At least one thing unites the two candidates in the East Anchorage Assembly race: Both have tried, at different times, to unseat long-serving incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Young.
One of the candidates, Forrest Dunbar, 31, an officer and attorney in the Alaska National Guard, ran against Young in 2014 as the Democratic nominee. He lost, but posed a serious challenge to Young, boosted by his "Run Forrest Run" slogan and a savvy social media campaign.
Since then, as well as working for the Guard on military justice reform, Dunbar has launched himself into East Anchorage issues, joining the board of his community council and helping start the Muldoon Farmers Market.
Dunbar's opponent in East Anchorage, Terre Gales, ran against Young in the Republican primary in 2012. Gales, a 33-year-old Air Force veteran and city safety officer, fell far short in that race -- he couldn't get to 6.5 percent of the Republican vote -- and emerged still a relative unknown.
Gales said he's making a bigger effort in his Assembly bid and hopes voters will be swayed in part by his personal story of growing up in a troubled neighborhood in Virginia, joining the military and building a better life for his family in Anchorage.
Two backgrounds
Dunbar spent the early part of his childhood in the tiny eastern Interior town of Eagle. His father worked seasonally for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and his mother was a substitute teacher.
The family moved to Cordova when he was 7 and he graduated from Cordova High School. He often came to Anchorage for basketball or judo tournaments, he said.
"I always saw myself living here," Dunbar said.
After graduating from Yale Law School in 2012, Dunbar moved to East Anchorage and joined the Alaska National Guard as an attorney. Until he declared his Assembly candidacy, Dunbar was working for the Guard full time on a bill to create a code of military justice for Alaska.
That bill passed the Alaska House of Representatives and a new judge advocate is working on it in the state Senate, Dunbar said. He said he'll work on a limited basis with the Guard in the future and would treat the Assembly as a full-time job; Assembly members make $29,302 annually.
Dunbar now rents a unit in a duplex off Muldoon Road. He works in the Alaska National Guard armory on the north end of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, so it's a convenient location, he said.
Gales took a different path to East Anchorage. He grew up in a troubled neighborhood in Hampton, Virginia. He said he remembers hearing gunshots and seeing drug deals in the public housing where he lived.
Gales' father was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, he said. His mother raised him. Sometimes the family was homeless, he said, with he and his two sisters bouncing between friends and relatives.
Gales joined the Air Force when he was 19 and was stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which then was Elmendorf Air Force Base. He was deployed overseas, primarily to Iraq and Oman.
Gales, who is African-American, said he encountered regular racial profiling from police officers when he was a teenager. But he took a class on law enforcement in high school and later spent a few months as a sheriff's deputy in Tuscon, Arizona, in 2008 while serving as an Air Force reservist. He also worked as a military police officer at JBER, answering mostly domestic violence calls, Gales said.
Gales now works as a safety officer in the city's public works department. He oversees worker safety on street maintenance and construction projects.
While stationed in Anchorage, Gales met his wife, Alyssa, who grew up in a mobile home at Penland Park across the street from the Northway Mall. The couple saved their money to buy a house near the intersection of Northern Lights Boulevard and Campbell Airstrip Road, where they live with their three children and three dogs. They also take care of Gales' 15-year-old nephew.
Building on momentum
Campaign finance records show a sharp disparity in fundraising between the two candidates. Dunbar has reported raising nearly $70,000, more than 10 times as much as Gales, who reported raising about $6,100.
Gales also reported that he was about $3,500 in debt in his most recent campaign disclosure report. He said he expected to cover the debt with fundraising.
Dunbar entered the Assembly race with more name recognition. In his 2014 run against Young, Dunbar gained national attention for his campaign's crusade on social media -- particularly a YouTube video rock-song parody which he wore a wig, hat and sunglasses and sang, "I don't want to lose your vote … tonight."
Dunbar is seeking to build on the momentum from that campaign, in which he got 41 percent of the vote to Young's 51 percent. His first radio advertisement, released Monday, plays a clip of the parody rock song in the background.
"You probably know me as the 'Run Forrest Run' guy," Dunbar says in the ad. "These days, I've been doing a lot more walking."
The ad plays the sound of what Dunbar says are his "grippers on ice in East Anchorage … going door to door, listening to your concerns."
Dunbar said he would respond quickly to neighborhood issues and work to reduce the city's tax burden by examining nonprofit tax exemptions if elected. His platform also includes housing affordability and, through his position on the Assembly, finding ways to reduce homelessness -- in East Anchorage, homeless campers in parks have been a flash point for neighbors over the years.
During a recent interview in the Fred Meyer on Northern Lights Boulevard, Dunbar paused for about 10 minutes to quiz a homeless man who overheard him talking about housing.
"Do you want to continue sleeping outside, or do you want a place inside?" Dunbar asked. The man said he wanted a place inside. "Do you ever stay in the parks? Sleep in the parks?"
Since losing to Young, Dunbar has stepped up his involvement in East Anchorage community issues, which Assemblyman Paul Honeman, who decided not to seek a third term, said was one of his main reasons for endorsing Dunbar.
Mao Tosi, manager of the Northway Mall and a community activist in East Anchorage, said Dunbar had "really dived into the community" in the past two years. He also noted Dunbar's involvement with an organization called Forget-Me-Not, started by Samuel Johns, that aims to connect homeless people with their families. He said he supports Dunbar because, of the two candidates, he's known Dunbar the longest.
Making himself known
Gales, who campaigned very little against Young in 2012, has had more of an uphill battle introducing himself to voters. Hoping to raise his profile, Gales spent several hours shaking hands in the long line in front of the Republican polling place at the Anchorage Baptist Temple on Super Tuesday earlier this month.
Gales is casting himself as the conservative in the East Anchorage race -- he said he grew up reading biographies of prominent conservatives like Colin Powell, the former general and secretary of state, and J.C. Watts, a former football player and congressman from Oklahoma. His campaign donors include former Mayor Dan Sullivan, and he supports an initiative that would clarify how Anchorage's tax cap is calculated and require the city to collect less in property taxes this year. He said it's good to force cuts in government and said the savings could be used for more policing.
On homelessness, which touched him in his childhood, Gales said housing alone won't fix the issue. He said the city should support nonprofits and other organizations that offer job training or substance abuse services, though not "forcibly on the backs of taxpayers." He also said he wants to help a proposed Muldoon Town Square Park come to fruition and promote community policing.
But Gales said his life story is more important than his politics, because it suggests how he'd handle himself in certain situations.
"It's important to me that in this, it's not just all the politics, but the people," Gales said. "And especially inspiring young people that life could be so much better."
The chair of the Scenic Foothills Community Council, Mark Hill, said Dunbar has been a steady presence on the council since becoming the council's vice president about a year ago.
But Hill, who said he's more conservative, said he supports Gales based on Gales' showing at a candidate forum hosted by the council earlier this month. He said he was impressed by Gales' personal story, and that he presented himself as a "family man."
He also said that Gales "hit the nail on the head" in criticizing the city's policy of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder on road projects.