Former candidate dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound

PALMER – A farmer and Mat-Su Borough political hopeful died Saturday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

John Leiner was found shortly before 10:45 a.m. at his home on Grandview Road just off the Glenn Highway. He was 58.

Leiner farmed broccoli and cauliflower and earned the nickname “Johnny Moose” due to his many run-ins with the ungulates, according to Frontiersman archives.

He came into the public eye as he fought a years-long crusade to get someone to address problems with a gravel pit across the Parks Highway from his farm. Leiner and his neighbors pointed to rising water levels on Canoe Lake and flooding of their land as evidence Wilder Construction had punctured an aquifer while mining for gravel.

A borough report in 2009 seemed to vindicate Leiner, noting that the water was not only flooding nearby land, but may have even been undermining the highway.

Leiner became something of a fixture at borough assembly meetings, which he attended regularly and where he spoke whenever given an opportunity, almost always about the flooding and the gravel pit. News archives show he was also a vocal opponent of plans to possibly locate a power plant and then a prison near his neighborhood.

Leiner also began making forays into politics. He ran multiple campaigns trying to win the assembly seat representing Palmer. He also made at least two runs for borough mayor, most recently when he entered a crowded field of eight candidates and finished fifth earlier this month with 74 votes.