Assemblyman faces possible recall

PALMER — A group of mostly Sutton residents have started the process of attempting to recall Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Warren Keogh from office.

The borough follows state law regarding recalls. State law says the process to recall someone starts with an application, containing 10 signatures and a reason for the recall. The borough clerk then reviews the application and, if it is deemed sufficient, issues a petition. The petitioners then have to get signatures from registered voters equaling 25 percent voters in the last election.

In this case, something like 1,800 people voted in the election Keogh won. A quarter of that is 450 people.

The recall is in its earliest of stages. The 10 signatures were handed in Thursday. The clerk is reviewing it now. As for the reasons for recall, the application cites a failure to disclose his affiliations and incompetence.

“Warren Keogh continues to vote at the assembly level on resource development matters for District 1, despite the fact that his organization, Castle Mountain Coalition, the corporation he founded to fight coal development, has received $34,000 in strategic funding from Alaska Conservation to fight coal development,” the application states. “Warren Keogh has incompetently testified against any new coal leases at the state level while representing his district. Voters in District 1 clearly believing and desiring additional coal leases and development elected him thinking he would help resource development within their district, not destroy the possibility.”

In an email, Keogh responds point-by-point to the accusations.

“People clearly have a right to petition to recall any elected public official. In this case though, it certainly looks like a politically motivated effort rather than one based on ‘competence.’ People in public office often have backgrounds in business or nonprofits, and some continue their affiliations. As far as I know, simply disagreeing with an elected individual’s position or vote on any issue is an everyday occurrence, but it’s certainly not grounds for recall,” Keogh wrote.

He said he made his past affiliations clear when running for office, pointing to his still-active campaign website, warren2assembly.com, which contains a copy of his resumé.

“While I don’t believe any of the assertions on the recall petition demonstrate ‘incompetence,’ nor are they grounds for recall, I will address them,” he wrote. “Regarding my past service as an officer of the Chickaloon Community Council and the Castle Mountain Coalition, my term expired with the former and I resigned from the latter before I filed as a candidate for assembly in 2010. So far as I knew, I severed all ties with these organizations. Apparently, no one changed my status as registered agent. When I discovered this in May of 2011, I notified the state of my earlier resignation.”

He said he was unaware of the contributions cited in the application and said that a letter attached to the application that he wrote to the Alaska Mental Health Trust, far from showing incompetence in office, shows that “I do not oppose coal development, but ask for additional information.”

One of the people listed as a contact on the application, Rebecca Hobbs, said she feels Keogh misrepresented himself in running for office.

“He said when he was running he was pretty much for expansion, for development, stuff like that and yet he sits on Castle Mountain Coalition and they’re anti-, they’re anti-everything,” she said. “It’s not cool to say you’re one thing when you’re not. Don’t lie about it.”

Asked what kind of chance the recall has if it manages to clear the clerk’s review, Hobbs said she thinks there will be enough people willing to sign the petition to get the recall on the ballot.

“Pretty close anyways. There’s enough people that are pretty mad about it,” she said.

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