About a half-dozen Asian American Pacific Islander groups made history in Anchorage on Saturday. They held the city’s first AAPI mayoral forum at the Asian Alaskan Cultural Center.
Seven of the ten candidates accepted the invitation. Only three did not attend: Nick Danger, Dustin Darden and Jenny Di Grappa.
First, a little disclosure. As a Japanese American, I was invited to moderate this forum, but the committee that organized this event came up with the format and crafted all of the questions. All I had to do was make the introductions and keep the dialogue going..
Our timekeeper, Saraj Bhattarai, was nervous.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Bhattarai, who, like many at this event, was excited to be a part of this first-of-a kind forum.
(Here’s a link to watch the entire forum. )
Lucy Hansen, a representative of the Samoan community, read the first question in her Samoan language. It was about a minute long and set up to be a “trick” question. After Lucy finished reading her question, I was instructed to go immediately to the first candidate in cue, which was Phil Isley.
“Would you go over the question again? I’m not sure I understood it at all,” Isley said.
Phil Isley was a good sport. I quickly…
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