JUNEAU — First-term Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, has drawn a challenger: Kodiak attorney and fisherman Duncan Fields.
Fields is finishing his ninth year as a member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, but his term expires in August.
Fields has been involved in both fisheries and fish politics for years. In the mid-2000s, he served on the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board when former state Sen. Ben Stevens was the board's chairman and Trevor McCabe, an ex-staffer to Ben Stevens' father, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was vice chairman. The board itself had the task of spending federal money on fisheries promotions that Ted Stevens got from Congress.
Fields filed paperwork with state campaign finance regulators Monday that will allow him to start raising money for a legislative bid. He said Tuesday he will be running as an independent candidate. He said he recently changed his voter registration from Republican to nonpartisan.