Menard to challenge Green for Senate

MAT-SU — The Republican contest for state Senate promises to be at least a two-woman race. Linda Menard said she will file paperwork today announcing her intention to challenge Sen. Lyda Green.

“The timing seems to be right,” Menard said about her decision to challenge Green, president of the state Senate.

For Menard, holding public office is a family affair. Her husband is Mat-Su Borough Mayor Curt Menard, a former four-term state legislator, and her son Steve Menard is a Wasilla city councilman and has declared himself a candidate for Wasilla mayor.

What helps make the timing right for a run for state Senate is local support for her candidacy and that her husband is faring better in his fight against multiple myeloma — cancer of the blood cells.

“I’ve had a swelling amount of calls to run for Senate Seat G,” Menard said.

Her biggest supporter is her husband, who said he’s “excited” about her candidacy.

“I’ve battled cancer pretty heavy for the past year and I want her to move on with her life,” he said. “I’m pretty independent now and can take care of myself. She enjoys politics and has a lot of political savvy.”

Requests for comment left with Green’s office for reaction to Menard’s announcement were not returned as of press time Monday.

As to why she wants to run against Green on the Republican ticket, while she didn’t mention the senator by name, Menard said she wants to help the Valley and support the governor.

“If I were elected I would certainly be going down there to work with the governor instead of against her,” Menard said. “Having said that [she and Palin] are going to differ on issues. ... if my gut level tells me I can’t go along with the governor [I won’t]. I have been on the side where on a seven-member school board, it was one to six.”

Menard served 12 years on the Mat-Su Borough School District Board of Education. She is vice chairman and interim executive director of the Mat-Su Health Foundation. Her list of accolades and board memberships is long.

Juneau also wouldn’t be a new experience for her, Menard said. Her husband served from 1986 to 1994 as a state representative and a senator. Menard said she is well acquainted with life in the capital.

Menard said she called Green Sunday to give her a heads-up on her intention to run for Seat G.

“It ended with her saying she hoped I didn’t prevail,” Menard said about the conversation.

About 30 to 40 minutes later, “I received a bullying and threatening phone call,” she said.

Menard would not say from whom, only that the caller did not want her to run for office.

“I won’t be bullied out of doing this,” Menard said.

Two of the major issues Menard said she hopes to address in the Senate are transportation and education.

Transportation is important, especially in the Wasilla-Palmer area, which contains three of the most dangerous stretches of road in the state — the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, the Parks Highway from Mile 43.5 to Mile 55 and Knik-Goose Bay Road.

As a past school board president and an educator — she substitute teaches at the Alaska JobCorps and is a former Wasilla Middle School teacher — Menard said, “My heart is in education.”

She plans to run as a Republican, which means her race with Green targets the Aug. 26 primary rather than the general election Nov. 4.

Menard is the matriarch of a family of dentists and local politicians. Six Menards are dentists or orthodontists, she said, and include her husband, her children and her children’s spouses.

Asked if she felt there were any conflicts of interest being so close to two local politicians, she said she didn’t think so. Her family runs for office mostly out of a need to be involved in the community.

She said she believes most folks who know them would say the Menards “are on the extremely high end of community involvement.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.