Tom Morphet. (Emily Files)
“It was never my dream to go into politics. But I just get frustrated being on the receiving end of a lot of bad policies,” says Tom Morphet.
Morphet’s background is in journalism. He spent decades reporting and editing for the Chilkat Valley News. Morphet owned the paper for about five years, but sold the publication after getting elected to the Haines Borough Assembly.
He’s been on the assembly almost two years.
“I’ve tried to be honest with people,” says Morphet. “I’ve tried to find my place on the assembly. What I found is that often times, for whatever reason, people don’t want to address the elephant in the room. And I’m not afraid to address the elephant in the room, or to speak unpopular truths.”
Now Morphet wants to step into the state legislature, to tackle issues he doesn’t feel can be dealt with on strictly a local level.
“So much of what we have to deal with in Haines is a loss of services, or cuts to services by a government that hasn’t even begun to develop revenues,” says Morphet.
Recently, Morphet has been looking for ways to restore funding to the Haines chapter of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The organization closed offices in four Alaska communities earlier this year.
And he points to education more broadly as an issue of particular importance to him.
“We need to be sure that our children are smart enough to take on some rather complex problems,” says Morphet. “You can’t do that without funding the schools adequately.”
That, he says, ties into a need to invest in people.
“And that’s what we have to solve our problems, is people,” says Morphet. “We need educated kids. We need healthy fisheries. We need basic public safety services. If I was elected for one term and we got a payroll tax passed, I’d be fine with that.”
Speaking of issues, Morphet also points to ferry service.
“The ferry service used to be a source of pride,” says Morphet. “Something we boasted about. I don’t know how it went from being something we treasured to a liability.”
He says he’s “adamantly” against the Juneau Access Road.
And, thinks the state is turning too much responsibility and infrastructure over to local communities, something he attributes to lack of efficient funding sources.
“The state has basically foisted onto these communities responsibilities or obligations or needs that it’s saying oh we don’t have money to fund those — well you have no income tax, you have no sales tax, you have the lowest gas tax in the country. So of course you have no money, you haven’t tried to get any money,” says Morphet.
Morphet says he wants the chance to make things better.
“This place is worth fighting for,” says Morphet. “Alaska’s worth fighting for. And Alaskans are better than this. We’re better that what we’ve been told we are by the legislature.”
Morphet does not have to give up his position on the Haines Assembly while campaigning for state office.
He will maintain his assembly seat during that time.
Alaska’s Primary Election Day is August 21. The General Election is November 6.
Good luck Tom! Guessing you are on the Dem ticket but I think an Independent run would have been better for you. Regardless, you’ll have to do some traveling and knocking on lots of doors, especially in J-town. We know you pretty well up here.
Tom I wish you well, can’t reach across the seats, and play advocate, in your campaign. The people’s choice, shall be just that! Supporting you, may be a hazard to our communities, you would represent. You didn’t support me at one time, but no hard feelings. We are neighbors with opinions, different!
Always best regards. Linda
You should tell us which primary he is entering, Republican or Democratic.
I’ve known Tom Morphet since before he turned 20. He is a man of solid character, always concerned about doing what’s right for his family, friends, community, Alaska, the USA and the world. He’ll be a great representative for District 33!