Anchorage Saved...for now.
Less than two years after appearing on Anchorage's political scene, Mayor Bronson's Save Anchorage cult has become synonymous with extremism and conspiracy theories, making voters' rejection of Kathy Henslee, Stephanie Flynn-Taylor, Liz Vazquez, Mark Anthony Cox, and Rachel Ries all the more delicious if only because their collective losses are an acknowledgment that Mayor David Bronson is a deeply unpopular and deeply embarrassing extremist.
Since 2020, the city has watched as Bronson's supporters, who, after having ingested copious amounts of far-right conspiracy theories, repeatedly marched to Assembly meetings and embarrassingly emptied their diapers for all to see — plopping out hysterical suggestions that civil war might erupt if the Assembly passed a proposed mask mandate and repeatedly minimized the deaths of Alaskans who succumbed to the virus.
Weaved into public testimony were non-scientific and potentially dangerous assertions that individuals should take the "alternative" treatment drug Ivermectin to cure COVID-19. Last month, a large-scale scientific study showed that Ivermectin has "no significant effects" in treating COVID.
We watched and listened as Bronson's 'Big Lie' believers regurgitated Donald Trump's election fraud conspiracy theories, namely that widespread voter fraud had cost him the presidential election. His Save Anchorage supporters, who had gasped at the suggestion President Biden had won a free and fair election, spread these fundamental mistruths like a plague. Equally awful was when we learned of the unprecedented harassment of longtime public servant Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones and other election officials during last year's mayoral election.
We watched Bronson ally Jamie Allard, an individual who cares deeply about defending Nazi terminology, work in lockstep with Save Anchorage member Amy Demboski as they mustered Bronson's Save Anchorage troops into action during a volatile October 7, 2021 meeting of the Assembly — the same day that it is alleged Demboski also ordered APD Chief McCoy to instruct Anchorage Police Department officers to leave the Assembly chambers.
Triggered NIMBY Russell Biggs, the linebreak ❡hobic owner of the Reclaim Midtown Facebook page who duals as a Save Anchorage administrator while ineffectively tweeting into the void, worked feverishly to recall former Chair of the Anchorage Assembly Felix Rivera. Midtown voters ultimately rejected the recall by 13 points. Rivera, who had been subjected to unprecedented abuse and hate during the recall campaign over his sexuality, later called Biggs' ballot initiative a "homophobic attempt to take out an Assembly member."
During a second attempt to recall another left-leaning member of the Assembly, Midtown Representative Meg Zaletel saw her name emblazoned on holocaust imagery distributed in the Assembly Chambers last September by Christine Hill, a listed deputy treasurer of the ballot group seeking to recall her. Midtown voters rejected that ballot initiative by 19.8 points.
Speaking of holocaust imagery, who could ever forget the time when just shortly after coming under fire for having written a "Hitler wasn't always bad" editorial, Mayor Bronson defended his anti-mask supporters who had worn yellow Stars of David, claiming it was 'actually a credit to' Jews?
Plus the Men's Club, Fluoride, APD Providence patient rescue, firing a whistleblower, the abrupt retirement of Anchorage's first Black police chief, and soon I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about the former Golden Lion Hotel and Bronson megadonor-owned WEKA.
In the wake of this past week's unofficial election results, an important truth has been revealed: that a majority of voters reject the extremism of Mayor Bronson, his administration, and his beloved Save Anchorage group, and that...should give us all hope for the future.
