Gov. Bill Walker has named Salvation Army development director Ivy Spohnholz the replacement for Max Gruenberg, the Anchorage Democrat who died in Juneau earlier this legislative session.<\/p>\n
Walker selected Spohnholz from a short list of three candidates nominated by Anchorage Democrats. The governor\u2019s choice of Spohnholz must be confirmed by a vote of House Democrats, and House Minority Leader Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, said he expects that vote to take place later today or early tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suspect it will be pretty quick,\u201d he said Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on the roller coaster now,\u201d Spohnholz said when reached by phone in Anchorage. <\/p>\n
She said she was notified of the governor\u2019s pick with a surprise phone call from Walker on Monday night. She said she will caucus with the House minority and does expect to run for re-election in the fall.<\/p>\n
In a prepared statement sent to reporters at 9 a.m., Walker said \u201cIvy\u2019s experience \u2014 both personally and professionally \u2014 is what the state needs right now. She\u2019s a third-generation Alaskan with a heart for the youngest and most vulnerable among us. I know she will keep the state\u2019s future in mind as we work to achieve a balanced and sustainable budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spohnholz is vice chairwoman of the Alaska Children\u2019s Trust and has lived in Anchorage for more than 35 years. She is married with three children, all of whom are in high school.<\/p>\n
She was selected over the two other options: Kendra Kloster, a legislative staffer for Tuck; and Taylor Brelsford, an environmental scientist.<\/p>\n
Spohnholz has advanced through the process more quickly than normal: According to the rules of the Alaska Democratic Party, options to fill a vacancy must be provided within 21 days. According to state law, the governor must pick within 30 days of receiving that list of options. There\u2019s about a week remaining to that deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s especially important (to act quickly) because we\u2019re in session,\u201d Tuck said. \u201cThe sooner we can get someone, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2014, Rep. Sam Kito, D-Juneau, was appointed to fill the seat left empty by Beth Kerttula. Asked to offer his advice to Spohnholz, based on his experience, \u201cI guess I would say to try not to get overwhelmed,\u201d he said. \u201cI think one of the things I\u2019m still working on \u2014 and every one of us does \u2014 is making sure there\u2019s adequate time to take care of our own lives and not let the Legislature take over everything, which it has a tendency to want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kito said he hasn\u2019t yet met Spohnholz, but \u201cI think she\u2019s going to be a great addition to the caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spohnholz has never served in public office before but says she has been doing community service her entire life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d always considered the possibility of public service, just not at this time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Gruenberg suddenly died, her mind changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen considering the stakes right now for the state of Alaska, I felt it was a really important time for someone with a real commitment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s too early to set concrete goals for her term in office; her first priority is \u201cget up to speed as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that as a member of the minority, I don\u2019t have any grand illusions about my influence as one legislator, but I hope to influence the conversation,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to have a conversation about what kind of Alaska we want to have; what kind of Alaska we want to be in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Bill Walker has named Salvation Army development director Ivy Spohnholz the replacement for Max Gruenberg, the Anchorage Democrat who died in Juneau earlier this legislative session. Walker selected Spohnholz from a short list of three candidates nominated by Anchorage Democrats. The governor\u2019s choice of Spohnholz must be confirmed by a vote of House Democrats, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14644","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\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14644"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}