Fuss over ad obscures larger issue

It's Election Day, a day for the community to choose its next borough mayor and the composition of its borough assembly, school board and assorted city councils. In a perfect world, this would be done in an atmosphere of civility and community-mindedness. Instead, last-minute tactics have marred the process and raised questions that should not be left unanswered.

On Friday, Charlie Fannon released a campaign ad on an Anchorage radio station that included a 3-year-old sound bite from gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin, which he tried to pass off as an endorsement from her. By itself, nothing about the ad seems amiss. But controversy has swirled around it because Palin has publicly endorsed candidate Curt Menard.

When he was called on it by Palin, Fannon refused to pull or change the ad. He and his supporters, who are quick to paint the former Wasilla police chief as an upright and honest guy, continue to say they believed Palin, a longtime family friend of the Menards, was endorsing him for borough mayor, as she did in 2003.

Through all the volleys, counter-volleys and he-said, she-saids of the controversy, one point, shockingly, remained unmade - despite Palin's support for him in the 2003 borough race, Fannon supported Palin's opponent, John Binkley, in the gubernatorial primary in August. State campaign disclosure records list a May contribution of $100 from Fannon to Binkley, the candidate who unleashed one of the dirtier campaigns in recent memory - with Palin as the target.

Still, Fannon and his supporters would have voters believe that Palin indicated she would endorse him in this year's election.

While voters today try to make some sense of all the eleventh-hour campaign fussing, they would do well to ponder a larger question that has gone unasked as the fallout from the dubious ad campaign settles: Why is a candidate for borough mayor, who should be promoting the Valley and all the opportunity here, buying an ad on an Anchorage radio station when a perfectly good radio station exists right here in the borough?

The $8,000 Fannon handed over for the Anchorage ad is now lost to the local economy, where the business community is fond of saying it could turn over seven times in a cycle of local paychecks and additional local expenditures on goods and services. Fannon could have parlayed his ad expenditure into a $56,000 shot in the arm to the local economy. Instead, it goes down the Glenn Highway, out of reach and out of use.

Candidates for office and those already elected never tire of talking about growth and the economic well-being of the community. Voters would do well to take notice, today and in the future, of who's willing to put their money where their mouth is.