Month: August 2026

This article has been updated as of 6 p.m. to include the withdrawal of another candidate.

Weeks after suspending his campaign, the leading Democrat in Alaska’s U.S. House race officially withdrew ahead of Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

That withdrawal triggered a sequence of events that put the eighth-place finisher, Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott, on the ballot in November.

Democrat Matt Schultz received 8.1% of the vote in the August primary, good enough for third, behind incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and independent challenger Bill Hill.

Begich had 44.6% of the vote, and Hill had 32.5%, according to official results published Monday. 

Hill, a fisherman and former superintendent from Bristol Bay, is a first-time candidate for federal office. 

Under Alaska’s unique elections system, all candidates for an office run against each other in the primary election. The top four candidates, regardless of political party, advance to the general election in November. There, voters rank the candidates in order of preference.

The candidate with the fewest top rankings is eliminated, and any votes for them are redistributed to their voters’ second choices.

The process continues until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.

If a top-four finisher withdraws, their spot is taken by the fifth-place finisher. If two top-four candidates withdraw, the sixth-place finisher also advances. 

Schultz suspended his campaign on July 17 in order to consolidate opposition fundraising and voter support. His withdrawal was followed by that of other trailing candidates.

With Schultz’s withdrawal, fourth-place finisher Eric Hafner — a registered Democrat in federal prison who received 3.8% of the vote — moves to the third spot on November’s election ballot. 

Two years ago, a state judge ruled that Hafner could remain a candidate even if he would be unable to serve his term due to his federal imprisonment.

Fifth-place finisher John Williams, a Democrat from Fairbanks who received 2.7% of the vote, withdrew from the race on Monday morning, he said by phone. 

The sixth-place finisher, Republican candidate Clay Strickland, withdrew from the race before Monday, the Division of Elections said.

That left seventh-place finisher Yaquelin Reynoso, who received 1.8% of the vote in August’s primary. 

Reynoso, who ran as a Democrat, does not appear on Alaska’s list of registered voters, didn’t answer a candidate survey and didn’t supply a phone number to the Alaska Division of Elections. 

They also didn’t immediately respond to their listed email on Monday afternoon.

But sometime before 5 p.m. Alaska time on Monday, Reynoso also withdrew from the race, the Division of Elections said Monday evening.

That left the eighth-place primary finisher, Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott of Fairbanks, to advance to the November election as the fourth of four candidates despite earning just 1.2% of the primary vote among 15 candidates overall. A call to McDermott’s listed phone went directly to voicemail at 5:50 p.m. Monday.

Ranked choice voting reduces the chances that candidates from the same party will split available voters and improve the odds for a candidate from a different party, but the system does not eliminate that chance entirely.

Since 2022, when Alaska began using the current system, a significant number of voters have continued to rank just one candidate.

As a result, political parties have pressured lower-finishing primary candidates to withdraw ahead of the general election in order to consolidate support. 

Williams, by phone from Fairbanks, said he talked with “a lot” of people from the Alaska Democratic Party and with Hill before making his decision.

“I’m going to step away because that’s the best thing for Alaska,” he said, not because of any particular request that he quit. 

Williams said he supports Alaska’s ranked choice election system, and he said he was discouraged by the number of Democratic Party officials who appeared to be acting against democratic values — the idea that voters, not political parties, decide candidates.

“I almost put my heels in the sand but ultimately decided not to,” he said. 

“If (Hill) wins, he wins. If he loses, it’s not going to be because of me,” Williams said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the withdrawal of Yaquelin Reynoso, which advances Jim McDermott to the final four candidates. 

Federal regulators have suspended a wetlands-fill permit allowing construction of a controversial road through an Alaska national wildlife refuge, but the on-the-ground result of that action is a subject of legal contention.

State officials say they still intend to start the work in coming weeks on the first part of the road that is planned to cross through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. But environmental groups and Native tribal governments who oppose the road argue that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Aug. 26 suspension of the wetlands-fill permit for the road project precludes work on any part of it.

At issue is an 18.9-mile road that would link the isolated Alaska Peninsula community of King Cove to the military legacy, all-weather airport at Cold Bay. The road, as planned, would cut through an area of designated wilderness within the wildlife refuge.

The Corps in July issued a wetlands-fill permit to the state, a key permit needed for road construction. But on Aug. 18, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason overturned a land trade that was necessary to allow construction of the road project. The state said it plans to appeal the decision. 

