Sen. Matt Claman (D-Anchorage): Alaska Senate Judiciary Chair & former Anchorage Mayor

 Alaska State Senator Matt Claman first laid eyes on Alaska while working as a cook for a mining company the summer before his senior year of college. After law school, he made his way back to Alaska settling in Anchorage. In the mid 2000s he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly and was elevated to Chair at the start of his second year. This meant that when Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich was elected US Senator, Matt Claman as the Assembly Chair assumed the role of acting mayor. This happened just after the 2008 fiscal crisis. Mayor Claman was forced to make difficult decisions that hurt him politically, but that he stands by today. In 2014 he was elected to the Alaska State House representing West Anchorage, and in 2022 he was elected to the Alaska State Senate where he serves as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.