LaFrance declares victory, vows to ‘clean-up the mess at City Hall’ in Anchorage mayor’s race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Suzanne LaFrance declared victory Tuesday with a more than 5,000-vote lead over incumbent Dave Bronson.

“The remaining votes are not enough to change the outcome,” LaFrance said Tuesday afternoon.

In its latest results release Tuesday evening, the Division of Elections showed LaFrance leading by 5,612 votes, about 53.5% of the total vote in the mayoral runoff race. The lead grew over the previous two vote counts on Thursday and Friday.

In a statement Tuesday morning, LaFrance’s campaign team claimed that the number of ballots still left to be counted are less than her lead of 5,612 votes, making it a mathematically impossible deficit for Bronson to make up. The division has counted 79,368 ballots so far, over 33% of all registered voters in the municipality.

“I’m grateful for all the support and the clear outcome of this election,” LaFrance was quoted in the release. “As I’ve said throughout the campaign, local government isn’t about left or right. It’s about coming together to get things done. I’m excited about what we can do in this next chapter for Anchorage.”

Once certified, LaFrance — a registered nonpartisan — will be the first woman elected as the mayor of Anchorage.

“It’s a tremendous honor, but I am mostly focused on the work that needs to be done and ensuring that we tackle these issues in front of us and move forward,” LaFrance said.

Bronson has not released a statement on the election results or LaFrance’s announcement declaring victory, but acknowledged last week that his deficit would be “tough to overcome” after initially showing optimism on election night.

LaFrance previously served as chair of the Anchorage Assembly, some of those years with Bronson as mayor.

When asked what her top priorities are on the job LaFrance said she wants to “clean up the mess at City Hall.”

“The staffing crisis that is not just at APD, but at multiple departments, it’s impacting the municipality’s ability to provide services, and also to finish the financial audit,” LaFrance said. “So ensuring that we’re staffed up is critical. Ensuring that our streets are safe, our streets and trails are safe. And that means, you know, focusing on ensuring that our public safety departments are staffed up, and that we are working together to address homelessness. That also includes ensuring we’ve got a plan now and we’re working to make sure we’ve got what we need to plow the snow come winter.”

Alaska’s News Source also asked LaFrance where she stands regarding the police department not releasing officer body camera video showing the shooting death of Kristopher Kody Handy, 34, who was fatally shot by multiple police officers just after 2:30 a.m. last Monday.

His family has joined civil rights advocates pushing for authorities to release the body-worn camera footage of his death.

“I’m not part of the administration yet and haven’t been fully briefed on those details,” LaFrance said. “So one of the first things is, while I’m monitoring the situation, I would look forward to getting that the full information about that before making any decisions.”

Bronson beat former Assembly member Forrest Dunbar for the job in 2021, overcoming a small deficit of a few hundred votes on election night to beat his challenger.

This time around, Bronson trailed LaFrance by just under 5,000 votes when the first batch of results were released on election night, and the incumbent hasn’t been able to make a dent in the lead as more ballots have been counted.

Bronson has had numerous clashes with the Assembly as the two sides have worked to fix the city’s homelessness problem and keep roads plowed amid record-breaking snowfalls, amid other issues facing the city.

LaFrance says Anchorage has some challenges moving forward.

“But I’m optimistic, you know, while I’ve been on the campaign trail, people are, I think hungry to work together and to really dig in and tackle these issues,” LaFrance said. “There’s been, you know, a lot of partisanship, which has no place in local government. It isn’t about left versus right. It’s about solving these problems working together and getting things done.”

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