About the Alaska Landmine

The Landmine was founded in October 2017 in an Anchorage coffee shop. The name Alaska Landmine was the result of a Facebook post by Jeff Landfield, who wanted to crowdsource a name for an Alaska political news site. Since its founding the Landmine has grown to be one of the most popular political news sites in Alaska. Since 2019, we have provided on the ground coverage of the Alaska Legislature. The Landmine focuses on delivering non-partisan Alaska news that other media outlets don’t always report, and we do so in a fun, entertaining and high energy way!

Jeff Landfield

Editor-in-Chief

Jeff moved to Alaska in 2004. He graduated from UAA in 2009 and worked in the IT and telecom industry for 7 years. He ran for State Senate in 2012 as a completely unknown candidate against an incumbent senator and almost pulled off a shocking upset, garnering 44% of the vote in the GOP Primary. In 2016, he ran again for the same seat and lost – badly. He is well known for his eclectic personality and shenanigans, most infamously his “Speedo-gate” scandal.

Team Landmine

Paxson Woelber

Paxson Woelber

Special Features Editor

Paxson Woelber was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, where he currently works as a creative professional. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Backpacker Magazine, and ADN, and he has provided commentary on outdoor topics for the New York Times and BBC. He contributes to and provides design and technical services for the Alaska Landmine.

Scott Jensen

Scott Jensen

Senior Producer

Born and raised in Anchorage, Scott spent much of his young adult years outside Alaska chasing dreams of journalism. His resume includes KTUU and ADN, KING-TV in Seattle and KARE-11 in Minneapolis. Scott’s final job in local TV was at the now defunct Anchorage station, KTVA. Scott saw what was coming, so he got out created a video production company with his wife. Scott started collaborating with the Landmine in 2019. In 2021, Scott and Jeff partnered on a production studio – Tudor Road Studios. And now they are extremely co-mingled in life and business – much to the chagrin of Scott’s wife. It’s a work-in-progress.

Landmine Partners

Thank you to those Alaskans whose skills and talents have helped the Landmine grow.

Madi Ko

Madi Ko

Madi Ko grew up in Fairbanks and Palmer. She studied Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she told everyone that Alaska has glaciers bigger than Rhode Island. She worked on the successful Alaskans for Better Elections campaign for ranked choice voting in 2020. She recently started working in New York City. She continually has to remind Jeff there’s a four hour time difference between Alaska and the East Coast.

Keithley

Brad Keithley

Brad Keithley is the Managing Director of Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets, a project focused on developing and advocating for economically robust and durable state fiscal policies. An attorney by trade, Keithley spent over three decades working on oil/gas issues. Brad met Jeff Landfield in 2011 when he gave a presentation on Alaska’s budget. Jeff has been bugging him with questions about the budget since.

Jacob Hersh

Jacob Hersh

Jacob Hersh lives in Moscow, Idaho, where he attends law school. He’s been writing for the Landmine sporadically since 2020, when he reached out to Jeff via email to see if he needed a freelancer. Since then, he’s written columns about underground hardcore bands in cramped practice spaces, gun shows in school gyms, and dipnetting on the Kenai. He also appeared on the Landmine’s election broadcast in 2022 as a roving election night correspondent, and even made his way down to Juneau to cover part of the 2023 legislative session. When he isn’t drafting legal briefs for class, you can usually find him smoking a pipe outside a dive bar, or yelling obscenities during a University of Idaho football game.

Vikram

Vikram “Choppi” Chopra

Vikram assists Jeff with media projects that the rest of Team Landmine refuses to touch. Choppi’s interests include photography, design, and falconry. He studied at University of Delhi and currently resides with his wife and daughter in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Choppi is the 2021 recipient of the Rajasthan Bureau of Culture and Industry’s Young Leaders of Excellence Award for his work photographing cobalt mines.