Rufus the canine candidate. (photo by Andrew Cremata)

Roger Griffin, Jay Burnham and Steve Burnham Jr. are on the ballot for the Skagway Borough Assembly elections. However, a fourth contender has been campaigning as a write-in. Rufus the dog is making waves in Skagway’s political scene as the only non-human to run for assembly. However, a few circumstances make the canine candidate ineligible to run for office in Skagway.

Andrew Cremata’s dog Rufus has been on the campaign trail in Skagway. Over the past month, the dog and his owner have been passing out pins to constituents, shaking paws and developing a following on social media.

“His platform is simple, you know,” Cremata said. “He wants treats, he wants to stick his head out the window, he wants to go for walks, and he wants a viable and comprehensive plan for our waterfront.”

Rufus completed the letter of intent to run as a write-in candidate and signed with a pawprint, but there are a few requirements that disqualify him from candidacy.

In Skagway, residents who wish to run for office must be registered to vote in Skagway, file a declaration of candidacy and provide a public official financial disclosure to the clerk. Rufus, however, is unable to register to vote because that right is reserved for people over the age of 18. He also lacks the records necessary for a financial disclosure.

So votes for Rufus will not be counted.

Cremata hopes that Rufus will change the way some people think about local elections. He said he has been a little disappointed by the number of candidates running in the election this year and hopes that more local business owners and residents with families will get involved in the future. He understands it is difficult to take on such a commitment.

“The number one barrier is going to be time,” Cremata said. “People have to have the time to do it. The other part of that, the other side of that coin, I know people who have been exceptional in those roles, but it’s a thankless job. You put yourself in the public eye. You’re always going to make about half the town mad at you. Anybody who’s running or anyone who is sitting at that table deserves your respect whether you agree with them or not. They’re putting their neck on the line, right?”

Some have been concerned that Rufus’ campaign could have a negative impact on the other candidates in the election. Cremata disagreed.

“A couple of people, including my wife, came up to me and said, ‘What if the election gets skewed? What if people vote for Rufus and it takes a vote away from a candidate that would have been a good candidate?’ I thought about that and the more I thought about it the more I thought it’s a really cynical attitude,” Cremata said. “That’s a presumption that people are going to walk into the voting booth and they’re going to see three names there and they’re only going to maybe like one of them. Maybe they don’t know anything about any of them, and they’re just going to cherry pick. So somehow a dog running for a seat could take votes away from somebody, it’s absurd. The voters I think are far more knowledgeable than that. I don’t know. If a dog got more votes than me in an election, I probably would never run again. That’s for sure.”

Election day is Tuesday. Skagway residents can vote in person at City Hall in Assembly Chambers between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.