Alaska Legislature

Professional counselor and Bethel resident Rick Robb is one of four candidates vying to represent the vast Senate District S in the Alaska Legislature. For years the seat has been held by Lyman Hoffman, who announced his retirement from politics last year.

Brelsford — an independent running against a stacked, mostly-Republican field of candidates in the 2026 race — bills himself as the education candidate. He believes Gov. Mike Dunleavy has sold out Alaska's schoolchildren when it comes to education funding.

Alaska relies on J-1 visas to fill teacher positions, H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and the H-2B program for temporary nonagricultural workers in tourism, health care and seafood processing industries, and for teachers.

Lawmakers in support of a measure to strengthen the state’s corporate income tax on the oil and gas industry said it was essential for boosting state revenues.

Lawmakers are calling for the Trump administration to waive the fee for teachers hired through the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from overseas. The federal government raised the fee from $5,000 to $100,000 for each new applicant to the H-1B visa program in September 2025.

The extension allows state agencies to continue responding to ongoing needs associated with the storm. House Republicans said the administration's approach could be legally vulnerable.

The 36-year-old former state representative from Sitka says the state’s core problems come down to Alaska not getting its “fair share of our oil resource.” He’s one of three Democrats vying against a dozen Republicans and two independents in the race to be Alaska’s next governor.

A delegation of lawmakers made an impromptu visit to the school on Feb. 6, calling the conditions and deteriorating facilities "deplorable."

Lawmakers with the bipartisan majority caucus have expressed support for more funding for schools, but point to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s history of vetoes as a major roadblock.

On Feb. 9, the Alaska Senate voted 19-0 to extend a state of disaster until early March, retroactively extending a disaster declaration that expired Feb. 6.