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VOTE411 Voter Guide

House District 15: Anchorage: Sand Lake/Campbell Lake

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    Mia Costello
    (Rep)

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    Dustin T. Darden
    (Dem)

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    Denny Wells
    (Dem)

Biographical Information

How do you plan to address the challenges of funding, teacher recruitment and retention, and ensuring educational equity across remote, rural and urban communities in Alaska in order to improve overall educational outcomes?

According to the U.S. Energy Administration in 2023, Alaska generated about 25% of its total electricity from renewable energy sources. What other alternatives do you think would help with our energy issues?

What options would you suggest where Alaska can increase our state revenue?

What could the Alaska legislature do to help restore voters’ trust in the integrity of our elections system?

Do you support or oppose continuation of our current open primary/ ranked choice voting election system.  Why?

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Campaign Mailing Address PO Box 242261
Anchorage, Alaska 99524
Campaign Phone 9073608608
Campaign Twitter Handle @DennyWellsAK
As a father of three children attending local Anchorage public schools, I’ve seen the impact of the state’s failure to invest in and support education firsthand. We’ve seen class sizes continue to grow, vacancy rates climb, the number of long-term Alaskan educators fall, and local schools are on the chopping block for closure. Historically the most equitable approach to fund all of our schools, be they rural or urban, neighborhood or charter, in-person or home school, has been through our base student allocation and funding formula. We have let inflation erode that mechanism away for nearly a generation. Investing in our schools and competitive retirement and benefits for our educators is an investment in the future of our economy.
I support an all-of-the-above approach to ensuring Alaskans have access to affordable and reliable energy. We should be considering any option that maintains access to affordable energy while moving us to a more stable long-term energy-independent future. This includes promoting natural gas production in Cook Inlet and simultaneously diversifying our energy sources through new, reliable, and affordable clean energy projects. Modernizing the existing Railbelt electrical grid and energy infrastructure, along with implementing energy efficiency programs, will play a crucial role in maximizing the available energy we produce.
The state should continue to find cost savings wherever possible and ensure our state government is efficient, effective, and meets the needs of Alaskans. We should work toward a long-term fiscal plan to provide stability and ensure state services meet the needs of Alaskans while working to promote responsible development of Alaska’s abundant natural resources to generate revenue, protect and grow the Permanent Fund, and follow our state’s spending and revenue caps. I am open to a variety of fiscal solutions, but ultimately it comes down to what a majority of the legislature can agree upon. I will always advocate for solutions that do not negatively burden hardworking Alaskans.
Alaska’s elections have a track record of being safe, secure, and fair and there are common-sense steps to ensure voting is more accessible for eligible Alaskan voters, including:

-Reinstating campaign contribution limits to ensure the voices of Alaska’s voters are not drowned out by special interests and big donors from out-of-state.

-Implementing ballot curing, to ensure eligible Alaskan voters do not lose their vote due to a minor and correctable error.

-Establishing same-day voter registration.

-Refining our special needs ballot process to protect its integrity while ensuring that minor clerical errors from volunteers are not grounds to disenfranchise voters

-Assure that we have sufficient election staff and infrastructure
I believe our voter-approved ballot measure from 2020 establishing open primaries, transparency in campaign finance, and ranked-choice voting has had a net-positive effect on Alaska’s government. I am particularly a fan of campaign finance transparency, and the idea of spending public tax dollars on closed primaries on behalf of private parties has never seemed like a wise use of public resources. Our first election results under this system seem to have encouraged bipartisanship and resulted in the election of more moderate candidates who better reflect the diversity of their constituents. I support the continuation of Alaska’s existing election system, which Alaskan voters approved.