Election Day is Nov. 5. This week, KYUK is airing interviews with candidates who will be on the ballot for seats in the Alaska State House and in Congress.
There are four candidates on the ballot to represent the lower Kuskokwim in House District 38 in the Alaska State House. They are incumbent Rep. Conrad “CJ” McCormick (D-Bethel), Nellie Jimmie (D-Toksook Bay), and Willy Keppel (VA-Quinhagak). Victoria Sosa (D-Bethel) will appear on the ballot, but has dropped out of the race.
McCormick is running for reelection. He sat down with KYUK to talk about why he wants to keep representing the lower Kuskokwim and what he sees as some of the most pressing issues facing the district in the coming years.
Read a transcript of the conversation below. It's been lightly edited for clarity and flow and may contain transcription errors.
KYUK (Sage Smiley): Thanks so much for joining us today on Coffee, Rep. McCormick. Our first question is a pretty simple one, but maybe a pretty big one. Why are you running to represent House District 38?
Rep. Conrad “CJ” McCormick: I'm running to represent House District 38 because I want to serve our region. I think growing up here, I've seen it as just historically underserved, and growing up here being a kid from Bethel, you know, I ran two years ago because I wanted to provide a different perspective, a young perspective on representation, and try to bring just greater service to our district and make a concerted effort to address long standing issues in our region.
KYUK: What makes you the best candidate to represent the Kuskokwim Delta in the Alaska State House?
McCormick: Certainly my experience both having served two years in the Alaska State Legislature, but also having experience serving as a member of the Bethel City Council, also as vice mayor, and I also think my youth is a tremendous asset. I'm the only candidate in the state who's the youngest representative with the most experience in the legislature in this race.
KYUK: What's the biggest issue facing the Kuskokwim Delta over the next two years – so during this next term you'd be serving?
McCormick: Yeah, I don't think you can say there's one issue, but if there's one thing that I've heard all throughout the district, it's the subsistence fishing crisis and the crash there and an inability for people to be able to subsist out of the river in ways that we used to be able to.
KYUK: How about longer term? What's the biggest issue facing the Kuskokwim Delta in the longer term, past the end of this next term?
McCormick: Well, I think subsistence still remains, but I think – because that's such a difficult question to distill down into one answer, I just think that there's a long standing lack of services for our community that I think I would like to try to solve as quickly as possible. But given the amount of need in our district, it's going to take a very long time to achieve some of these things, just given the unfortunate reality that the legislature moves very slowly.
KYUK: What do you see as the biggest educational needs in our district?
McCormick: I think the biggest educational need is just kind of centered around funding, but particularly that of the state of our facilities. So many of our schools are struggling to make ends meet, and to be able to provide the best education possible for our students due to lack of funding available for teachers and so on. But I would also say that there's just so many schools in our district, and really all across the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta, not just in District 38, that are subjected to really unacceptable circumstances, unacceptable conditions. One example, I know for a fact that there's schools that operate with black mold, and despite the fact that that's an incredibly dangerous situation for students to be in, they don't have a choice. They have to continue to teach their students there. And so the state of our school buildings are in crisis. But I also just think teachers are not getting paid enough, and there's just a significant threat to curriculum that students are able to get. Another example I'll give is there's been a significant reduction in language courses that they can teach in Chevak because of a lack of funding, and they're able to make it work with some grant funding, but it just seems like every time I go back to visit a school, there's less and less that our schools can offer because funding is just not where it needs to be right now for public schools.
KYUK: So what legislation would you submit or support to address those issues that you've brought up?
McCormick: I think the first thing, and it's a tried and true method that has worked for decades, is raising the [Base Student Allocation]. The [Base Student Allocation] hasn't been raised since 2017 and even then, the raise that they gave was not all that much. I think the raise needs to be acceptable for all districts, not just urban areas. I think it also needs to be inflation-proofed, but another component of that is, I think there needs to be a significant change to the way we allocate money for facilities maintenance, just given the realities of rural Alaska versus urban Alaska. I'm not trying to say one is more important than the other, but it really seems like there's a lot more cost and a lot more struggles that rural schools have in contrast to urban districts. And so I, if possible, would really like to create a new fund specifically for rural districts.
KYUK: How should the state and feds balance the management of subsistence resources?
McCormick: I think the number one thing is including Indigenous knowledge and tribal representation in this discussion. I just went to a subsistence workshop in Anchorage for [the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention] and learned quite a bit about that. That really has me kind of rethinking how I want to approach subsistence management. But the principal thing is getting Indigenous voices and Indigenous knowledge at the table and [in] the decision making, because without that I think we're just going to kind of continue to repeat systems that are not working and not adequately serving the needs of our district.
KYUK: What's your stance on the proposed Donlin Gold mine project?
McCormick: I oppose the Donlin Gold project personally, but I can even say stepping outside of myself, in my responsibility as a representative, the majority of conversations I've had with our constituents, especially those who live on the Kuskokwim, do not support the project. And so you can take my personal opinion out of it – as representative I have an obligation to oppose that project because, as far as I can see, unless people are not really being honest with me, it's it's a been a staunch opposition to that project, and as representative it is my duty to echo that sentiment.
KYUK: What should the state do that it's not currently doing to address high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and statewide? And how can you influence that as a legislator?
