Education, budget key in Senate District E race

MAT-SU — The two men running for Senate Seat E sound similar on a lot of things but differ hugely in their opinions about public education.

District E is gigantic — it encompasses Valdez, Glennallen, Talkeetna, Willow, Whittier, Delta Junction and Chickaloon. It stretches as far south as Bogard Road and Seldon Road. It’s the size of the state of Indiana.

Two candidates are seeking the seat, a Republican incumbent and an independent challenger.

Mike Dunleavy

The incumbent in the race, Dunleavy has a long career in Alaska public education, having worked as a teacher, principal, superintendent and in various administrative capacities. His foray into politics began with a term on the Mat-Su Borough School Board before he took out an incumbent to win his senate seat.

Dunleavy spent a lot of time last session talking about education and he spent a lot of his interview doing the same. He was one of the main driving forces behind an attempt to amend the state’s constitution to allow for public money to pay for courses at private or religious schools.

“I never went to private school. My kids have not gone to private school they’re not going to private school now,” he said. “I’ve always believed and I still believe that public education can expand its narrow tent to include more opportunities.”

He said he wants to go back to Juneau to keep working on the issues he started working on. One of those issues: the budget.

“We are not taking in as much as we’re spending. We’re spending more every year than we are taking in,” he said.

Dunleavy said he voted for and remains in favor of the oil tax changes that survived a repeal attempt this year. He said the changes need to be given time to spur investment in oil production.

“I haven’t heard a single legislator say if these guys don’t invest and it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do that we don’t go back and revisit that bill,” Dunleavy said.

He said that voters should pick him because he works hard — he spends his days in Juneau working from 6:30 a.m. to bedtime — and gets results.

“I think even the opponents of things I’ve done, if they were sincere and honest, they would say ‘he is effective,’” Dunleavy said.

Warren Keogh

After spending a sometimes-lonely term on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, Keogh said that he wasn’t planning on returning to politics.

“I ended my term on the borough assembly last October and had no intention of running for public office again, but given some of the actions of the legislature this past year and at the urging of a variety of folks, I’m back in the political fray,” he said.

Keogh has been an Alaskan for 41 years, 35 of those in Mat-Su, mostly in Chickaloon. He’s a Vietnam veteran and a former paramedic and firefighter. After he left emergency services, he worked a second career as a researcher, writer and paralegal for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Keogh singled out education and the budget as his big issues as well. On education he differs greatly from Dunleavy.

“If this were to happen it would in effect reduce the funding to our public school systems and thereby weaken them,” he said of Dunleavy’s attempt at a constitutional amendment. “Part of it is the argument that’s brought forward that there’s inadequate choices for our kids and frankly that’s just not the case. The very large majority of people, of voters, who reside in the new Senate District E are Mat-Su Borough residents and our Mat-Su Borough School District has an extraordinarily large number of choices for our kids.”

He added that the amendment seemed to originate with legislative (not public) support for changing the constitution.

On the topic of the budget, Keogh sounded a lot more like his opponent.

“We are spending billions of dollars more than we generate in revenues. The previous year it was one and a half billion,” Keogh said. “We cannot continue to do this. This is not a sustainable way to run our state and if we continue to do that we’re heading for a fiscal crisis in the next few years.”

As for why he’s running as an independent rather than in the party system, Keogh said he’s just always been non-partisan. He said he thinks people are sick of the party system.

“Sometimes I think legislators can’t vote their conscience, they can’t do what’s right, they have to play by the dictates of the party leaders, and I think that’s a problem when legislators listen more to their party leaders than they do to the public,” he said.

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