Retiring Sen. Lyman Hoffman cites $20 heating fuel as he accepts 40-year honor

Sen. Lyman Hoffman, who is leaving the Alaska Senate after 40 years in the Legislature, accepted Commonwealth North's recognition for that service and used his remarks to describe what it costs to live in the rural communities he represents.

"We have some of the highest costs. When you're paying $12 a gallon for a gallon of milk, $20 a gallon for heating fuel, and you have some of the lowest incomes in the state of Alaska," Hoffman said. "It's more difficult today than ever to make ends meet."

Hoffman said "We are one Alaska" is the message he tries to carry each day in the Legislature. "Alaska wouldn't be here without rural Alaska," he said.

Hoffman entered the Alaska House in 1987, served in the Senate in 1991 and 1992, returned to the House in 1993 and 1994 and has held a Senate seat since 1995, according to his Legislature member record.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who attended, called him "the alltime longest serving member of the Alaska State Legislature" in a July 30 Congressional Record tribute marking his retirement. The tribute credits him with helping secure the long-term future of the Power Cost Equalization Endowment, which it says exceeds $1 billion and serves rural families, schools, health clinics and businesses.

Hoffman recalled a bipartisan Senate organization he dated to 2000. He said lawmakers met in a senator's office and looked to the middle rather than the far right of the Republican Party or the far left of the Democratic Party. He said that group elected a Senate president and made him a Senate Finance co-chair.

Legislature records date that leadership to later. Hoffman and Bert Stedman co-chaired Senate Finance in the 25th Legislature, in 2007 and 2008, with Lyda Green as Senate president, according to the committee's records.

Hoffman also told of entering college in the fall of 1968. When an adviser learned he was from rural Alaska, Hoffman said, the adviser told him he had less than a 1% chance to graduate.

"But it's been 40 years, long enough. If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it again," Hoffman said.

Hoffman said House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, whom he called the senator-elect, will succeed him and continue to represent rural areas of the state. "I'm leaving the Senate in good hands," he said.

Edgmon leads the unofficial count in Senate District S with 2,658 votes, or 37.16%, ahead of Darren Morgan Deacon with 1,896, Wassilie P. Guy with 1,744 and Richard Robb with 834, according to the state's Nov. 11 election summary. No candidate has a majority yet, so the ranked-choice count will decide the seat.