House Seat 11: Greater Palmer

Hughes - LaFrance

Shelley Hughes

The incumbent Republican, Hughes took over the seat after the passing of Carl Gatto. She is a former stay-at-home mom, and also a former legislative aid and government affairs director for a private sector group.

Hughes favors offering myriad educational options to parents and students and said education is important for giving young people a bright future. She also favors infrastructure projects.

Like a lot of candidates, she predicted tight fiscal times ahead and said she believes the legislature should endeavor to provide a soft landing into scaled back government.

Pete LaFrance

A teacher at Mirror Lake Middle School who is running as a Democrat, LaFrance grew up in Palmer and traveled the world before returning here to settle down.

He said that he abhors partisan politics and supports inflation-proofing education funding. He believes there is plenty of government waste that can be cut and he favors big projects if they pencil out and will be worth the cost.