Bethel resident Rick Robb has entered the 2026 race to represent Senate District S in the Alaska Legislature – covering Bristol Bay, much of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and the entire Aleutian chain.
The 68-year-old is a licensed professional counselor and has worked for decades in behavioral health. Robb said that he first came to Bethel while exploring Alaska in the summer of ‘88, and he never left. He said that he cherishes his years taking part in the since-closed commercial salmon fishery on the Kuskokwim River. He also served for the better part of a decade on the Bethel City Council, and spent four of those years as mayor.
Robb is running as a nonpartisan to “put people before politics.” He recently spoke to KYUK’s Evan Erickson about his candidacy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KYUK (Evan Erickson): What role do you believe the state should play in subsistence issues in rural Alaska?
Robb: Subsistence is life for people out here. Believe it or not, I do a lot of subsistence activities myself. That's one of the things that made me come in love with this place, is that I can catch fish, hunt game, feed my family, help out the community with wild game, berry picking, things like that. We have to protect it. We have to promote it. We have to [...] allow people to have access to it. We have to make sure that regulations actually correspond to traditional times and seasons, when the game is around. Big support.
KYUK: What is your stance on the proposed Donlin Gold mine?
Robb: Donlin Gold mine? That's [...] actually a tough one for me. So, in the past I've recognized Donlin's potential to bring jobs and economic development to the Kuskokwim region, and in the past, I did support it, after listening to people and concerns for many, many years. [I] realize there's also potential for long-term catastrophic environmental damage [...] and this could damage our important fisheries, our way of life. And I've decided that the environmental risk is too great, and the mine should not move forward. And I've heard the voices of the people in the tribes that have spoken against the mine. People here should not be subject to a project of this magnitude when there is so much popular objection in opposition.
So I have changed my opinion from the past. I do believe, though, if the mine does go forward, and I was in the state Senate, the legislature as the governing body of the unorganized borough, I would definitely push to get a payment in lieu of taxes agreement similar to the one that the Northwest Arctic Borough has with the Red Dog Mine. And that could bring a lot of important, fund a lot of important projects in our region. So I definitely think that the legislature should act as the governing body of the unorganized borough and pursue a payment in lieu of taxes with them.
KYUK: Do you have any plans for addressing the high cost of living, especially with potential fuel crises right around the corner for the region?
Robb: Well, there's a couple things that I've thought of when it comes to the cost of fuel and energy. The state definitely has to be promoting alternative energies that we could do. And now that's not going to solve everything, and that's years out, but that always has to be at the front. We have to be promoting alternative energies. We have to make it easier for utility companies to invest in alternative energies as long-term solutions. The state has to be promoting, well, it is, but the gas pipeline from the North Slope would help out. It would help put more fuel in the area. The cost of oil is based on the world market, and the reality is there's not a whole lot we can do about it. We can't control the cost of oil. We can't control the cost of gasoline. Everybody wishes they could.
The other part that we can do, and we'll get to this [...] where the state does have direct money is the Permanent Fund. So the Permanent Fund, that's another issue, but it's kind of related to this, because we have a law that says how much the Permanent Fund should be, and that's in law, and that's based on the earnings. There's a formula, five-year average of the earnings of the funds [...] We should be getting a Permanent Fund based on law that would come out, I believe, to $3,600 a year, approximately for this year. Instead, we have a[n] arbitrary amount made up by the legislature. Now, when the Permanent Fund statute went in, the State of Alaska was not getting the majority of its revenue from [Permanent Fund] earnings. They were getting it from oil revenue. That's changed. But for this year, we should follow the law and fund the [Permanent Fund] dividend at its full amount.
I think we also have to realize that going forward, we're not going to be able to fund that amount forever and pay for our state government and our basic services. I think we might have to modify the law and have a lesser amount for the dividends, but it should be an amount based on earnings that would grow over time as the fund grows over time. It shouldn't be an arbitrary amount that the legislature is giving us now. It's like they're throwing us a bone. [...] They're just picking a number out of the air. They're funding everything else, picking out a number out of the air and giving it to us. I don't think that's right. I think we should follow the law. I think we may have to change the law. I think we may have to make it a lower amount so we can fund the government. But the amount should be based on the earnings and be allowed to grow over time and not be an arbitrary amount.
