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Happy candidate filing deadline day, Alaska. Get your scrolling finger ready because it’s going to be a busy day.

As of 5 p.m. today, we’ll have a better idea of who is officially in the race for Alaska governor, who is out and who waited until the last possible minute to sprint down to the Division of Elections, paperwork in hand. In other words, welcome to a very normal, not-at-all-chaotic day in Alaska politics.

Republicans, Democrats, nonpartisans, familiar names, newer names, former officeholders, current lawmakers, folks from Anchorage, the Mat-Su, the Interior, Southeast and beyond — it’s going to be a crowded field until the Aug. 18 primary.

Whew, indeed.

This is also the point when the race starts feeling less theoretical. We are moving from “who might run?” to “OK, who is actually on the list?” And once that list is set, the real sorting begins. That’s where you come in.

I want to know your read on this race. Are you excited by the field? Underwhelmed? Already tired before we even begin? Hit me up. Send your letters and thoughts to letters@adn.com or use our web form because this election season is clearly going to give us plenty to talk about.

— Gary Black, opinion editor

Anchorage Daily News
gblack@adn.com

From the ADN Editorial Board

The megaproject Alaska should be talking about

The Coastal-to-Ship Creek connector trail is a local project also one piece of a much larger vision: the Alaska Long Trail, a proposed 500-plus-mile braided trail system connecting Seward and Fairbanks through existing and planned routes across mostly public land. 

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Letters to the editor

Public schools are the community's backbone

I have fond memories of volunteering at Fire Lake Elementary in the late 1990s, in my eldest granddaughter’s classroom.

Redesign Town Square Park with accessibility in mind

A much-needed one-way drive-thru close to the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts’ entries between Sixth and Fifth avenues needs to be planned.

Thank you for putting retirement within reach for Alaskans

Retirement security should be within reach for every Alaskan — and thanks to strong bipartisan leadership, it now is. 

Open primaries keep power with the people
rather than a political party

Alaska’s voters can go to the Aug. 18 primary election knowing that they can choose a candidate of their choice, not the choice of a political party, the choice of the people.

They voted for this

The current state of our nation boggles the mind. And not in a good way.

The buck doesn’t stop here, it keeps on growing

 It is now “the buck lands here.”

The danger of a one-note playbook

In modern politics, a single-issue strategy is a high-stakes gamble, especially when that issue sits outside the immediate, daily struggle of the average voter. 

Commentaries