This story has been updated with comments by Steininger.
Neil Steininger, former budget director for Gov. Mike Dunleavy until being fired last year over an alleged difference in budget philosophy, registered on Friday as the lone candidate so far for the District 1 seat on the Juneau Assembly.
The candidate filing deadline for the Oct. 1 election is 4:30 p.m. Monday. Three Assembly seats (including the mayor) and three Juneau Board of Education seats will be on the ballot.
Steininger appears as a registered candidate on the certified list updated at 4:40 p.m. Friday by the municipal clerk for the City and Borough of Juneau. He is the only registered candidate so far for the district representing downtown Juneau, Douglas, North Douglas, Lemon Creek and the airport area.
The district is traditionally politically liberal, with Dunleavy finishing third there in the three-candidate race during 2022 gubernatorial election that saw the Republican incumbent get 24.7% of the district’s votes compared to 46.1% for independent former Gov. Bill Walker and 27.1% for Democrat Les Gara. Dunleavy was reelected with 50.3% of the statewide vote.
Steininger, in an interview Saturday, said he began working for the state budget office when Walker was in office prior to Dunleavy, so when it comes to his work for specific politicians “I wouldn’t say that’s a reflection of my political ideology.” Rather, he said, “your primary responsibility is to make sure that government functions.”
“On the Assembly that’s what I’ll strive to do,” he said. “I don’t think I represent any one aspect of the political spectrum.”
Steininger said his lengthy background as a financial and public policy analyst will serve him well as an Assembly member when dealing with key issues such as the budget crisis faced by the school district in recent months, and the ongoing shortage of housing availability and rising property tax assessments. He noted that as a resident on Gastineau Avenue he’s seen firsthand some of the problems related to housing shortages.
“I don’t know the exact count of the number of units that have burned down or been demolished in landslides, (but) I’ve seen the capacity for housing on my street alone dramatically decline,” he said. “We need to do something as the city to replace those units to attract the people that we want to bring in.”
Steininger was appointed as director of the state Office of Management and Budget by Dunleavy in 2020, replacing Donna Arduin who had national prominence as a slash-and-burn budget cutter whose proposals became a central focus of attacks on Dunleavy during his first year in office. While Steininger’s appointment was seen as a moderating move by the governor, the ouster of the OMB director came amidst a number of controversial staff moves and appointments by Dunleavy after he won reelection in 2022.
Steininger was subsequently hired as a budget correspondent for the Alaska Political Report, a paid newsletter published by Jeff Landfield, who also published The Alaska Landmine (which hosted a March 21 podcast between Landfield and Steininger discussing his time at OMB). The former OMB director also did his first-ever public showing of woodworking and turnings during a local First Friday event at The Pottery Jungle in March.
“I grew up in Juneau (and) lived here most of my life, kind of off and on,” Steininger said during the podcast, noting he also lived for nearly a decade in Reno, Nevada. “And for the last 12 years now I’ve been here.”
Prior to Steininger’s role as OMB director, he worked for several years as an analyst for the agency, as well as serving as administrative services director for the Department of Education and Early Development, according to a press released issued by the governor’s office. He has also worked for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Division, and in the private sector as analyst.
Four candidates are registered so far for the District 2 Assembly seat representing the Mendenhall Valley and out the road. They are Emily Mesch, Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks, Dorene Lorenz and Maureen Hall — all of whom declared their intent to run on or before the opening filing date last Friday.
Mayor Beth Weldon has also filed for another three-year term, the only candidate so far for that seat.
The only school board candidate to file so far is incumbent Elizabeth Siddon. Seats held by Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz, who have not yet publicly stated their intentions, are also on the ballot.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