Another novel idea I've had, I think this would be a hard sell, but why not a cost of living for rural residents, cost of living adjustment? [...] I would propose a cost of living on the Permanent Fund, cost of living allowance for rural areas, people in the unorganized borough, people in small towns, off the road system, off the ferry system. That would be a hard sell in the legislature, but I think it's worth bringing up.
KYUK: Are you concerned about the level of engagement in the electoral process in rural Alaska and in your region?
Robb: I think we need to protect all kinds of voting access. Any way people can vote should be allowed. [...] This SAVE Act that's going in U.S. Congress right now would make it very difficult for many people in rural areas to [vote], because you have to bring your passport to an elected official. Well, you may not have a passport, and you may not have an elected official in your community. So that's a big threat, okay. I think the threats of the folks that are trying to go back to party primaries, I'm a big supporter of our current system with open primaries and ranked choice voting, and I know that's going to be on the ballot in November, and it was two years ago. I think we need to keep open primaries and ranked choice voting. I think that way, the parties and the party insiders and elite don't decide who our elected representatives [are]. It's more to the people.
KYUK: Are there any specific initiatives or things you would want to get right into if you were elected?
Robb: Well, a big one is fisheries, supporting our fisheries, both our subsistence and our commercial fishing. We used to have commercial fishing on the Kuskokwim [River], and that's gone away, and the reasons [are] both with the collapse of the salmon industries and lack of buyers. So I think we should pursue that. We should make it easier for buyers to come in here. I think we have to address trawlers and bycatch on the high seas. I think that's definitely impacting our fisheries. [...] I've heard that the trawlers catch more salmon incidentally than we do here on our rivers [...] million-dollar trawlers run by outside companies that are coming up here and scraping the bottom of the ocean and catching thousands of incidental salmon, halibut, crab, [bringing] environmental damage to the bottom of the ocean, which is, I think, leading to the decline of our fisheries. I think eventually it's going to catch up [in] Bristol Bay and other places. I think it's going to catch up and impact their fisheries. So I definitely want to address that.
Education is important. We need to have stable education funding for schools going forward. Once again, it shouldn't be a political back and forth with the legislature. I know there was an idea kicked around in the legislature this year about an educational endowment fund that was kicked around, but I think that's a very good idea that we have an educational endowment fund. [...] The state could put money away and over time it would grow and maybe provide some stable funding for education. We have our [Power Cost Equalization] endowment fund to help bring down our electric bills, it's important to protect that.
Taxes. I've gone on record in the past. This year, the governor proposed a seasonal sales tax. When I was with the [City of Bethel], I was very much against a state sales tax, because it would disproportionately affect us out here, where costs are higher. It disproportionately affects lower income people, and we have a lot of lower income people out here. We're not necessarily a cash rich society out here in Western Alaska, southwestern Alaska, so I would definitely oppose the state sales tax. It would also interfere with our local governments, some of which collect sales tax, it would interfere with them. So if the state does need to raise more revenue through taxation, I would definitely oppose the state sales tax.
KYUK: Any other issues you want to mention?
Robb: Once again, we have to do something. The state has to be more active in protecting the people, the [Missing and Murdered Indigenous People] campaign. I think that the state should do more law enforcement. We need to have adequate law enforcement. We can't let these, when people disappear, murdered, missing indigenous people, and mostly women, we can't just let them be cold cases that drift away. We have to investigate. We have to protect our people.
I've got so many, well, there's a lot of issues [...] The retirement system right now, employers such as municipalities and boroughs, school districts can't really amend their workforce without getting termination studies and termination costs. I think we need to reform that. That's kind of a complicated issue, but that's still around. And I know recently, I believe it was yesterday, they passed a pension for state employees. So I think pensions for state employees, if we can afford it, make it affordable, is a very good thing. I know [...] pension programs in the past ended up being a disaster, and they're protected under the [Alaska] Constitution. It'd be nice to modify them a little bit. That would be very difficult. But in the past, the state screwed it up, and now we have a debt that's going to our children, that's going to be around for another 30 years. That’s hampering people now. I don't think that's right.
Editor's Note: Rick Robb volunteers at KYUK as host of the weekly music show “Rick’s Rock,” but is not compensated for that time.
