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Four candidates for District 2 Assembly seat, three for Areawide seat, three for two school board seats
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 27
- 12 min read
Mila Cosgrove is only candidate to file for District 1 Assembly seat by Monday’s deadline; all other races in Oct. 6 municipal election set to be competitive
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Two of three Juneau Assembly races are set to be competitive, and three people are vying for two Juneau Board of Education seats in the Oct. 6 municipal election as the candidate filing deadline ended Monday.
Four candidates are running for an open District 2 Assembly seat representing the Mendenhall Valley, three are seeking the Areawide Assembly seat held by first-term incumbent Paul Kelly, and former Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove is the lone person seeking the open District 1 seat representing downtown.
In the school board race, challenger Christine Johnson filed her first-ever candidacy Monday against first-term incumbents Britteny Cioni-Haywood and David Noon. The top two finishers among those three candidates (plus any write-in contenders) will fill two available seats.
The District 2 race has the potential to be the most lively with a field of two neighbors on flood-prone View Drive who’ve been vocal about their concerns (David Lee Morris and Malachi Thorington), cruise tourism activist Karla Hart and longtime tribal finance administrator Joyce Niven. The Areawide race will see two political newcomers — Brad Sapp and James McCants — throwing their hats in the ring against Kelly for different reasons.
The following are short profiles of all the candidates based on brief interviews with the Juneau Independent. The profiles of candidates filing before Monday were previously published when the filing period began on July 17 and on Sunday, July 26, and in some cases have been updated and modified. Candidates in each race are listed in the order of their registration as provided by the municipal clerk’s office.
Areawide Assembly
Paul Kelly (incumbent)
Kelly, an application developer for the state, said one notable difference compared to his first campaign three years ago is as an incumbent he’s in a lot of committee and other meetings, so he won’t have time to knock on as many doors.
Another big difference is glacial flooding is likely to be a much bigger issue, said Kelly, who lives in the Twin Lakes area with his wife and two children.
"It was present last time, but it wasn't nearly to the degree that it has been since," he said. "I've heard people talking about our waste stream and how the dump is soon to expire, so I think that's going to be an issue for some people. Tourism was an issue then. I expect it's going to continue to be an issue this time around."
Being an incumbent means having a record of actions that he can claim credit for — and other candidates can attack. Kelly said "I think I can expect people to look at my record and see that I'm an independent thinker."
"I don't always vote along with everybody else on the Assembly," he said. "I vote my mind. I speak my mind…People know that they can trust me; before I was more of an unknown quantity."
Brad Sapp (challenger)
Sapp said he’s running as a first-time challenger for the seat because the city is facing numerous matters of consequence and "the main thing is I hear a lot of talk out of the Assembly, but not much action. I'm an action person. I like to get things done and I want to bring that to the Assembly."
While he said a long-term solution to glacial flooding is the top immediate concern, economic growth and affordable living are longer-term priorities.
"I think we've been stagnant a long time, since about the mid '80s," he said. "(There was) large growth between the mid '70s and the mid '80s, and we've kind of plateaued out. And it's time that we take a look instead of just living the same, take a look at what we need to do to really stimulate real economic growth in Juneau."
Among the actions Sapp said he’d like to see is releasing more land owned by the city so it can be developed.
Sapp said he originally moved to Juneau with his family in 1974 and remained here most of the time until joining the U.S. Army in 1986, which resulted in deployments worldwide, including serving in the first Gulf War. He moved back to Juneau in 2000 and has been working for the FAA here since then. He’s also formed and been involved with groups working on local transportation issues, including an air tour operators group focusing on issues such as glacier flightseeing safety.
James McCants (challenger)
McCants is a relatively new Juneau resident among candidates, having moved here in 2023. But he’s gotten plenty of close-up perspective as a tour company owner and familiarity with the depths of the city’s challenges as a boat owner during the past winter’s Snowmageddon.
He said a primary issue that motivated him to run was an overflow of tourists limiting Capital Transit bus availability to residents. He also sought a seat on the Docks and Harbors Board a year ago, noting in his application he was involved with vessel-related issues at board meetings and city council meetings, and pushed for passage of a resolution at the Alaska State Capitol asking the Trump administration to resume evacuation flights to the U.S. for Afghan war allies.
"I just think of all the other choices and things are going to come before the Assembly, and I'm not the smartest person in the room, but I know what I can achieve to get something done if I if I care about and believe in it," he said.
Among other local matters of concern, McCants said he favors more support for projects by Alaska Native corporations, citing Goldbelt Inc. as an example, stating "it just seems like a long, drawn-out process with the Native corporations that I personally think shouldn't happen."