McCormick: Yeah, so I really appreciate that question. This has been kind of at the forefront of some of my efforts in the last year. That's why I sought the chair of the Community Regional Affairs Committee to be able to address public safety needs. And I think the first thing that it comes down to is just the lack of services that are present in isolated communities. There's only a handful of services available in specific communities for individuals experiencing or going through these really tough domestic violence or sexually violent situations. And so what I've started to work on, in congruence with the Commissioner of Public Safety, is to try to bring more services out to rural communities and establish more kind of hub facilities, if anything, for some of our more hub communities. So for example, I think there should be more services in Toksook Bay, that's a hub for Nelson Island and that region. And I think just expanding those services. But the number one thing, I think the most simple thing is we have communities that don't have any public safety services period, and I think you have to start just by providing that right there. But the other thing that I want to be sure to add is that we need more domestic violence shelters and services so when an individual is experiencing something like that, they aren't forced to go back into that violent situation and have somewhere to go. And I know there's initiatives to do that, and I'm committed to working on that moving forward and making that happen.
KYUK: How about specific ideas to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis?
McCormick: Yeah, so in the last legislature we passed a landmark piece of legislation. I think it was one of the first initiatives to create dedicated officers specifically for investigating that. So now we have two officers within the Alaska state budget that are going around rural communities and investigating these long-standing cases. But there's so much more resources that I think need to be allocated to that. I think we could add more officers, but I will just say that I really think we made progress in the last year. We added a number of reporting mechanisms, changed policy to keep families better informed. But, you know, you asked earlier, what are some of these long term projects, and this is another one, because this is a decades-long, I would say, generational issue that is going to take a significant amount of time to address. But I also think to continue, or rather to prevent these situations from continuing to occur. But I really feel hopeful with the amount of advocacy that I've seen over the years, and the fact that this has become almost – or this really has become a national, a national thing that people are aware of, and so I'm hopeful for the future, but also recognize it's going to take a really long time to meaningfully address this crisis.
KYUK: What should the state change about the way it interacts with tribal governments?
McCormick: I think the state is still kind of behind in the way that it interacts with tribes. It took until 2022, if I'm not mistaken, to actually officially recognize tribes. And so I think the next step is codifying the responsibility the state of Alaska has to recognize that tribes are co-sovereign governments. And I think if they really want to acknowledge that, and uphold that, then I think it's necessary to start putting tribal seats on the state boards and commissions, which I think has a tremendous amount of other benefits as well, outside of just improving our relations with tribal governments.
KYUK: Do you believe the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is important to House District 38? And in the coming years, how should the state set the PFD amount? Gollow the constitutional formula or something else?
McCormick: That's an excellent question. I think it's incredibly important for this district. A lot of people rely on that income to make ends meet. The cost of living is incredibly high in rural Alaska, and so that really comes, I think, as a saving grace for a lot of people. But I also know for businesses out here that a lot of people benefit from that as well. So I think what the state of Alaska should do – I think what's important is setting up a system that protects the Permanent Fund for generations to come. And I'm not committed to locking us into something if it's going to completely obliterate the Permanent Fund. I think there's solutions to add more revenue to be able to support it for generations to come. And so I think the number one thing with dispensing the Permanent Fund is just ensuring that it stays around for a long time, and I think, unfortunately, we've kind of departed from the ways that kept that fund strong. But yeah, my number one goal is ensuring that we have it and that it doesn't go away.
KYUK: How should the state address the needs of communities that need to partially or fully relocate because of climate change?
McCormick: So the way that I see it now, it almost feels as if the federal government is kind of the predominant supporter in those initiatives. I think the state has a lot of work to do to assist these communities as well. I think there's investments the state – or higher investment, frankly, the state should be making in building housing, in weatherization and supporting initiatives to assist in climate resilience, and so I just don't think the state is playing enough of an active role and needs to start carrying some of that weight as well.
KYUK: If reelected, how do you anticipate caucusing in the House? How do you plan to communicate with and collaborate with other legislators? And what's your opinion of the long standing Bush Caucus?
McCormick: The primary guide that I'll use in caucusing is doing what's best for our district and ensuring that it's a caucus that respects our district and will allow myself and other members of the Bush Caucus to do what we need for rural Alaska, and do it with the urgency that I think is really necessary. What's my opinion on the current Bush Caucus? I think we, when we work together, we're tremendous force for rural Alaska. I've developed a strong relationship with the Bush Caucus, and I think it's really necessary for us to stay together and really look out for the needs of rural Alaska. And I also feel an obligation to help and support the Bush Caucus, because I might just represent up to Chevak and down to Quinhagak, Mekoryuk and Tuluksak, but I think – I am from Bethel. I'm from the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta, and so I am concerned for the needs of the Yukon Delta, and all the way up to the North Slope as well. And so I approach this job wanting to do what's best for the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta. And so I have an obligation to help out the rest of the Bush Caucus.
KYUK: Is there anything you'd want to add as we wrap up this interview?
McCormick: I just want to express gratitude for the amount of people that opened up their homes during this campaign process, the people who were willing to donate to the campaign or even just donate their time to have a conversation about issues facing our community. I was fed really well on the campaign trail, which was awesome. I just want to thank everyone who was kind enough to share their food with us. But I think the other thing is I just really encourage folks to reach out to me and have a conversation. I'm not afraid to have a disagreement with anyone, and I'm willing to explain and learn, even about stances I've taken on issues over these last two years. I'm beholden to the people of the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta, and so I want to have that conversation. So please don't hesitate to reach out. I've plastered my cell phone all over the district, but for those who haven't heard it, so I know 907-545-3865, I will try to answer as soon as you call. But yeah, I just want to thank everyone who's been supportive and just taking time to have a conversation, and I think at the end of the day, that will only serve our district. So just really want to thank people for that.
KYUK: Thank you for your time.
McCormick: You’re welcome.
Stay tuned to KYUK 640 AM and online at KYUK.org this week for interviews with other candidates running to represent the lower Kuskokwim in the state House, and running to represent Alaska in Congress. Find all of KYUK’s 2024 elections coverage here.