The setting sun over Kotzebue Sound is seen on an evening in 2010. (Photo provided by Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed Kotzebue Republican Thomas Baker to fill the House District 40 seat left vacant by Josiah Patkotak when he resigned to become Mayor of the North Slope Borough last month.
The Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives will vote to confirm Baker’s appointment.
Baker ran for Alaska Senate in 2020 and lost. He served on the Kotzebue City Council and as the Vice-Mayor of Kotzebue. He was also a tribal council member for the Native Village of Kotzebue.
Baker graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and later earned a Commercial Driver’s License through Northern Industrial Training in Palmer.
He is a resident of Kotzebue and works as a construction operations manager for the Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corporation. He is the chair of the Northwest Arctic Subsistence Regional Advisory Council for the Federal Subsistence Management Program.
According to a news release, the Governor’s office encouraged any qualified Alaskan living in HD 40 to apply for the seat, and then the Governor met with applicants to “weigh their qualifications.”
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.
Related News