McCants said he’s been operating the rental and excursion business Alaskan Binoculars for the past three years, which has given him a strong familiarity with everything from Juneau’s wildlife to local permitting requirements. And he made the news during the past winter by being among the boat owners with sunk vessels, but he called the experience "a success story" because he was able to save the vessel and "I learned a lot of lessons about it."
Assembly District 1
Mila Cosgrove (challenger)
Cosgrove has lots of experience with Juneau’s municipal government, having served as its human resources and risk management director from 2006 to 2016, and as deputy city manager from 2016 to 2021. But as a resident of Juneau for 36 years who’s now a private consultant, she’s never run as a candidate until this year.
Some of that is due to wanting to take a break after the deputy manager’s job — plus "COVID was a pretty intense time," she said. But the decision to run this year was motivated in part because of a proliferation of anti-government sentiments being expressed locally and nationally.
"I feel like there needs to be a voice in that mix that says, ‘Hey, we've created things that are good and valuable for the community," she said. "That doesn't mean that we don't need to continue to look at them and make sure they still fit the needs of the community, because I think that's an important conversation. But I felt like I could add to the conversation, and that my experience and the way that I look at things could be a valuable asset as the community navigates the next few years."
Budget cuts and tax revenue, which both have been major topics of debate the past year, are likely to remain tough issues during the coming few years, Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove, who lives downtown, said she chose to run for the District 1 seat because "I knew Alicia was stepping down, so I knew there would be a vacancy that needed to be filled. And it made sense to me to file for a seat that was unopposed."
Assembly District 2
Joyce Niven (challenger)
Niven knows plenty about Juneau’s housing situation and finances, having worked for nearly 25 years for the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority as its fiscal manager and then vice president of administration until retiring last year. She’s also been a board member of the Juneau Housing First Collaborative, which operates the Glory Hall and other programs for people in need, for more than a decade.
She said those skills will be helpful as an Assembly member at a time when Juneau is facing numerous livability and financial challenges.
"Of course the flood is a priority," she said. "Finding a timely solution and mitigating damages for the flood. Affordable housing opportunities for the whole community. A balanced and transparent budget that reflects the values and needs of our community is important to me. And of course, just increasing quality of life so people want to stay here."
Niven, who now works as a private consultant, said she’s lived in Juneau for nearly 35 years, after growing up in Tacoma, Washington, and moving to Anchorage for a couple of years. She lives near the Mendenhall Glacier, said she considered running for the Areawide and District 2 seats before opting for the latter.
(Disclosure: Niven is the Juneau Independent’s business manager. She is a part-time contractor responsible for accounting and other financial responsibilities, with no involvement in newsroom operations. The Independent learned about her candidacy when she publicly announced her intention to run.)
David Lee Morris (challenger)
Morris has previously run for Assembly, unsuccessfully seeking the District 2 seat in 2023. He’s been a Juneau resident for more than 45 years, and is a swim coach, former Alaska Marine Highway System employee and former board president of the homeless assistance nonprofit Family Promise of Juneau. He also was an advocate of ballot measures cutting local sales and property taxes that were initiated by the Affordable Juneau Coalition.
"I don't like the tax-and-spend mentality of the present Assembly," he said. "There is enough money if they would use it wisely and properly spend it, because I have looked at the budget. My big thing is they want to do the scare tactics to the people and say, ‘OK, we're going to shut down all the recreation because you voted not to increase our taxes,’ and that's not OK with me either. That is a public service just like snow removal, water, sewer and all that, and that's very important to the mentality of the people in the city and the well-being of the people in the city."
As with his 2023 candidacy, Morris said a significant issue is Juneau’s landfill because it’s difficult for people to access and as a result "everybody just dumps the stuff out the road." He said the city should invest in a modern incinerator in order to reduce the cost of shipping waste south.
A major difficulty for the city during the past three years are record glacial outburst floods, with Morris among the most impacted as a resident of View Drive where flood barriers protecting other areas along the Mendenhall River are not an option. He said he’s not running as a candidate fixated on that single issue, but he believes the problem shows a lack of proper leadership on the city’s part.
"The only way to stop the water is at its source, which is building the levee around the lake," he said.
Karla Hart (challenger)
Hart has been active in Juneau politics for decades — primarily as an activist seeking to limit large-scale tourism — but rarely sought political office herself.
She unsuccessfully ran for Assembly in 1997 — which was also the first year a cruise ship head tax was on the ballot — and dropped out of another Assembly race in 2014. She’s also been involved in ballot proposition efforts, most notably as the leader of a "Ship-Free Saturday" measure in 2024 that attracted global media attention and was rejected with slightly more than 60% of voters opposing it.
"I have felt as if I was more effective as an activist in influencing things than in sitting on the Assembly for a long time," she said in an interview Sunday. But this year she is running because "I think that my voice could be more effective on the Assembly right now because the Assembly appears to be willing to not listen to the community who has concerns about the cruise industry."
