OPINION: Supporting the first responders who support Alaska

My name is Andy Josephson.  I am a candidate for the Alaska State House in District 13 (Campbell Park, Taku/Campbell, Dimond Business District).

I am proud to be endorsed by the Anchorage Police Department Employees’ Association PAC (local police union board) and the Public Safety Employees’ Association Local 803 PAC (Alaska State Troopers’ and smaller town police forces’ union board).  PSEA once honored me with a 2018 “Champion of Public Safety Award.”  It was an unexpected and touching moment for me.

I can’t know for sure why these two great organizations have endorsed me. First, though, I engaged with each group through their questionnaire process so that I could know what their rank-and-file’s concerns were. Taking the time to actually answer their questionnaires is a wise place to begin the process.

I am proud to be a strong supporter of public safety as a legislator. These roots run deep in me as a former prosecutor. While a prosecutor, I worked every day with the Anchorage Police or the Alaska State Troopers, always in close contact, always learning from each force.

I am also proud to be the only Democrat to have opposed Senate Bill 91 in 2016. Thirty amendments were brought to the House Floor for a final vote. While I am only one of 40 House members, 13 of the 30 amendments were mine. I was gravely concerned about that bill and was happy to vote for its full repeal in 2019 through House Bill 49.

I am also the author and prime sponsor of House Bill 23 in 2017. This bill finally afforded the families of fallen peace officers full health insurance in tragic instances where a first responder died while in the line of duty.

This year, I was happy to orchestrate the addition of language into Senate Bill 131 (while it was heard in House Labor & Commerce Committee) to ensure that firefighters who serve at the University of Alaska or our airports, if they face a horrible diagnosis like cancer, will be presumed to have contracted the dreaded disease on the job, subject to certain conditions.

At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, I was able to help engineer the addition of Section 15 of Senate Bill 241 into law as part of a COVID adjournment package.  That language created a presumption that first responders who contracted COVID were presumed to have done so at work, such that they could more easily obtain workers’ compensation benefits.  While time limited, we wanted and needed our first responders to respond vigorously and with confidence during the COVID outbreak, so that they would know we had their backs if they got sick, themselves, with that dangerous disease.

Also just this year, my bill to increase prosecutor pay by 20% became law just last week (House Bill 226), and should help ensure that police and state troopers have experienced and skilled prosecutors to try their cases.

Finally, in 2021-2022, my bill to restore defined benefits to first responders (police, fire and corrections), enjoyed more legislative success than at any time since the program was ended in 2006. My House Bill 55 got through the House, 25-15, and all the way to the Senate Finance Committee before the clock ran out on the effort.

I am also honored to be the author of House Bill 353, a bill that would create a peer support program for officers who’ve suffered a crisis or other trauma and need to process their adverse experiences by sharing them with people that have been there, can relate to them, and who understand.

My legacy for this work is a strong one. My grandfather, Arnold Zander, founded our own Alaska State Troopers’ historic “parent” union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in 1932, presiding over it until the early 1960s. I was pleased to be present when he was posthumously inducted into the Laborer’s Hall of Fame in 1997. I know he would be happy with the work I’ve done for our first responders.

Lest I forget, I am also honored to be endorsed by the local International Association of Firefighters Local 1264. I was happy to spend a day completing their Fire Ops 101 course in late August. It gave me a taste-test of the critical and often dangerous work our fire and medical personnel do each and every day — all for us.

Finally, today, I can’t help but think of the officers injured on Jan. 6, 2021. I know how hard they fought to protect Congress and our democracy. They are a shining example of the importance of our first responders in keeping us safe and protecting both people and democratic institutions. I know that most Alaska candidates stand with me in unflagging appreciation.

Rep. Andy Josephson is a member of the Alaska House of Representatives and a candidate for State House in District 13 (Campbell Park, Taku/Campbell, Dimond Business District).

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