Candidates line up for state offices

MAT-SU — As far as state legislative races in the Valley go this year, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a whole lot of action this campaign season.

The filing deadline for candidates to run in state races passed on Tuesday. People can still drop out of the race, but the only way anyone else is getting in will be through a write-in candidacy. With that deadline passed, democrats in the Mat-Su have not filed to run against any of the Republicans currently representing the area in the state Senate and House of Representatives.

On the Senate side, the Valley seats up this year are F and H. Seat F mostly represents areas around Fairbanks, but includes Sutton and Chickaloon. Seat H is squarely in the Valley, representing Wasilla and its environs. On the House side, all the seats are up. Seat 12 represents mostly Valdez, but also the Sutton/Chickaloon area. Seat 13 represents Palmer and its surroundings, Seat 14 represents the Wasilla area, Seat 15 represents the Valley north of Wasilla and Seat 16 represents Chugiak and a good slice of Butte.

Four out of six of the candidates up this year will likely waltz back to Juneau unopposed — Sens. Charlie Huggins (Seat H) and John Coghill (Seat F) and Reps. Bill Stoltze (Seat 12) and Wes Keller (Seat 14).

As for Seat 16, there is no incumbent in the race but there are two Republicans — Eric Feige of Chickaloon and Don Haase of Valdez, and Democrat Bert Cottle, mayor of Valdez.

Up in District 15, Rep. Mark Neuman has picked up a Republican challenger by the name of Stephen Jacobson. In Alaska Public Offices Commission reports there is a third candidate with a listed address in the area — Sharon Kay Carbaugh of Willow — but the line for which seat she is seeking is blank and the phone number she gave was disconnected. Neither Neuman nor Jacobson could be reached as of press time.

Which leaves Palmer, where incumbent Carl Gatto has two challengers. One of them he’s seen before. David Parks ran against him in 2008. The other is a relative newcomer, Don Benson.

Gatto is running for his fifth term in the legislature. Asked why he wants to return to Juneau, he said there’s a lot of work to be done.

“The future of the state is that gas line,” he said. “We’re only going to get one pipeline. We’re not going to get two or three. We have to pick the right one and we have to make sure the gas for Alaska is not so high-priced that we can’t afford it.”

The gasline seems to be what everyone’s talking about in this year’s state races. But Gatto said he doesn’t see this year’s race as a one-issue election. He listed the controversy over one-way streets in Palmer, building up Port MacKenzie, the idea of generating electricity in the Mat-Su and a host of other issues facing the Valley specifically.

Still, the gasline is a big part of it. Gatto said he’d like to see the state do a better job preparing high schoolers to enter the workforce as well as to go on to college. Having more graduating seniors trained to work a trade will be essential when it comes time to build that pipeline.

Parks, asked about his candidacy this go-round, talked mostly about jobs and education.

“We can expand our vocational technical educational programs in the Valley and that Mat-Su College has a lot of room to grow and as the Anchorage campus crowds out we have a lot of opportunities there,” he said.

As a young professional, he feels he resembles a lot of his constituents — hard-working, well-educated folks looking to make their way in the world.

As for Benson, he also would like to take a crack at that gasline. He is currently chairman of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority’s board of directors and prefers the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act project because, he said, it will be the best value for Alaskans in terms of the rates residents will pay for gas coming out of the pipe.

Benson was born and raised in Palmer, worked for years as a commercial bush pilot and is currently project manager and construction superintendent with New Horizons Telecom, which brings telecommunications infrastructure to rural communities.

The primary election, at least in Palmer and the Valley’s northern reaches, will be more important than the general election. It is scheduled for Aug. 24.

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