Candidates with similar ideas — and salmon logos — vie for Kodiak legislative seat

KODIAK — In most elections, the candidates are defined by their differences. But in the race for Kodiak's state House seat, it can be hard to distinguish the politics of the two leading candidates, Republican incumbent Louise Stutes and Republican-turned-independent Duncan Fields.

The Democrat on the ballot, Brent Watkins, is a construction worker, former borough zoning commissioner and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., delegate to the Alaska Democratic Party's state convention. Watkins has a far smaller campaign bankroll than Stutes or Fields, and while his two opponents have focused on commercial fishing, his campaign planks include tourism and habitat protection as well.

The similarities between Stutes and Fields? Both acknowledge the need to use the Alaska Permanent Fund's investment earnings to help close the state's massive budget gap. Each wants to further reduce the tax credits given to Alaska's oil producers. And, since they're seeking to represent the nation's second largest fishing port, Stutes and Fields are enthusiastic boosters of Alaska's commercial fishing industry. The similarities even extend to their campaign signs, which both sport salmon logos curled in the same direction.

"They both would take care of Kodiak," said Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens, who represents the area and, like at least one other Kodiak resident, has both a pro-Stutes and a pro-Fields sign in front of his home. "I don't think Kodiak can lose, whoever they choose."

The three candidates are running for House District 32, which includes Seldovia, but not Homer, on the Kenai Peninsula, the fishing town of Cordova, but not Valdez, in Prince William Sound, and distant Yakutat in Southeast.

Fields, 60, was an unexpected challenger to the incumbent Republican: He's a former chair of the Kodiak GOP with deep ties to Republican politicians, including U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who spent the night at Fields' ocean view home Wednesday after participating in a debate.

Fields' parents moved to Kodiak to work as missionaries and bought a cattle ranch. He grew up on the island — he's still president of the Kodiak Livestock Co-op — though the last of his cattle were killed by a bear a couple of years ago.

He's an attorney and works for two Kodiak-area Alaska Native village corporations, Ouzinkie and Old Harbor, and he fishes for salmon during the summer from family setnet sites in Uyak Bay, on the west side of Kodiak Island.

Fields is also a longtime player in the state's cutthroat commercial fishing politics, having served on the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, a creation of the late Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens that distributed more than $30 million in federal money to seafood companies. He also spent nine years on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees lucrative federal fisheries off Alaska's coast and was also a product of Stevens, this time with Sen. Warren Magnuson of Washington state.

In an interview in his Kodiak home, above Mill Bay at the northeast tip of the island, Fields said he was compelled to run for the House because of the damage inflicted on Alaska's commercial fishing industry by state government's response to its massive budget deficit: substantial cuts to marketing programs and to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

"Everything that I've worked for begins to crumble," he said. "I'm seeing the erosion, the rapid decline, of the things that are important to me, important to the rural communities, important to Kodiak, and important to the state of Alaska."

Fields' case for his own candidacy is largely personal, not political. It rests on his decades of navigating Alaska fish politics, which he says have endowed him with experience and a pragmatism Stutes lacks.

It's a difficult argument to make against the incumbent, who bucked her party's leadership by joining the Musk Ox Coalition, a six-member moderate faction of the House's Republican-led majority.

But Fields points to his decision to renounce his GOP registration and run as an independent, with a campaign treasurer, Stosh Anderson, who's also been the treasurer for the Kodiak Democrats. And he says that while the Musk Ox group took "reasonable positions" in the Legislature, they didn't have the numbers needed to advance the kinds of far-reaching bills needed to fix Alaska's budget problem.

Fields said he filed as an independent in hopes of forming a bipartisan majority in the House that could work together to form a broad budget plan. But his opponents also point out that the move allowed him to bypass what would have been a difficult Republican primary, which Watkins, the Democrat, characterized as political opportunism.

"Duncan's got a history of doing what's best for Duncan, and incidentally bringing the people along if it happens to help him," Watkins said in a phone interview.

Stutes, the Republican incumbent, acknowledged she had a rocky first term in the Legislature, in which she sponsored two bills.

The one that passed kept alive a state board that oversees hunting guides. The other was an effort to save money by reorganizing a commercial fishing permit commission, but it failed to advance to the floor for a vote after provoking a backlash from industry groups.

Stutes, who chairs a special House fisheries committee, said the experience taught her to approach her job with a lighter touch.

"It's not my job to tell these fishermen what's best for them," she said in an interview in her downtown Kodiak legislative office. She added: "I've really learned to listen."

Stutes, 64, used to fish commercially with her husband, Stormy Stutes, and she spent 25 years as the owner of a downtown Kodiak bar, The Village, which was established by her father after the 1964 earthquake.

"I hauled booze, I tended bar, I cleaned up puke," she said. "You name it, I did it."

Lingering doubts about Stutes' toughness are dispelled by what happened to her at the end of the 2015 legislative session, when she went to visit an allergist about swelling in her face. The cause was a tumor that was cutting off circulation; doctors told her it was inoperable and that she had no more than a year to live, Stutes said.

"I told them I thought they were full of it," she said.

Consultations with three different surgeons ended with a diagnosis of lymphoma. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation and was done with treatment by mid-January — in time for the start of the 2016 legislative session.

Stutes touts her two years experience and the lessons she's learned from a cadre of fish experts that she adopted as tutors — including her 2014 opponent, Jerry McCune — and says voters shouldn't discard her for Fields.

"He's saying, 'When I get to Juneau, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this.' I've already created all the relationships that are working in that direction, and he would be walking in cold," Stutes said. "I've established my own credibility."

Watkins, the Democratic candidate, has run a lower-profile campaign, making his own signs from recycled wood and metal and eschewing plastic ones. He's raised about $7,000 to the $37,000 raised by Stutes and the $38,000 raised by Fields — though much of Fields' money is his own.

Like Stutes and Fields, Watkins also advocates for Alaska's fisheries, but with a more expansive scope — protecting fish habitat and promoting tourism and sport and charter fishing along with the state's commercial industry.

"Everybody that has access to the fish should have a voice in the equation," said Watkins, 53, who's preparing for a trip to Cordova next week.

Watkins says Stutes is a "nice lady." But even as a member of the moderate Musk Ox faction, Watkins added, Stutes has to fight members of her own Republican-led majority to help Alaska's coastal communities like Kodiak.

"Even if she wants to push things forward, she's got an uphill battle with her allies," Watkins said. As a Democrat, he added: "I have the advantage of having statewide support for moving progressive and ecologically responsible actions forward."