Name: Justin Arnold 

Sign: Gemini

Likes: Long walks on the beach

Superhero: Chuck Norris

Politics: It’s complicated

 

As a lifelong resident of Alaska, I was raised to respect and utilize all the freedoms and opportunities our great state provides. This same Alaskan attitude toward freedom and opportunity has allowed me to run my own commercial fishing boat and provided the opportunity to work for myself. Most of my extensive family still lives in Homer, and runs various small businesses in town.

I graduated from Homer High in 2003. There was no yearbook slot for “most likely to run for city council,” so I was completely unaware that 10 years later I would be participating in this election. I sometimes wonder if the school had involved my high school government class or perhaps our student council in any small part of the city’s decision-making process if we wouldn’t have more vested voters coming out of our schools. Perhaps I would have become more politically active sooner. It’s a theory I intend to check into, should I win the election.

I’m a commercial fisherman and construction business owner by trade and a researcher at heart. I think that honesty, a willingness to crunch numbers and the ability to actually listen to people’s wants and needs are key pieces to building a decent city council member. The people have been saying what they want for years: a less involved government, a less handsy TSA, and the ability to make basic decisions without being fined, taxed or forced to tolerate another slippery slope law.

That brings me to what comes next. My intention, whether I win a council seat or not, is to keep fighting against nonsense laws, and I will not serve special interest groups or pander to a nanny government who creates those laws in the name of “safety.” 

Any laws I vote for will be common sense and for the common good: I should always be able to easily explain to a voter why a law I voted on was necessary or for the betterment of Homer. Political decisions don’t have to be dark and mysterious. Council decisions affect each Homer citizen, and the voting process and explanations for it should be completely transparent.