Democrat Zach Fansler of Alaska House District 38 has joined the newly created multi-partisan House Majority Caucus. The 22-person majority is formed of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents and is being led by a Democrat for the first time in 24 years, Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon of District 37.
Fansler secured his House seat Tuesday after winning 96-percent of the votes in his unopposed run. Wednesday, he flew to Anchorage to officially join the caucus. The newly elected representative says the coalition is formed on a commitment to improve the state’s fiscal situation.
“We need to move forward," Fansler said, "and what I ran on was tackling that fiscal crisis, diversifying revenue streams, and looking to protect services and programs that are valuable to our constituents in District 38 and across the whole YK Delta.”
Fansler says the first day of the caucus was spent organizing and meeting fellow Majority members.
“Just to sit down and start talking about what we want as a caucus, and what we want to do, in general, to start moving forward.”
Fansler expects the coalition will divide into committees later this week. Long-term, the representative’s plan for moving ahead is to bring to the caucus issues he heard from constituents on the campaign trail: education and public safety funding, the opioid epidemic, tribal rights, and subsistence and commercial fishing.
“There’s a lot of concerns, and it’s important that my job is to: one, listen; two, listen; and three, listen and learn some more of what our constituents want, and then turn around and attend things like this, and then come January in Juneau, fight, fight, fight for what’s best for us.”
To help him do that, Fansler has given out his phone number for you to call: 907-545-4503.
The region’s other state representative's committee seat has already been decided. Sen. Lyman Hoffman will serve as co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