In an email Hart sent last Tuesday announcing her candidacy, she stated she will not be just a single-issue candidate.
“Any candidate can call for addressing housing shortages, budget shortfalls, daycare and education, the pending need for a new solution for Juneau’s waste, vulnerable populations, supporting the infrastructure that makes Juneau a great place to live, and economic development," the email states. "Those issues, and more, will come before the candidates in the upcoming election, and before the next Assembly. I will work on those issues, in addition to taking a strong position on cruise ship tourism."
Malachi Thorington (challenger)
Thorington said he’s not running simply because of the floods that are causing major woes affecting his home on View Drive, but "I'm definitely outlining that the flood is highlighting a lot of the inadequacies and, in my opinion, deterioration of Juneau as a community."
"A lot of the fiscal responsibilities of the city seem to be at odds with the community and there's been a lot of frustration with community members pertaining to that," he said.
Thorington, a first-time candidate, first moved to Juneau in 1993 and returned in 2012 after about a decade’s absence. He said he works as a journeyman electrician, commercial fisher and diver, "and the last few springs I have ventured into working as an assistant bear guide out at Kodiak."
As with his occupations, he cited a range of interests he feels are important for the Assembly to deal with, including tourism management, the future of Eaglecrest Ski Area and the longevity of operations at Bartlett Regional Hospital.
"I think that Juneau as a whole needs a lot more transparency, accountability and accessibility in its city operations," he said. "I’m seeing less and less of that, so I think getting involved is fairly integral for residents of Juneau, and there haven't been enough people that have been getting involved."
Juneau Board of Education
David Noon (incumbent)
Noon, a history and social sciences instructor at UAS since 2003, said he expects to spend some of the campaign talking about lessons he’s learned during his first term on the school board.
"I expect to be talking probably with a lot more clarity than I would have running as a first-time candidate about what might be coming down the pike for the district in the next couple of years," he said.
Noon said the amount of campaigning he’ll do will likely depend in part on whether he and Cioni-Haywood face challengers for the two available seats. He said it’s possible the struggles the district went through the past three years might lure challengers, but he also is ready to defend how the board addressed those issues and is looking ahead to future matters.
"I feel a lot more confident about being able to speak to my time on the school board," he said. "If that means I'm defending decisions that I made or that we made collectively, I can do that. So I'm not really worried. I mean I know that, yeah, we had a lot of bitter stuff going on and I'm not particularly nervous about having to address any of it."
Britteny Cioni-Haywood (incumbent)
Cioni-Haywood said that when she first ran for school board three years ago she didn’t envision being its president before the end of her first term. She was elevated to that position after former president Deedie Sorensen, who initially decided not to run and then filed late as a write-in candidate a year ago, lost her reelection bid.
The Juneau School District has seen lots of dramatic changes during that time, most notably a consolidation of schools as a partial response to the worst financial crisis in the district’s history. The upcoming school year will also feature a new superintendent and many other top administrative officials.
"One of the reasons I am rerunning is because of all of these changes and transitions that I feel like I should help see some of that through," Cioni-Haywood said.
She is the administrative operations manager for the state Division of Commercial Fisheries and a former instructor at the University of Alaska Southeast. She said she expects many of the issues the district faces during the next three years will remain the same despite the changes the past few years.
"Funding from the state — trying to figure out what we keep, what we lose with the funding that we have, making those hard decisions," she said. "I don't think any of that has changed, and we have a lot of uncertainty to come this fall and winter with the change of (governor). We know that's going to happen, but who it'll be is anyone's guess at this point."
The consolidation, as well as contentious matters such as recently resolved teacher contract negotiations, resulted in many people expressing frustration with district officials. Cioni-Haywood said "I do still think that there is work in rebuilding trust and cleaning up those pieces from the consolidation."
Christine Johnson (challenger)
Johnson said she got "an eye-opening view into the school district" when her 4-year-old autistic student went missing from a playground last December, which led to her filing a complaint and the state issuing a finding that the district violated special education program requirements.
"Through that a lot of families reached out to me independently, and shared experiences and stories, and so it kind of just felt natural to (run)," she said. "I'm already listening to families. I'm already trying to help advocate for them in our own meetings. Why not keep that going?"
She said she wasn’t heavily involved in local school board matters before that incident, but she’s been a regular at board, site council and other district meetings since that time.
Johnson, a photographer who owns her own business, said her family has lived in Juneau for 11 years and three of her four children are enrolled in different local schools. She said that gives her a wider perspective of what the concerns and challenges are from educators as well as students and parents.
"Ultimately, I just want to support students, parents, the educators, the people who actually work with the students day to day," she said. "It seems as though they need a little bit of extra support, someone in their corner."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
