reference about District 2 Assembly voter demographics, since all Juneau residents vote for all candidates regardless of district.
One of the three Juneau Assembly races will be competitive and four people will vie for three Juneau Board of Education seats, if the list of certified candidates as of Monday’s filing deadline is the full slate that appears on the Oct. 7 municipal election ballot.
Nano Brooks, running as a challenger for the third straight year, is seeking the District 2 seat held by two-term incumbent Wade Bryson. Unopposed in their races are Deputy Mayor Greg Smith seeking a third term for the District 1 seat and Ella Adkison seeking a second term for the areawide seat.
The school board has two open seats because President Deedie Sorensen and former Vice President Emil Mackey are not running again. The third seat in this year’s race is currently held by Steve Whitney, a former board member appointed in May to temporarily replace a member who resigned.
Whitney, who served from 2016-2019 and is seeking reelection this fall, is a fisheries manager for the National Marine Fisheries Service with more than two decades of experience. He noted in his application in May “I also have two children who passed through the Juneau School District from preschool through high school, so I am familiar with the district from a stakeholder’s perspective” and both of his parents were teachers. He stated "the first priority will be to get union contracts in place" — negotiations that officials last Friday said are at an impasse and therefore entering mediation.
Three challengers have also filed for the school board race, including two who sought seats during the past year:
• Jenny Thomas: Finished fourth in last year’s school board election in which three candidates were also selected. Owner of Icy Strait Plumbing and Heating, and states she has “15 years of experience as a parent in the district.” On Monday she said she has a more specific agenda than a year ago, when she helped lead unsuccessful recall votes for Sorensen and Mackey in the wake of a budget crisis that resulted in a consolidation of schools. "The specific things that I would like to work on myself are the apprenticeship program for the high school, the curriculum for the middle school, the volunteer program to get kids more help (and) the Dzantik'i Heeni playground."
• Melissa Cullum: Also a strong critic of last year’s school consolidation, she was among the people applying in May to fill the seat now occupied by Whitney. In her application for that seat she wrote “I want to focus on education, more than governance as a way to bridge the gap between teachers, parents, community members and the school board.” Her listed experience includes five years as a middle school teacher in Houston, Texas, three years as a middle and high school teacher in rural Alaska, three years on the Chatham School Board, two years as an instructor in a local tribal adult entrepreneurial program and being a homeschool parent for the past 12 years.
• Jeremy Johnson: He arrived at City Hall shortly before Monday’s 4:30 p.m. filing deadline. After submitting his paperwork he said he’s a stay-at-home father of five, including two autistic children, and "a committed community advocate." He also has worked for the state as a programmer and the city as an emergency response manager. He said he’s running for the school board due to concerns about cuts proposed nationally as well as policies he sees as harmful. "I feel like the school board has really stepped up and done exactly what's needed for the community," he said. "And I'm very concerned about extremophiles — people who take very extreme positions and bring those extreme positions to manipulate school boards or manipulate the community at large."
Three of the four school board candidates will secure seats, unless a successful write-in occurs, or one or more of the declared candidates withdraw — with the top two finishers getting full three-year terms and the third-place finisher filling out the remaining two years of the seat now held by Whitney. But Thomas, who finished fourth in a high-profile six-candidate race last year, said she isn’t assuming that visibility makes her a shoo-in this fall.
"I'm not going in overly confident because I was honestly shocked I didn't get it last year," she said. "So I don't have any false confidence."
Assembly: Bryson vs. Brooks
Bryson, unopposed during his first two campaigns, said Monday that as "the most conservative member of the Assembly" he was surprised to be challenged by Brooks, an entrepreneur of multiple local businesses who has previously campaigned on conservative ideas such as lotteries for public land to spur development and spending reductions that allow a lower mill rate.
"I've told (people supporting Brooks) repeatedly when they complain about how votes go ‘Here's how it works: I need more help,’" he said. "If you guys don't like the direction of the Assembly — the traditional thing that everybody says is it’s 7-2 — give me more help."
As a resident of District 2, which mostly encompasses the Mendenhall Valley, Brooks also could have sought the areawide seat held by Adkison, a first-term Assembly member who is a staff member for state Sen. Jesse Kiehl, a Juneau Democrat. However, that also would mean Brooks running against a candidate with strong political connections due to Kiehl’s decades of experience.
Brooks could not be reached immediately Monday evening. In past Assembly campaigns he has echoed themes similar to backers who placed two measures on this year’s ballot that lower the property tax rate the Assembly can set, and exempt food and utilities from sales tax. The common theme is city leaders have been inefficient with financial decisions — including setting aside funds for projects such as a new City Hall, which voters have rejected twice — which has placed additional costs on residents through increased property and utility taxes.
One of the ways Brooks has proposed for making up revenue lost by lowering taxes is a land lottery by the city.
"They have over 5,000 acres of undeveloped land just sitting around doing no benefit to anyone," he said last year. "With the land lottery, you’re getting land in people’s hands for close to nothing."
Bryson said he’s expecting economic issues to dominate the fall campaign, and one of his points of emphasis will be how the process and decisions Assembly members are following are sensible.
"I have the background to say ‘Here's why we made the decision. Here's the user group that was impacted,’" he said. "And so I think that my insight of how things work, and how we really are helping and benefiting the community, is going to be important for me to get out there,"
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