“You are directed to stop any activities that were previously authorized by the suspended permit. . . . Any further work in these areas shall be considered a knowing, repeat, and flagrant violation of Federal law,” the Corps said in its letter following the ruling to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

The permit suspension will give the Corps time to evaluate the full implications of Gleason’s decision on the land trade, the letter said.

There is disagreement about what the now-suspended permit covers, however.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities holds the position that the suspension should not interfere with this fall’s plans, and that it still has the right to build the first 2.8-mile section of the road, according to a department spokesperson

That portion of road is not subject to the wetlands-fill permit because it would not require disposal of fill into waters, state officials argue. And the area involved is outside of the disputed land trade, on land already owned by the King Cove Corporation, the community’s village Native corporation, state officials said.

“The State still plans to begin construction in September. The 2026 construction does not rely upon this permit, as it will not discharge fill into Waters of the U.S., including wetlands,” Justin Shelby, the Department of Transportation and Public Facility’s Central Region administrative operations manager, said by email. 

Areas considered “Waters of the United States,” a legal term, are subject to certain Clean Water Act requirements.

Shelby pointed out that the state itself asked for the permit suspension. In the department’s request letter, the state argued suspension of the permit would reduce possible confusion in the ongoing litigation and allow the federal court “to consider all arguments raised by the plaintiffs without the perception of pressure from the State of Alaska’s need to rely on the permit authorizations.” 

The environmental and Yukon-Kuskokwim tribal plaintiffs who have challenged both the land trade and the wetlands-fill permit, in contrast, argue that the entire road is covered by both authorizations, and that any construction now would be illegal.

Suspension of the permit was good news for road opponents, one of the plaintiff attorneys said.

“What a huge relief to see this permit pulled, because it was clear that Trump officials were ignoring the law with these destructive plans. A road would completely ravage Izembek’s globally important wetlands,” said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The refuge is vital for ​migratory birds that Y-K Delta Tribes like Hooper Bay, Paimiut, and Chevak depend on for food. No administration should be allowed to ignore federal public land protections to push construction projects through crucial wildlife habitat.”

Tribes in those three villages have sued to block the land trade and overturn the Corps permit.

The Corps on Monday declined to comment on the opposing legal interpretations, citing policies on pending litigation. The Corps’ public affairs officer referred questions about the subject to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has mobilized equipment and materials to start building the initial 2.8-mile section. That portion of the road includes a bridge that is “the most complex and expensive feature of the entire road construction project,” according to a state Department of Law status report filed in federal court on Aug. 20.

The state expects an allocation of $18 million for the project during the current fiscal year, with nearly $16.4 million of that coming from federal funds and the remainder from a state match, according to the statewide transportation plan.

The Izembek road proposal has been debated for decades.

State officials argue that it is needed as a lifesaving access for the approximately 750 residents of King Cove. Environmentalists argue that it would harm globally important wetlands and would set a bad precedent for protected lands elsewhere in the nation.

The debate has also divided Native groups.

King Cove residents, largely Aleut and shareholders in the Aleut-owned corporation involved in the disputed land trade, have advocated for it. They say that flying in and out of the  King Cove airport is dangerous in bad weather, while the nearby Cold Bay airport, with a runway extending over 10,000 feet, can accommodate jets providing safe air travel in most conditions.

Members of some Yup’ik tribal organizations on Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, however, argue that the road would do substantial damage to wetlands habitat for migratory birds that are important to traditional subsistence hunting.

The refuge’s lagoons support hundreds of thousands of migratory birds each year, including nearly the entire global population of Pacific black brant and more than half the world’s population of emperor geese.

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Haines resident Toni Smith is receiving treatment in a Juneau hospital after she was attacked by a bear early Saturday morning. 

Smith had been walking her dog when she encountered the bear on Mt. Riley Road, between the intersection with FAA Road and the steep incline commonly known as the sledding hill. 

After the attack, Smith was able to walk back to her home, and from there called 911 at 6:23 a.m.

The Haines Volunteer Fire Department responded and took her by ambulance to the Haines SEARHC clinic. A medevac service attempted to fly Smith to Juneau Saturday but was unable to land in Haines due to weather, said Haines fire chief Zak Overmyer.

Weather cleared on Sunday and Smith was flown to a Juneau hospital Sunday afternoon.

Family member Sherri Maust said Smith underwent surgery to clean and stitch wounds, and would likely be staying in the hospital “for some time” for more treatment. 

Maust posted an online fundraiser to cover Smith’s medical bills and work missed during her ongoing hospital stay. As of Monday afternoon, more than $14,000 had been raised. 

Maust said she and the rest of her family have been “grateful and awed by the love and support pouring in” from the community. 

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