The list of organized labor groups backing former Anchorage Assembly chair Suzanne LaFrance’s bid for mayor continues to grow.
Four additional labor groups have endorsed LaFrance, her campaign announced Thursday. This brings LaFrance’s running total to 15 endorsements. The latest endorsements include Public Employees Local 71, Teamsters 959, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades 1959 and United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1496.
In the announcement, the campaign says together, the organizations represent more than 50,000 workers in Alaska spread across private and public sectors.
“Our union gets involved in elections and endorsements because we care about having elected officials who will advance good labor policy,” said Bronson Frye, Business Representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades 1959. “Suzanne LaFrance has the track record to prove she’s the candidate for workforce development and working families.”
The city has faced an exodus of employees under Mayor Dave Bronson—whose administration has been marked by several allegations of mismanagement and fostering a hostile workplace. The city’s staffing problems have been felt particularly strongly in the building trades, where the city’s understaffed permit management division has struggled to keep up with permit applications, leading to concerns that projects may be delayed.
LaFrance has made returning some normalcy a key piece of her campaign.
“I grew up in a union home, and I’m incredibly proud to have the support of our local workers, including the public employees who get our streets cleared and keep our city running,” she said in a prepared statement accompanying the announcement of the endorsements. “I’ve always been focused on making Anchorage better for workers and their families. As mayor, I’ll fix what’s broken in our local government and work tirelessly to make Anchorage a place with good jobs and a great quality of life.”
Facing a crowded race, LaFrance has been busy collecting endorsements from a wide range of groups, including The Alaska Center, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, and several unions and split the Anchorage police union’s political action group endorsement with mayoral candidate Bill Popp.
The mayoral election is set to take place on April 2. LaFrance, Popp, Bronson and former Democratic lawmaker Chris Tuck
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
