Edgar Blatchford (born November 24, 1950) is an American politician, academic, and attorney, and perennial candidate who served as the mayor of

Seward, Alaska Seward (Alutiiq: ; Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast, approxima ...

. Blatchford sought the 2016 Democratic Party nomination for

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

, losing the nomination in the Alaskan primary to

Ray Metcalfe Ray Metcalfe (born August 29, 1950) is a politician and political activist in Alaska. Metcalfe has served in the Alaska House of Representatives as a Republican between 1979 and 1983, been active as an activist with the Republican Moderate Party ...

. Blatchford filed to run for lieutenant governor in the 2018 Democratic primary, and dropped out of the race on June 8. Blatchford has been a professor at the

University of Alaska Anchorage The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a public university in Anchorage, Alaska. UAA also administers four community campuses spread across Southcentral Alaska: Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska–Susitna College, and Pr ...

since 1995, teaching in the Department of Journalism and Public Communications. Blatchford also served as Commissioner of the Department of Community and Regional Affairs (1990–1994) under

Wally Hickel Walter Joseph Hickel (August 18, 1919 – May 7, 2010) was an American businessman, real estate developer, and politician who served as the second governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and 1990 to 1994 and as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from ...

and Commissioner of Community and Economic Development (2003–2005) under

Frank Murkowski Frank Hughes Murkowski (born March 28, 1933) is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States Senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. In his 2006 re ...

Early life and education

Blatchford was born in Nome, Alaska Territory in 1950 and relocated to

in 1960. Blatchford graduated from Seward High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Alaska Pacific University, Juris Doctor from the

University of Washington School of Law The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington. The 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings place Wash ...

, Masters of Arts degree in journalism from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, Master of Public Administration from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and PhD from the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for c ...

Career

Blatchford founded the publishing company Alaska Newspapers, Inc. in 1983. In 1990, Blatchford partnered with Calista Native Corporation to procure a total of six rural Alaskan newspapers. ANI was chartered to serve sparsely populated regions in Alaska to include parts of the Kenai Peninsula, Bristol Bay, Prince William Sound, the Aleutian Islands and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. In 2011, Blatchford purchased The Tundra Drums and Seward Phoenix Log from Calista Corp.; subsequently, Calista liquidated its share in the remaining newspapers in August 2011. Blatchford worked as a member of

's cabinet in developing the Community Development Quotas program aimed at providing educational and vocational opportunities to rural Alaskans in Bristol Bay and other western Alaskan communities. Blatchford was appointed commissioner of Community and Economic Development in January 2003 by governor Frank Murkowski. Murkowski cited Blatchford's prior experience as commissioner of Community and Regional Affairs under governor Hickel as a prime reason for Blatchford's selection. On July 22, 2005, Blatchford resigned his position as commissioner of Community and Economic Development due to conflict of interest allegations between his official state duties and ties with Chugach Alaska Corp.

Political positions

Until the 2016 Alaskan Senate race, Blatchford had been affiliated with the Republican Party, switching parties due to ideological reasons. He strongly supports reform of the 1971

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standing ...

(ANCSA), saying that it was an experiment that did not accomplish what it was charted to do.

Gun control

Blatchford is an advocate of background checks for gun ownership and states that his stance is in line with the intent of the

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

Illegal immigration

Blatchford supports a path for citizenship or other legal status for those illegal immigrants without criminal records.

Alaskan economy

Blatchford believes smaller Alaskan communities would benefit from a more diverse economic base.

Climate change

Blatchford believes

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

is a scientific certainty that must be addressed. He wants Alaska to increase its prominence in studying climate change and the Arctic.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blatchford, Edgar 1952 births Alaska Democrats Alaska Pacific University alumni American newspaper publishers (people) Businesspeople from Alaska Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections Candidates in the 2022 United States Senate elections Candidates in the 2022 United States elections Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni Living people Mayors of places in Alaska State cabinet secretaries of Alaska University of Alaska Fairbanks alumni University of Washington School of Law alumni