Candidate lists come into focus

MAT-SU — With the passing of Friday’s filing deadline, municipal governments in the Valley have finalized their slate of candidates.

At the Mat-Su Borough, Mayor Larry DeVilbiss drew a challenger from former borough planning commissioner Mark Masteller.

On the assembly, incumbents Vern Halter and Jim Colver failed to draw challengers and will likely skate through unopposed.

But Ron Arvin drew a challenge from the woman he defeated to take a seat at the table — Michelle Church.

At the school board level, Mike Dunleavy, who is running for state Senate this year, chose not to run again. Three people filed for the seat instead: Steven Impson, Debby Retherford and Aimee Kopp, all Palmer residents.

The other school board seat up for election has incumbent Sarah Welton facing off against challenger Heather Fussell of Wasilla.

On the city level, starting with Palmer, there are two seats up for election, both holding three-year terms. In Palmer, everyone picks two candidates and the two top vote-getters win.

The incumbents — Richard Best and Ken Erbey — have filed to retain their seats and Elden Tritch has signed up to challenge them.

To the west in Wasilla, three seats are up. Seat B councilman Doug Holler has reached his term limit and can’t run again. Clark Buswell III is the only candidate who filed for his seat.

For Seat F, which Brandon Wall was appointed to after councilman Steve Menard was recalled, Wall is running unopposed. That term will be for one year to fill out the remainder of Menard’s original term, which is up in 2013.

The only incumbent to serve a full term and seek re-election is Taffina Katkus. She drew a challenge from Steven Lovell.

Finally, in the city of Houston, incumbent Alma Hartley drew a challenge from Ron Gaffney and incumbent Lance Wilson will face off against Ray Weaver.

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