{"id":103456,"date":"2023-10-10T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/alaska-legislator-farthest-north-in-the-us\/"},"modified":"2023-10-11T07:28:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T15:28:44","slug":"alaska-legislator-farthest-north-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/alaska-legislator-farthest-north-in-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Applications now being accepted for nation’s northernmost legislator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak, America’s farthest north state legislator, resigned from the Alaska Legislature on Tuesday after winning election as mayor of the North Slope Borough.<\/p>\n

Patkotak’s resignation opens a vacancy in the Alaska House of Representatives, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has 30 days to nominate someone to fill the seat.<\/p>\n

The governor’s office has opened an online application form<\/a> for interested candidates, and applications are being accepted through Oct. 31.<\/p>\n

Because Patkotak is unaffiliated with any political party, the governor may pick anyone at least 21 years old who is a qualified voter, has lived in Alaska for at least three years, and has lived in House District 40 — covering the North Slope Borough and Northwest Arctic Borough — for at least a year.<\/p>\n

The selection by Dunleavy, a Republican, must be confirmed by the remaining 22 members of the coalition that holds a majority in the Alaska House. That coalition includes two Democrats, one independent and 19 Republicans.<\/p>\n

“We knew Josiah was running and he’s a good guy. We’re not surprised he won, and we wish him well in his duty,” said House Majority Leader Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River.<\/p>\n

Alaska has never had a vacancy in a seat held by an independent, and the confirmation process is new, set by 2020’s Ballot Measure 2. Saddler said he has a legal opinion that sets expectations, and he expects the majority caucus to have the final say.<\/p>\n

He said the Legislature will have little input on the process until Dunleavy makes his decision.<\/p>\n

“He will make the best pick as he sees,” Saddler said. “We will consider whoever he points to.”<\/p>\n

Patkotak did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday afternoon, but in his resignation letter, he thanked voters and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

“I have great faith that the challenges and opportunities our state faces are going to be met head-on by this Legislature, and I am here to provide support in whatever way I can,” he said in the letter.<\/p>\n

Patkotak’s resignation had been expected if he won; he said in May that he was planning to run for mayor and would resign if he won that local race.<\/p>\n

The North Slope Borough is Alaska’s highest income on a per-capita basis, and it governs the territory that includes the state’s major oil fields.<\/p>\n

Patkotak raised more money than his opponents in the mayoral race and led in initial vote-counting after local elections on Oct. 3. In certified results posted Tuesday, he received 796 votes; his closest opponent had 345.<\/p>\n

• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article<\/a> originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Josiah Patkotak resigns after win in North Slope mayor’s race; governor seeks replacement online <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":103457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[34],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-103456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103456"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=103456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}