Justin Parish came out swinging in Thursday night\u2019s Juneau Votes statehouse debate at the University of Alaska Southeast.<\/p>\n
At several points during the hour-and-a-half debate, the Democrat seeking the House District 34 seat accosted his opponent, Republican Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, for being part of the \u201cshameless\u201d majority in the Alaska House of Representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe current majority leadership has proven itself profoundly irresponsible,\u201d Parish said at one point as he laid into Mu\u00f1oz and the House Republican majority for failing to produce a sustainable budget after five special legislative sessions in two years.<\/span><\/p>\n But every shot Parish took at Mu\u00f1oz and the Republican majority was repaid by her supporters during the question and answer portion of the debate.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the evening, debate moderators asked two dozen questions ranging from the state\u2019s precarious fiscal standing to trans-boundary mining. They alternated between candidates, giving each a chance to respond first.<\/span><\/p>\n The moderators, Matt Miller of KTOO-FM and James Brooks of the Empire, allowed Mu\u00f1oz and Parish to respond to one another\u2019s answers. Both candidates took advantage of the opportunity, but Parish fired back more frequently and was noticeably more aggressive.<\/span><\/p>\n The debate played out in somewhat of a reversal of the national presidential race, with the Republican Mu\u00f1oz representing the experienced political insider and Parish, the Democrat, playing the insurgent outsider who believes his strength is that he hasn\u2019t had a hand in an institution he says is failing. <\/span><\/p>\n When asked about school funding, Mu\u00f1oz cited \u201cconsistent\u201d support for increasing the base student allocation, the amount of money the state gives to school districts per student. Parish, who works at Floyd Dryden Middle School, had already responded to the question, but he didn\u2019t shy away from the chance to get another dig in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe majority leadership has proven itself a consistent enemy of public education, and that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Parish said.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked if she cared to respond, Mu\u00f1oz declined.<\/span><\/p>\n But after an hour, the moderators turned the debate over to the audience for questions, and once Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s supporters were allowed to tap in, Parish\u2019s evening took a rocky turn.<\/span><\/p>\n Three different audience members, at least two of whom have contributed to Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s campaign, asked Parish for his thoughts on the FRANK Initiative, which stands for Fiscally Responsible Alaskans Needing Knowledge. The initiative \u2014 which was introduced in the late \u201970s, repealed in the early \u201980s, and reinstated by ballot measure in the early \u201990s \u2014 prevents the Legislature from spending any money to move the state capital until a commission can tell voters how much the move might cost.<\/span><\/p>\n Each time someone asked about the initiative, it became increasingly apparent that the question was meant to reveal Parish as inexperienced and ill-prepared. <\/span><\/p>\n Parish skirted around the question the first time. He admitted he didn\u2019t know what the initiative was the second time, and he said he\u2019d research it. The third time he was asked to talk about the initiative, Parish jokingly answered by rephrasing the question.<\/span><\/p>\n Though the audience frankly raked Parish over the coals about the initiative, he attempted to pivot and call out Mu\u00f1oz, claiming she hadn\u2019t done enough to stop capital creep.<\/span><\/p>\n At one point, Mu\u00f1oz said she would consider joining a bipartisan majority, should one develop in the Legislature.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy priority is Juneau,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m going to join the cause that best serves Juneau.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This answer was met by light applause from some audience members, but Parish wasn\u2019t impressed. He responded saying that the majority, of which Mu\u00f1oz is a part, \u201chas been pretty willing to throw Juneau under the bus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Legislature, he argued, hadn\u2019t done enough to stop high-paying state jobs from being relocated to Anchorage.<\/span><\/p>\n In her strongest rebuttal of the night, Mu\u00f1oz said \u201cthat\u2019s just not true,\u201d explaining that she had supported Capitol renovations and the construction of the new Department of Fish and Game building on Douglas, and the State Library, Archives and Museum. All of those projects, she said, brought construction jobs to Juneau.<\/span><\/p>\n The differences between Mu\u00f1oz and Parish didn\u2019t end there. They disagreed on most points, including whether Gov. Bill Walker had the legal authority to halve this year\u2019s Permanent Fund Dividend using his veto power.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think it was wise to keep as many of our financial resources intact going forward,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said, supporting Walker\u2019s decision. She added that she doesn\u2019t support the lawsuit challenging the veto.<\/span><\/p>\n Parish said he supports the lawsuit even though he hates that money is being spent on it.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Parish and Mu\u00f1oz agreed that the Legislature needs to come up with a sustainable fiscal plan to ensure the PFD is safe from the governor\u2019s red pen come next year. Rep. Sam Kito III, the Democratic incumbent running unopposed to hold the House District 33 seat, agreed on this point, too.<\/span><\/p>\n Kito participated in the debate, but because he doesn\u2019t have an opponent, he was restricted by moderators to answering only five questions.<\/span><\/p>\n During a lightning round, in which moderators asked each of the candidates simple questions, Mu\u00f1oz said she supports Gov. Mike Pence for the presidency, not Republican candidate Donald Trump. Pence is not running for president. Parish said he supported Sen. Bernie Sanders, but he now supports former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s debate was recorded by both the Empire and KTOO, which plans to rebroadcast it online and on the radio. The video broadcast will be posted on the Empire\u2019s Facebook page. KTOO plans to rebroadcast the debate at 7 p.m. Oct. 20. <\/span><\/p>\n Election Day is Nov. 8, but early voting begins Oct. 24 at the State Office Building and the Mendenhall Mall. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Justin Parish came out swinging in Thursday night\u2019s Juneau Votes statehouse debate at the University of Alaska Southeast. At several points during the hour-and-a-half debate, the Democrat seeking the House District 34 seat accosted his opponent, Republican Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, for being part of the \u201cshameless\u201d majority in the Alaska House of Representatives. \u201cThe current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":21738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21737","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\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21737"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}