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Lyman Hoffman

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ6708043
Source-derived summary

Lyman F. Hoffman (born February 13, 1950) is a Yup'ik politician and Democratic member of the Alaska Senate since 1995. He represents the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska Peninsula, and Aleutian Islands. He also served in the Senate from 1991 to 1993 previously, and was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1987−91 and 1993−95.

In January 2019, Hoffman became the longest-serving member in the history of the Alaska Legislature, surpassing the tenure of Jay Kerttula, the previous record holder.

Partisan affiliation

Hoffman was the only registered Democrat to caucus with the Republicans in the Senate from 2015 to 2023. He endorsed Republican nominee Dan Sullivan over Senator Mark Begich during the 2014 U.S. Senate race. From 2007 to 2013 and again since 2023, Hoffman has been a member of a bipartisan majority coalition of Democrats and Republicans.

Controversy

On May 1, 2004, Hoffman was arrested for erratic driving and for striking a home with his car. He refused to take a breathalyzer test and later pled guilty to the charges. He was sentenced to three days in jail by Judge Peter Froehlich, which began on July 6.

Editorial summary

“Lyman Hoffman” enters the record as american politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lyman, Hoffman and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950, 1995, 1991, 1993—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-02-13. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Lyman, Hoffman and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Lyman Hoffman” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lyman, Hoffman and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6708043. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1995, 1991 and 1993.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lyman Hoffman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lyman Hoffman primary sources, Lyman Hoffman archive and Lyman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lyman Hoffman”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Lyman Hoffman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.