Fairbanks Mayor Matherly enters 2022 State Senate race

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Fairbanks city mayor Jim Matherly has announced his intention to try for the Alaska State Senate seat currently held by Scott Kawasaki.

Matherly filed his Letter of Intent on Saturday, November 13th, to run for the seat in the 2022 election.

Due to redistricting, the seat for which Matherly is running has been changed from seat A to seat P.

Matherly says he views this run as a natural progression after serving on Fairbanks City Council, and as the city’s two-term mayor. “I was looking at how much farther to go, and I thought about State House, I thought about State Senate and where that might go, and I was watching what other people were going to do with those seats, and I was watching redistricting. I was kind of paying attention to all of this, and since I got one year left, I thought ‘State Senate sounds like a good fit for me,’” he explained.

Matherly will next assemble a campaign team, open a bank account for the campaign, and start setting up events.

In 2022, he must file documents with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

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