Andy Hughes had made up his mind. Though he’d run for a seat on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly before, he wasn’t going to do it this year.
Then he saw Areawide Assembly candidate Carole Triem drop out of the race just 48 hours after the deadline to register as a candidate. That left current Areawide Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski without a challenger.
“That kinda disappointed me,” Hughes said, “because I felt we were going into an election where every position on the ballot presented a choice.”
So, wanting to see every seat contested, Hughes took things into his own hands. He decided that he would run for the seat. With the deadline more than a week in the past and the ballot set in stone, Hughes will be a write-in candidate.
More than anything, Hughes said he’s running “to provide a choice and to just satisfy myself that at least I’m willing to participate in the local government process.”
Atop Hughes’ list of priorities in running for the seat is to promote participation in local government and to try and make the race as interesting as possible. He said he doesn’t expect to beat Gladziszewski, but hopes that he can at least get a few more people out to vote when Oct. 3 comes around.
“People don’t read newspapers, they don’t go to meetings, and they generally, a large part of the population just doesn’t muster an effort to participate in their local government, or state or federal government, at least through the ballot boxes,” Hughes said.
He’s well aware of the difficulties with being a write-in candidate, though the last time he ran his name was on the ballot. Despite one very highly publicized write-in victory in Alaska in 2010 (when Sen. Lisa Murkowski became the first U.S. senator in more than 50 years to win an election as a write-in candidate), local history is not on Hughes’ side.
The most recent write-in victory for a local candidate was in 1992, when Sally Rue won a seat on the Juneau Board of Education. Hughes doesn’t expect that to happen in his case, as there are a number of challenges with being a write-in candidate.
“I’ve gone into a ballot booth with forgetting, ‘Who was I gonna vote for? Well, I’ll recognize it when I see his or her name on the ballot.’ Well, they’re not gonna see my name on the ballot to remind them,” Hughes said, chuckling.
He hopes to be accessible, and wants people to either email him at andyhughesusa@hotmail.com or even call him at 723-5203.
Hughes, a retired Alaska Department of Transportation Regional Planning Chief, said the opioid crisis and the rise in homelessness have drawn his attention lately. He also believes he’d be an asset during the city’s budget process. Having a background in promoting transportation projects, Hughes is in favor of a Berners Bay Ferry Terminal, building a road out of Juneau and pursuing mining in the borough. Both “The Road” and proposed changes to the city’s mining ordinance have been hot topics for the Assembly lately.
He doesn’t realistically expect to be celebrating on Oct. 3, Hughes said he’ll make time not only for the campaign but for the future.
“While I don’t view my chances of prevailing as very high,” Hughes said, “I certainly am committed to serving should somehow I prevail.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
