Assembly picks temporary replacement for East Anchorage seat

After multiple rounds of voting, 10 members of the Anchorage Assembly added a new colleague to their ranks.

Stephen “Joey” Sweet will replace outgoing East Anchorage member Forrest Dunbar until municipal elections in April. Dunbar, who held the position since 2015 and was reelected for a third term earlier this year, won a seat in the state Senate in November.

A newcomer to city politics, Sweet won a majority of votes over several older, more experienced candidates, including Harry Crawford, a former five-term state representative.

Sweet grew up in Wasilla, graduated from Mat-Su Career and Technical High School in 2011 and moved to the municipality in 2013 to enroll in the University of Alaska Anchorage. There, he earned an undergraduate degree in political science as well as a master’s in public administration. He served a term as the student regent for the University of Alaska Board of Regents from 2017 to 2019.

“Thank you for the confidence you’ve all shown in me. I’m humbled, I’m honored, I’m really gonna make the most of this. I’m gonna treat this as a full-time job,” Sweet said after being sworn into office by Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones following his selection.

Sweet did not immediately respond to messages seeking an interview Friday afternoon.

Assembly members spent the morning hearing from the five candidates who applied to take over Dunbar’s seat. The other four residents who applied to fill the interim position were Crawford; James M. Wojciehowski, a retired physician assistant; Hilary A. Morgan, a nonprofit executive and consultant; and Richard Foehner, a U.S. Army veteran. At noon, members began voting under a system that has been extensively refined since the last time members selected someone to fill a premature vacancy.

“Much of this is a new process for everyone to be carrying out,” said Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, noting that since 2019 the protocols have been “nearly entirely rewritten.”

In a halting, sometimes awkward process, Assembly members voted for the candidates, at first selecting just their preferred option, but moving on to a ranked-choice model for rounds two and three until Sweet came out with the seven votes to clinch victory.

“You have big shoes to fill, and I think we’ll make a good team here,” said Pete Petersen, who represents the same East Anchorage district and is barred by term limits from running again after his current term ends in April.

Both of the seats representing East Anchorage will be decided by voters in the April 4 municipal elections, along with five other seats that could turn over either because of retirements or competitive races.

Sweet’s profile on the social networking site LinkedIn shows he worked for Apple in Anchorage handling retail sales and customer service up until 2022. According to the profile, Sweet has little professional experience in politics, except for an internship in former Democratic state Sen. Berta Gardner’s office and paid canvassing for the Yes for Salmon campaign in 2018. He’s also been involved in anti-poverty political organizing, according to a letter submitted to the Assembly outlining his interest in serving.

Given his relative youth and freshman status, there was a bit of lighthearted ribbing after Sweet’s election.

“You have to read that all, Joey,” joked member Randy Sulte, referring to the dense binder issued to his new colleague containing hundreds of pages of meeting documents that will go before members at its regular meeting Tuesday.

“I was moved by the conversations about civility,” LaFrance said of the process after Sweet was sworn in. “We’re moving in a direction toward civility again,” she said.

LaFrance has not filed paperwork to run for a third term representing South Anchorage.

Later this month, the Assembly will select another interim member to represent the Eagle River-Chugiak seat held by Jamie Allard, who was elected to the Alaska House. Applications can be submitted to the municipal clerk’s office beginning Tuesday.