Former Democratic legislator Grier Hopkins holds a commanding cash advantage in the race for the Fairbanks North Star Borough mayor, one of the marquee local races this fall.
Hopkins’ campaign has raised $104,000 to date, according to reports filed with state campaign regulators covering fundraising through the end of August. That’s double the fundraising haul of former Republican legislator John Coghill, who reported $50,000 in campaign income.
Hopkins and Coghill are the two leading candidates for Fairbanks borough mayor, which is open as Mayor Bryce Ward has reached his term limit. Perennial candidate Robert Shields is also running and has reported raising $688.
It’s not the first time a Coghill and a Hopkins have vied for the same seat. Grier Hopkins’ father, Luke Hopkins (who also served two terms as FNSB mayor), ran against Coghill for his state Senate seat in 2016, coming up about seven percentage points short. Coghill went on to lose the 2020 Republican primary election to Sen. Robert Myers.
In a prepared statement accompanying the fundraising results, Hopkins highlighted that he had more contributions from unique individuals than Coghill, noting he had 528 unique donors with an average contribution of about $200 to Coghill’s 171 unique donors with an average contribution of nearly $300.
“I’m completely humbled by the support our community has shown throughout this campaign,” he said. “The donations have come from every part of the Borough — from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, business owners, teachers, firefighters, to retired seniors, and construction workers, who all want to see new energy and a positive vision for our future. Alaskans of all types are supporting our campaign because they believe in our vision of a thriving economy, strong schools, good quality of life, that will reverse our population decline and set our Borough up for years to come.”
According to the reports, Hopkins entered the election’s final month with more than $70,000 in cash on hand, while Coghill reported having about $16,000.
In the big picture
The balance of power on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly has swung back and forth between progressive and conservative majorities in recent years. Progressives won a majority in the 2023 elections but were saddled with budgets crafted by conservatives that severely constrained spending, which ultimately hampered the borough’s ability to increase funding for public schools amid ongoing funding woes from the state.
Fairbanks voters rejected several right-wing school board members last year, a move seen as a rejection of divisive culture war issues. And as if to remind voters of those culture wars, followers of a right-wing blog recently disrupted a school board meeting with a poster of bare-butted pictures of a school board member that had been posted several years ago to social media. The followers argued that the school board member should resign, claiming that it was their right to distribute the photos as a lesson on the dangers of cyberbullying.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough’s election is on Oct. 1.
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.
