Election season ends today

MAT-SU — Voters in the Valley today will head to the polls to help decide more than a dozen state and local races.

The state’s Division of Elections has sample ballots and a polling place locator tool on its website at elections.alaska.gov. Folks without Internet access can get the same information by calling (888) 383-8683.

Statewide races

At the very top of the ballot voters will find the race that’s consuming most of the political oxygen this season: the bare-knuckle brawl between U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and Republican challenger Dan Sullivan and the groups lining up on either side to pour national money into the Alaska media market. Also in that race, but getting far less attention are two lesser-known candidates, Libertarian Mark S. Fish, and non-affiliated candidate Ted Gianoutsos.

Next on the list is the race between the longest serving current member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Don Young, his young Democratic Party challenger Forrest Dunbar, and Libertarian Jim C. McDermott. One of the more dramatic moments of this race played out at Wasilla High School after Young made remarks about suicide and same sex marriage — for which he later apologized — to a group of students at Wasilla High School.

Third on the ballot is the governor’s race, which also has been a dramatic one this year after two candidates — independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott — joined forces to form a “Unity Ticket.” They’re taking on incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell and his running mate, Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan as well the Libertarian ticket of Care Clift and Lee Andrew and Alaska Constitution Party pairing J.R. Myers and Maria P. Rensel.

Initiatives

Ballot Measure 2, the so-called Marijuana Initiative, is, through a quirk in the election process, the first one to appear on the ballot. Supporters of the measure say marijuana laws are unjust and that a regulated marijuana industry could be a tax revenue boom. Opponents say the state needn’t jump into the legal marijuana world that Washington state and Colorado already inhabit.

Ballot Measure 3 raises the state’s minimum wage — which currently stands at $7.75 per hour — to $8.75 on Jan. 1, 2015, and to $9.75 on Jan 1, 2016, and then inflation proofs it thereafter. Proponents say that wages haven’t kept up with inflation, and opponents say that forcing higher wages on employers will only raise prices at stores and restaurants.

Ballot Measure 4 requires approval from the Legislature of “large-scale metallic sulfide mines” in the Bristol Bay Watershed. Most everyone understands it to be aimed at the proposed Pebble Mine, the fight over which has simmered in the background — and sometimes the foreground — of Alaska politics for years.

Local races

The only sitting Mat-Su legislator who doesn’t have to run this year is Sen. Charlie Huggins. The rest are:

• Senate District E: incumbent and longtime educator Mike Dunleavy faces a challenge from independent candidate Warren Keogh.

• Senate District F: Republican Bill Stoltze is seeking a promotion from his longtime seat in the state House of Representatives but will first have to fend off former educator Pat Chesbro.

• House Seat 7: Incumbent Republican, small business owner, landlord and hay farmer Lynn Gattis faces a challenge from independent candidate Verne Rupright, an attorney who was mayor of Wasilla until last month.

• House Seat 8: Incumbent Republican Mark Neuman faces a challenge from Democrat Pam Rahn.

• House Seat 9: Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver is the Republican candidate, facing off against Alaska Constitution Party candidate and Delta Junction resident Pam Goode and Democrat Mabel Wimmer, a lodge owner in Mendeltna.

• House Seat 10: Incumbent Republican Wes Keller is seeking re-election but has to fend off Democrat Neal Lacy — a former Mat-Su Borough School Board member — and Roger Purcell, a former mayor of Houston.

• House Seat 11: Incumbent Republican Shelley Hughes is facing off against Democratic challenger and educator Pete LaFrance.

• House Seat 12: Cathy Tilton, a small business owner, is the Republican in this incumbent-less race. She’s facing Democrat Gretchen Wehmhoff, a former educator.

Judges

Usually the least controversial part of the ballot, this year’s judicial retention elections in Mat-Su have generated a lot of heat judging by letters and columns on the Frontiersman’s Opinion pages.

There are 10 judges that will appear on Valley ballots. One is a Supreme Court justice, Craig Stowers; two are Anchorage Superior Court judges; four are Anchorage District Court judges; and one is a Kenai District Court judge.

The remaining two are Palmer District Court Judges John Wolfe and Bill Estelle.

The Alaska Judicial Council makes recommendations in these elections and has favored the return of nine of the 10 judges to the bench. Estelle is the lone judge the council singled out to recommend a “no” vote on retention.

The council sites pay affidavits Estelle signed that were not accurate as its reasons for recommending against his retention. Estelle’s supporters say the matter was an honest mistake and Estelle shouldn’t be singled out and fired over it.

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