Bonds popular in Tuesday’s vote

MAT-SU — Valley voters were apparently feeling generous and are mostly OK with the people already representing them, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s election.

Each municipal body will have to certify results before they are deemed official, which usually takes a week or two. Still, in most races the margins seem wide enough to make a come-from-behind victory unlikely.

Starting with the Mat-Su Borough: voters chose to approve both sets of bond propositions. That $214 million raft of bonds to implement a five-year plan for school improvements passed 4,164 to 3,624. The $32 million package of road bonds passed 4,594 to 3,131. The other ballot proposition, approving boundary lines for borough assembly districts to be redrawn to reflect changes in the 2010 Census passed handily 5,327 to 2,126.

There were no incumbents running for borough assembly. The closest borough race was for the Wasilla seat in which Steve Colligan and Pat Johnson were vying to replace Mark Ewing, who chose not to run so he could instead make a bid for a seat in the state Legislature. Unofficial tallies have Colligan up 114 votes, with 641 to Johnson’s 527. Five voters in that district wrote someone else in.

Former borough mayor Darcie Salmon didn’t have an opponent in his election to replace Cindy Bettine, who had reached her limit of two terms representing the Knik-Big Lake area. Unofficial tallies show 108 voters chose to write in another candidate. Salmon took in 840 votes.

On the school board, another uncontested race saw incumbent former jail superintendent Ole Larson take in 5,751 votes and 287 voters choose to write-in someone else. School Board Vice President Erick Cordero bested challenger Lynette Warhus, winning with 3,898 votes to 2,624.

Turning to the city of Wasilla, a four-way mayor’s race saw Mayor Verne Rupright win handily with 453 votes. The next closest was city councilwoman Diane Woodruff with 284. Councilwoman Taffina Katkus took in 192 votes and former councilman Michael Carson garnered in 27 votes.

Incumbents also fared well on the city council. Leone Harris defeated local businessman David Nyberg 438 to 394. And Colleen Sullivan-Leonard pulled in 502 votes, outpacing local volunteer and advocate Patrick Brown’s 344 votes.

In Palmer, where the two candidates to win the most votes each win one of two open seats, the two to prevail were volunteer, bookkeeper and wife of the city’s former mayor, Linda Combs, who won 230 votes and incumbent Brad Hanson, who took in 228 votes. Former councilman Mike Chmielewski will not be returning to the body, having won only 163 votes.

Palmer voters also approved a $2 million ballot proposition to sell bonds to build a water system and sewage treatment plant and repay those bonds with utility fees. Voters favored the proposition 342 to 120

Last but not least, in the city of Houston three seats were up for grabs and, again, it appears incumbents were popular with voters.

Mayor Virgie Thompson didn’t draw an opponent and beat the write-in numbers 166 to 21. Houston Fire Department volunteer Alma Hartley defeated a challenge from former councilwoman Rosemary Burnett 120 to 98.

The biggest potential for an election result to change in the next few days was in Houston where, as of now, it appears incumbent Ruth Blanchard leads her race with 89 votes compared to her closest competitor, insurance agent Gina Jorgensen’s 87. A third person in that race, septic pumper Kenny Champ, took in 32 votes.

There are still outstanding absentee ballots to be counted but they won’t be counted until next week.

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