Rep. Kopp gets endorsement of police, firefighter unions

In a new radio ad, former state senator and former Anchorage assemblyman Fred Dyson touts the public safety credentials of incumbent Republican Rep. Chuck Kopp.

“As a police officer and later as chief of police in Kenai, State of Alaska prosecutors say Chuck’s reputation as a major crime investigator was legendary. He investigated and solved three cold case murders where there were no victim’s bodies found and one of the perpetrators claimed to have 60 victims,” Dyson says in the ad by Alaskans for Public Safety, an independent expenditure group backed by Anchorage police and firefighter unions. “Later Chuck took on a major Alaska drug distribution network and successfully broke them up by rolling distributors and smugglers to get information to put the drug dealers in jail for long sentences.”

Kopp’s in a contested primary for District 24 in South Anchorage, where party-line Republicans are hoping to give him the boot for the crime of caucusing with Democrats and holding the line against the worst of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s first two years in office.

While District 24 Republicans and the state party both have endorsed Kopp’s primary opponent Tom McKay, with the Alaska Republican Women’s Club contributing $4,000 to his campaign, public safety stuck with Kopp.

As one insider pointed out, if Kopp’s record wasn’t enough to win over public safety, then McKay’s 2002 misdemeanor assault conviction certainly did.