Long-time Sitka Assembly Member Thor Christianson filed to run for mayor Friday afternoon (7-31-26).
Christianson is a resource manager at Southeast Region Emergency Medical Services — a local organization that aims to strengthen emergency care in remote areas of the state. He is currently serving his sixth term on the assembly, and is the longest-serving assembly member in Sitka history.
Christianson is the second candidate to throw his hat in the ring for the mayor’s seat. Assembly Member Kevin Mosher filed earlier this month.
KCAW’s Hope McKenney sat down with Christianson to talk about his priorities, if elected.
TRANSCRIPT:
CHRISTIANSON: I’ve been doing this a long time. Somehow or another, I wound up being the longest-serving member of the assembly in the history of Sitka. So I think I know the job, and plus there are a number of projects, large and small, that I really want to see done. And I think that I will be able to facilitate that a bit better as mayor.
KCAW: You’ve seen a lot. You’ve served on the assembly on and off since the ’90s. Like you said, you’re the longest-serving assembly member in Sitka history. What are some of the biggest issues facing Sitkans right now? And if elected as mayor, how do you propose to address them?
CHRISTIANSON: Well, I think they all boil down to affordability, at this juncture, and quality of life, which are related but not exactly the same. Unfortunately, we’re limited in our ability to affect a lot of the issues of affordability. However, there are some things that the assembly can help with. One of the biggest, I think, is going to be getting city land on the market in the right way in such a fashion that it provides housing that is not crazy expensive, and we’ve got a few parcels of land that are in the works right now. One of them is a piece of land that we got from the Alaska Pulp [Corporation] that’s pretty good sized, and it has utilities nearby, roads nearby, but it’s going to take some real work to get that to the market. And working on getting utilities and things, and hopefully with some help from the feds or the state, so that we can get them to people at a reasonable amount. And it’s just going to take a lot of work, a lot of pushing and being creative, and collaborating, and it’s not going to happen tomorrow. But we have to keep working at it. We’ve got other things — obviously the childcare initiative we’re working on. We’ve got some other smaller things that we’re working on to get more economic activity in the winter, and those all are just going to require time and energy. And it’s kind of funny, but in the last few years, I’ve been re-energized. I have more energy now on the assembly than I did back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, mainly because I think I understand the job better, and that’s part of the reason I’m running for mayor because I believe I understand the things that a mayor can do to facilitate those conversations and facilitate those projects, bringing people together, getting divergent viewpoints, if not agreeing, at least agreeing to disagree, and making sure that everybody is heard, so that even if you don’t get exactly what you wanted, you know you got heard. I’ve learned a lot from other assembly members, other mayors, so I think I can bring to the table a lot of that together on my own. And I can say I run a lot of meetings, both professionally and at the assembly, and I think I can do good meetings and make sure I get everybody heard.
KCAW: What are some of the decisions you are most proud of during your time on the assembly?
CHRISTIANSON: Big and small. Way back [during] my first term, I worked to get the hoist put in down at the seawall, and at the time, I was kind of not laughed at, but they were like, “Okay, please shut up about this, and we’ll get it put in.” And I think it’s proved, you know, that’s a smaller one, but it’s proven useful. I think getting and supporting the schools over the years. We have a very school-supporting assembly right now, but it hasn’t always been that way. And I’m very proud of the fact that both of my girls were in the school or are in the school district, as was I. And so that’s a big one. Working right now on the childcare initiative. I don’t know if that’s going to go, but you won’t be able to say we didn’t try. Securing funding for SAFV was a big one, and that was, gosh, a while back. Although we still continue to do it. And honestly, this is going to sound funny, but I get phone calls sometimes late at night, and people want to talk about something, and I feel very comfortable doing that. And being able to talk to somebody, [I] may or may not be able to help or fix their problem, but making sure that they get heard and maybe sometimes helping them. I mean, I get off one of those phone calls and I feel even if I wasn’t able to make them happy, I feel good about the job I’m doing, and that’s one of the things I feel good about.
KCAW: What else should people know about you before they vote in the municipal election this October?
CHRISTIANSON: It’s kind of funny because at least people who pay attention to city stuff probably know me pretty well already. They should know that I’m willing to try things. You can’t be too afraid of failure to try and do something that’s a little bit different. So you know that I’d be willing to do that. You should know that I will listen to you, I may or may not agree with you, but if not, I’ll make sure that you know why. You’ll know that I’m going to be here. I know Sitka’s history, both politically and just in Sitka, because I’ve lived my whole life here — on again, off again when I was younger — But again, I’m no stranger to Sitka, and most people know me, and they should know that I will give everything I can to make Sitka work in all the different ways that means.
Three seats on the Sitka School Board, two Sitka Assembly seats, and the mayor’s chair are up for grabs this year. The deadline to file to run for local office is Friday, August 7. Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, October 6.
