Nano Brooks, Melissa Cullum, Jenny Thomas are challengers winning seats in final election results

Tax-cut propositions pass, seasonal sales tax fails; turnout down slightly from 2024 municipal election

Signs at City Hall as in-person early voting begins on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, for the Oct. 7 municipal election. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

This is a developing story.

Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks will join a Juneau Assembly that will have less money to spend, and Melissa Cullum and Jenny Thomas will join a school board they’ve strongly criticized for major recent policy decisions, according to certified municipal election results released Tuesday.

The three challengers are the newcomers to public office in the Oct. 7 election that featured three Assembly races, three open school board seats and three tax-related ballot propositions. Deputy Mayor Greg Smith and Assembly Member Ella Adkison were both reelected to three-year terms as unopposed candidates, while Steve Whitney was elected to a full school board term after being appointed to a temporary seat in May.

The propositions were the dominant focus since the two measures that passed — a lower cap on property taxes, and exempting food and utilities from sales taxes — are projected to cost the city government more than $12 million a year — equal to about 6.2% of this year’s $200 million budget. A third ballot measure to offset that loss by imposing a seasonal sales tax meant to maximize tourism income was defeated by a large margin.

A total of 10,263 ballots were cast of the 28,017 mailed to registered voters, with the 36.63% turnout rate down from 38.7% in the 2024 municipal election. Both years reflect an increase from other recent elections, as a 42.73% turnout in 2020 dropped to 30.77% in 2021, then rose to 32.87% in 2022 and 33.98% in 2023, according to the City and Borough of Juneau’s website.

About 25,000 of Juneau’s 31,000 residents are of voting age, according to the website Census Reporter, but the number of ballots sent is determined by the state Division of Elections’ voter rolls. The division’s website states "if someone becomes registered but does not vote and does not contact the division, it can take at least eight years and the return of undeliverable mail to remove them from the voter list."

"We have a substantial amount of return-to-sender envelopes that we pass along to the state, and they'll get those and they'll get that updated," Juneau Municipal Clerk Breckan Hendricks said Tuesday evening.

The official results in competitive races for the Oct 7, 2025, election, as reported by CBJ are:

• Assembly District 2: Challenger Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks (4,807 votes) defeated two-term incumbent Wade Bryson (4,416 votes).

• Juneau Board of Education: Steve Whitney (5,285 votes) and Melissa Cullum (4,150 votes) were elected to full three-year terms. Jenny Thomas (3,950 votes) will fill the remaining term of a school board member who resigned in April. The closest unsuccessful challenger was Jeremy Johnson with 3,818 votes while write-in candidate Deedie Sorensen got 2,326 votes.

• Proposition 1: Lower the mill rate cap to nine instead of 12. Passed with 5,168 votes in favor and 5,006 votes opposed.

• Proposition 2: Exempt food and utilities from sales taxes. Passed with 7,099 votes in favor and 3,100 votes opposed.

• Proposition 3: Impose seasonal sales tax of 3% from October-March and 7.5% from April-September. Failed with 4,365 votes in favor and 5,853 votes opposed.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.