She's been riding a wave of support since the recall, but Zaletel's supporters will still have to vote to #HoldTheLine

Midtown Representative Meg Zaletel's last two years on the Anchorage Assembly have been interesting to say the least.

Zaletel has seen her name emblazoned on Holocaust imagery, she's been referred to as an "enemy combatant" by members of the far-right Save Anchorage group, and is often subject to ridicule by social media followers of right-wing blogs who have accused Zaletel and her colleagues of being criminals and of somehow profiting from their roles on the Assembly.

But Zaletel, buoyed by the overwhelming support she received last year when she defeated Save Anchorage's asinine attempt to recall her by nearly 20 points, is soldiering on, running a positive campaign focused on putting people before politics.

Zaletel's challenger Kathy Henslee is an unpopular failed candidate for the Alaska House of Representatives. Conservatives were divided about her candidacy, demonstrated by her defeating Connie Dougherty by only five votes in the Republican primary. Henslee went on to lose in the 2020 general election to Chris Tuck.

On the issues, the longtime Save Anchorage member doesn't really have a platform I would call substantive.

Her campaign website says that the way for Anchorage to bounce back is to open up the city (it's open), and she panders to the 'Back the Blue' crowd by claiming that if the Anchorage Police Department isn't supported (they are) "we will be on track with cities like Seattle and Portland." Here, Henslee's play is an attempt to generate fear in line with the debunked "Seattle is Dying" narrative that fostered the creation of the "Anchorage is Dying" website and accompanying Facebook page.

On homelessness, Henslee points out the obvious and says the problem is increasing not because of a lack of services but because the city lacks a long-term solution to help people out of homelessness. Henslee offers no solution on how to tackle the issue, likely because, similarly to comments made by Save Anchorage-backed Assembly candidate Stephanie Flynn Taylor, Henslee too is inclined to sign off on whatever Mayor Bronson wants.

Comparatively, Zaletel says she has a deep knowledge of the challenges and opportunities the Municipality faces with regard to homelessness. She says her willingness to see multiple ways forward was critical to the success of reaching an agreed-upon strategy to address the issue.

Zaletel is also a champion of the mobile crisis team, which improves public safety by providing appropriate clinician-based interventions to behavioral health crises in our community and secured $1M in funding for school-based mental health from the Cares Act that supported 8000 students in ten schools. Importantly, Zaletel listens to public health experts and has strongly supported measures that protect all residents of Anchorage.

According to their most recent campaign disclosures filed with APOC, Henslee reported having $67,966.44 on hand as opposed to Zaletel's $44,788.35 but as we know, numbers can be spun and money alone doesn't win elections.

Since Henslee filed her Letter of Intent to run for Assembly, Zaletel has raised just over $113,000 dollars and effectively ran a full-court campaign to defeat the recall effort waged against her, and as a result, she is still riding a wave of support. Her decisive victory (nearly 20 points) in last year's recall election likely doesn't bode well for the Henslee campaign, so long as Zaletel can keep her District 4 supporters energized and continue to stress the importance of holding the line in April and getting out the vote.