Excerpt from Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Margaret is the reason that when my planning commission term ended, I ran for the assembly. I had encouraged her to run the year before and promised I would follow her lead the next election. We had sort of worked together at Haines's independent weekly newspaper, the Chilkat Valley News. She had a desk in the actual office above the bookstore and the chiropractor; I write obituaries from home. She covered the borough, schools, Chamber of Commerce meetings, car accidents, fishing, tourism, and hunting seasons, and all the other hard news. She'd gone on to be the news director at the radio station before resigning to work for a regional conservation organization.

"Who do you think will win?" I asked.

She predicted the incumbent, Diana. She thought the conservative deputy mayor, who was pro-mine and timber industry and all-in for the harbor expansion, would easily take the first seat, and the second seat would be too close to call. "Don't feel bad. You asked, and I'm just sayin'." She conceded that maybe I'd squeak out a victory over Ryan Cook, the young and sometimes hot-headed fisherman who agreed with Diana's positions and was less diplomatic about calling out the artists and environmentalists with whom he did not agree. He wanted to make Haines great again. But the winner might also be Judy Erekson, who did worry about the mine, and was not sure about the timber sales, and had concerns about the harbor, and was socially liberal, but was also the longtime school accountant, which gave her great value on the assembly as a budget explainer; or it might be Leonard Dubber, the libertarian plumber who could speak the same language as the borough maintenance men, and had an old-time Alaskan and anti-government vibe, somewhat eccentric views, but also a kindly, folksy way of speaking. I liked talking with him when he did the annual tune-up of our furnace.

Margaret was sure that Tom Morphet, the editor and owner of the Chilkat Valley News, would bring up the rear.

"Really?" I said. Tom had filed at the last possible minute, just before five o'clock on the final day because, he said, there were no competent candidates. Tom is blunt and can be rude. Times like that I wondered how we had managed to be friends for so long. He probably had no idea how much that comment stung. For better or worse, if elected, Tom and I would be viewed as a like-minded team, because we are old friends, and because of the paper and our shared relatively liberal politics. The top two vote-getters would win three-year terms. The seats are staggered so that the entire assembly and mayor won't shift too drastically year-to-year, and to provide continuity with at least two senior members, two two-year members, and two freshman members on any assembly—or at least that's the theory.

"I don't think we will have the results tonight; absentee ballots will decide it," Margaret said.

"Are you sure?"

"My guess is it will probably be Diana and then you when it's all sorted out. It may take a while is all."

Maybe I should have campaigned harder. I had spent about a thousand dollars and thought that was too much. Half of it was for the signs, and the rest for ads in the paper. I never held a fund-raiser. How could I solicit money from someone now and then dis-agree with them later? It doesn't take a political scientist to explain how money influences Congress. How can it not? Mainly I talked to people informally and answered questions at a handful of the candidate forums sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, news-paper and radio station, and the miners.

My Mud Bay Road neighbor who had advised many Alaska politicians suggested that I "never speak in absolutes." He said that if I declared I will or won't do this or that, I'd set myself up, and to some extent the assembly I join, for failure. Especially when campaigning, it was critical to keep an open mind and listen to concerns and ideas that I might address later as an assembly member.

Excerpted from Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende. Copyright © 2020 by Heather Lende. Excerpted by permission of Algonquin Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.