First-time candidates hold lead in borough assembly races

MAT-SU — Success of rookie candidates was a theme in the Mat-Su Borough Assembly elections, where just under 14 percent of registered voters made it to the polls. More than 2,000 absentee and questioned ballots still must be counted before the election can be finalized, and slim margins may disappear in the coming week as the final votes are tallied.

Jesse Sumner and Tam Boeve sit atop the races for Mat-Su Borough Assembly Districts 6 and 7. In District 6, Sumner has 947 total votes, holding the advantage over the incumbent, Dr. Barb Doty, who has 699 votes.

“It’s about like I thought it was going to be, to be honest, and also the way I’d hoped. We worked real hard and had a lot of supporters. My wife and I worked hard,” Sumner said.

Sumner said he had a good response from voters while he waved signs on Election Day.

Boeve has 861 votes in a three-way race for District 7, and leads Dan Dees (558) by more than 300 votes. Walter Kloepfer (243) is in third. Boeve declined to comment on the election.

In the District 3 Assembly race, George McKee ran unopposed for the assembly District 3 seat and 88 write-in votes were cast.

Mat-Su Borough School District School Board

District 1

Thomas Bergey upset incumbent Debby Retherford in the closest race of the evening. Bergey received 959 votes to just 853 for Retherford and 24 write-in votes. Bergey waved signs all around the Valley for the last two days.

“It’s going to be a big learning curve right out of the gate here. Pretty soon I’ll be going to my first Title 1 meeting as a parent, but also I’ll be listening as a prospective board member as well,” Bergey said.

Bergey noted that although he is an avid reader, he likely won’t be reading anything other than school board materials for the foreseeable future.

“I’m just thinking of the dynamic of the six other board members that I need to meet that I don’t know yet. For what I think I know about the district, I know there’s tons I don’t. I’ll be gearing myself up for what questions do I need to ask, what do I start reading, memorizing board policy as if that were my Bible for the next three years,” Bergey said.

Sarah Welton, whom Bergey will now share a school board with after her win in District 4, was disappointed to see the only minority member of the school board, her friend Retherford, be voted out. Welton would like to see more diversity among elected officials.

“She brings the diversity of having somebody with Athabascan background,” Welton said.

Bergey was part of the group that gathered at Everett’s.

“Proposition B-3 was big on everybody’s mind, and with the 400 vote plus lead going into absentee ballots, that was a really good sign. They were happy for the individual candidates, Jesse Sumner and myself, but B-3 was the big clincher for the room,” Bergey said.

District 4

Welton retained her seat on the school board in District 4 with a win over challenger Brittany Harvey. Harvey held a small lead as results started to pour in, but Welton won 578 to 462 with 19 write in votes cast.

Welton said that the districts she did not win were the ones she did not spend the majority of her time in. She made sure to maintain a presence with buttons, signs, mailers, and at all-important football games.

Mat-Su Borough propositions

Welton also believed that Prop 3 would pass based on the rising crime rate.

“We have much higher crime rates than we used to have, and safety and security is out there as a need,” Welton said.

Proposition 1 passed with 6,396 yes votes cast to 4,393 no votes to allow the Borough to examine the possibility of police powers.

“It just kind of gives us the green light to start asking a whole lot more questions...Anything we do is going to come with a price tag,” Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said.

The borough would not be able to carry out the creation of a police force without another ballot measure for the voters establishing police powers.

“We’re going to find out how we can make an effect and what it’s going to cost and are our citizens willing to do that?” Moosey said.

A total of 6,090 votes were cast in favor of Proposition 2, and the road bonds. There were 4,574 no votes.

“We have infrastructure needs. We’re going to have to try to work to bring these projects forward,” said Moosey.

Moosey mentioned that similar bonds passed in 2011 and 2014, but funding dried up on the state side. The borough is planning on getting 50 percent of the bond from outside sources.

The closest race among the three was Proposition 3, the vote to change the day of the municipal election. There were 5,590 yes votes, and 5,157 no votes.

“I do believe that school board will be lost in that and the other borough races will, financially,” Welton said. “I have the feeling that they’ll get lost in the advertising, and sound bytes will go to people who have more money to spend. That’s my concern, plus the cost to the borough.”

Mat-Su Borough Mayor

Mat-Su Borough Mayor Vern Halter scored the biggest win of the night, receiving almost twice as many votes as Bruce Walden. Halter received 6,374 votes to 3,987 cast for Walden and 132 write-in votes were cast.

“There’s some issues to work through and certainly some advantages to get people out to vote. I think it’s very important because right now you have 15 people deciding for 100 folks what the deal is,” Moosey said.

Only 13.85 percent of the nearly 80,000 registered Valley voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s municipal election.