Rebecca Schwanke - Delta Wind Interview
Schwanke sets sights on Juneau
Article by: Tim Holoday, Delta Wind
Jul 11, 2024
Rebecca Schwanke, a Republican from Glennallen, is running for House District 36.
Photo by Tim Holoday
Since Mike Cronk announced that he would not again be running to maintain his seat for House District 36, the field of candidates has exploded to six people. One of the candidates is Rebecca Schwanke, a Republican from Glennallen.
Other candidates include James Fields, Pamela Goode, Brandon Kowalski, Dana Mock, and Cole Snodgress.
Schwanke recently visited Delta and had the opportunity to share why she is running for the house seat for this area.
“We all had the same amount of time to think about it – which was roughly 48 hours,” She said. “We all got a phone call from somebody that let us know that the district 36 house seat would be up for grabs.”
Schwanke admitted that she thought about it for most of the entire first day after being contacted. After more consideration, she decided to join the race.
She was born in Fairbanks and raised in Tok. She also got to spend a few years in Juneau during high school.
Schwanke has a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and a master’s degree in wildlife biology from UAF, and she knew that she wanted to stay in Alaska.
“I am an Alaska girl,” she said. “I would rather be out on the rivers, I’d rather be camping than anything else – fishing, hunting, berry picking, that’s where I’d want to be.”
With her desire to remain in Alaska and her education, being a wildlife biologist allowed her to see some very complex dynamics amongst the people.
“Over my lifetime, I realized that if there are sound wildlife and fisheries policies in place, and the weather cooperates, we have ample productive wild systems. Plenty of fish come back up the rivers – everybody gets a piece, plenty of caribou, plenty of sheep and moose, everybody gets a piece – including tourists. They want to see wildlife as well,” shared Schwanke.
She went on to comment that when Alaska has healthy and abundant wildlife populations, everything is OK.
“We go through big cycles and there are changes, our natural systems are always changing. We have to be quick and decisive in our action when we see things are changing. That’s where the state of Alaska has the upper hand over the federal government. We have the ability through our constitution, we are absolutely supposed to be managing for the people. We are required to develop and utilize our resources, improve our resources for the people of Alaska,” said Schwanke.
Schwanke addressed fiscal policy by saying, “Fiscal policy in Alaska comes down to this, we are spending too much money.”
She continued, saying that Alaska needs to focus on the core – social services – and education is next.
Even with placing education high in the list of priorities in state spending, she says that there are ways of having a higher end result with the students that are not necessarily tied to more money. Having parents, guardians, grandparents, and other family actively involved in a child’s education greatly enhances the learning situation. Helping share the high value of education with the child and helping them to embrace learning greatly increases the end result of education.
Schwanke was quick to share that something that was shared with her, “Education is like a three-legged stool – the student, the family, and the school. If any one of those legs gets cut off, the stool falls over and the whole thing crashes.”
When asked about her top five concerns if she is elected and heads to Juneau to represent District 36, Schwanke responded, “Number one is food security. Alaskans need to have sustainability. Second is fiscal policy. The state is over budget every year and is pulling from the PFD, and that is not an appropriate situation and that is not sustainable. Third is family. Family is critically important when raising kids. Fourth deals with affordable consistent energy for the state. Reliance on only gas and oil limits the choices for affordable energy. Number five is education and choice and opportunity. I do want our public schools to be able to pay their bills. I believe that parents are the biggest component to a child’s education.”
Schwanke concluded, “I have lived the majority of my life in District 36 and rural communities. I have a broad perspective on how to improve life here. I am not a one issue person. I have been a state employee and understand the function and role of state government. I am convinced that we can continue with our Alaskan way of life if we stick to the core principles and we follow our Alaska Constitution.”
Tim Holoday manages advertising for TriDelta, Inc. publisher of the Seward Journal and Delta Wind newspapers and covers general news topics. He can be reached at news@deltawindonline.com.