With the Anchorage mayoral campaign heating up, incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson began his radio and TV ad campaign with a dizzying array of misleading statements and historical revision.
In a radio spot that began airing this month, Bronson re-frames a mass shelter project he proposed and began building without Assembly approval — ultimately costing taxpayers $2.4 million in settlement fees — as a solution that he declares will basically solve homelessness, before pivoting to attack his opponent, former Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, for a proposal that the Assembly put forward six months after she was no longer on the Assembly.
Bronson proposed a plan for a 1,000 bed mass shelter at Tudor Road and Elmore Road before he took office, eventually saying he would reduce it to 200 beds in an attempt to gain Assembly and community support for the idea. The Assembly decided not to move forward with the shelter when Bronson began building it with no approval, without a plan and with cost estimates that ballooned by millions more than once. Later, Bronson admitted that he still wanted to house upwards of 700 people in the shelter.
In his radio ad, Bronson claims that concentrating people in a mass shelter would drastically reduce homeless camps and keep the city safe. This was not the case when the Sullivan Arena was used as a mass shelter. The surrounding community suffered increased crime, homeless camps, public drug use, police calls, and graffiti while forming community patrols, resuscitating people and discovering dead bodies on a few occasions.
Throughout Bronson’s term, large encampments plagued with shootings, roving bears, drug deaths and criminal activity have proliferated throughout Anchorage, including at Centennial Campground, Cuddy Park and Third Ave and Ingra. Homeless deaths skyrocketed, with a record of 51 outdoor deaths in 2023, more than doubling the previous record Bronson set in 2022.
Bronson’s ad then claims that LaFrance wants to build “Portland loos” with the money instead of the mass shelter he proposed. The bond proposal, which is for public restrooms to be strategically placed for park users and tourists to use, will be decided on by voters in April.
Bronson’s timekeeping is deceptive, as LaFrance hasn’t been on the Assembly for nearly a year, and was not on the Assembly when the public restroom proposal was introduced on October 24, 2023, a full six months after her last day.
Bronson’s math is also a giant stretch, as the ballot proposition that will appear on the ballot is for $5 million, and not $12.5 million as Bronson claims.
Lies are allowed in campaigns, and misleading campaign ads are a staple for many political candidates who bank on fewer voters finding out the truth. Ultimately it is up to the voters to decide whether to hold politicians accountable for their lies, or look the other way.
