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Two candidates who are losing in the race for Anchorage mayor this week announced their support for two different front-runners — Mike Robbins endorsed Dave Bronson and Bill Falsey endorsed Forrest Dunbar.
Robbins, who is currently fifth in the 15-candidate race with 7.7% of the vote, on Sunday endorsed Bronson in a letter posted to his campaign’s Facebook page. Robbins is the Republican House District 26 chairman and a longtime local businessman.
Bronson is currently first in the race with nearly 33% of the vote.
“Dave Bronson is the last man standing of the conservative candidates. He is the candidate voters chose to defeat Forrest Dunbar, and he must win - to ensure we don’t plummet into further socialism and the anti-business, anti-American-values abyss we’ve suffered the last 5+ years. To do this we need to come together,” Robbins wrote.
[Anchorage police union will not endorse a candidate for mayor]
Although the race for mayor is technically nonpartisan, Bronson announced his candidacy last summer as an effort to bring conservative leadership to Anchorage.
Falsey, third in the race with 13% of the vote, endorsed Dunbar on Tuesday in a post on Dunbar’s campaign page. Falsey worked as municipal manager and municipal attorney under former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
Dunbar, an Assembly member from East Anchorage, is behind Bronson in the race with a little more than 31% of the vote.
“Forrest Dunbar is hands down the most qualified candidate entering this runoff election,” said Falsey. “Anchorage deserves someone in the mayor’s office with real experience, who knows how to bring people together and get things done; someone who understands that the mayor has both an obligation and opportunity to elevate our community by setting a tone of civility and respect.”
The race has been punctuated with division among residents who disagree with how the city should deal with the continuing coronavirus pandemic, its economy and homelessness. Bronson and Dunbar, who have starkly different approaches to those issues, are heading into a runoff race on May 11.