The Alaska Marine Highway System should adopt a more flexible approach to scheduling, said Dr. Al Gross, an independent U.S. Senate candidate nominated by the Alaska Democratic Party.
“The state should be looking proactively in terms of, what are each community’s needs for the year,” Gross said during a Sept. 23-24 campaign visit to Cordova.
The state has done a poor job of managing AMHS scheduling in part because of leadership that lacks day-to-day experience using the ferry, Gross said. One potential solution to the procrustean system, which has left some ferries full and others almost empty, would be for coastal communities to submit lists of major events to the state, along with anticipated attendance numbers, he said. Such a system could be used to plan increased ferry service for events like music festivals, basketball games and academic meets.
Although federal funding supports the building of AMHS dock structures and ferry vessels, Gross believes that the federal government also has an obligation to make certain that the ferry system is operational, he said. In an Aug. 31-Sept. 1 visit to Cordova, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, dismissed the idea that the federal government could be counted on to efficiently fix the ferry service. However, Gross said he would support introducing legislation that would provide federal support for the operation of the ferry.
“When I grew up in Southeast, we rode the ferries everywhere,” Gross said. “That was what we did. Now, it’s becoming really expensive because there aren’t any ferries. People have to fly, and that’s really compromising the abilities of the communities to interact with each other, which I think is one of the things that makes Alaska such a special place: you get to know people in all these other communities.”
Gross will challenge Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, in the Nov. 3 elections for U.S. Senate. The campaign has been a hard-fought one, with heavy attack advertising directed at Alaska voters by both sides. Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Howe, write-in nonpartisan candidate Sid Hill and write-in Green Party candidate Jed Whittaker will also compete in the election.
Although polling conducted in July showed Sullivan with a decisive lead, more recent polling shows the two candidates in a dead heat. An Aug. 31 poll by Public Policy Polling, a firm associated with the Democratic Party, showed a tie between Gross and Sullivan, and a Tuesday, Sept. 29 poll by Harstad Strategic Research showed Gross with a 1-point lead.
