Incumbent has challenger for District 7 House seat

WASILLA — The state House of Representatives seat that now serves District 7 used to represent mainly Wasilla, but now stretches all the way to Talkeetna.

In that redistricting, Republican Wes Keller, who has not faced an opponent for re-election since he was appointed to replace the disgraced former Rep. Vic Kohring, has finally drawn a challenger in former Houston mayor Roger Purcell.

Here are quick profiles of both:

Wes Keller

Prior to his appointment to the House, Keller worked as a legislative aide starting in 1999. Before that he was in construction, building custom homes with his two sons. He’s a pilot, and he once ran an adult training service out of Anchorage.

Asked why he wants another term, Keller said he has work left he wants to complete.

“For one thing, unfinished business. There are a number of things that I really want to follow through on,” he said.

The biggest is probably the budget review process.

“I think we’re getting legislators and the departments are kind of coming together with a common understanding and goal of reviewing the budget with the idea in mind of what we’re buying instead of why it needs to be an increase,” he said.

Translated, that means instead of just increasing a department’s budget year after year, the Legislature is starting to get a handle on what those increases will mean.

There are also a few bills he’d like to continue working on — classifying some of the larger pickups as noncommercial so small businesses can use them without running into too much paperwork, allowing for public money to be used at private schools and a law defining what “medically necessary” means.

That last piece of legislation, he said, is a big one.

“One of the biggest concerns that we have right now is the huge, high cost of health care,” Keller said. “The concern is that what we have going is just simply not sustainable. We’re really in trouble unless we do something to reform the process.”

He said he was sorry to have drawn an opponent this go-round, but views it as evidence that the process works.

“Hopefully, he’ll be open to debate whatever issues he has differences on so the people can have a choice,” Keller said.

Roger Purcell

Purcell was mayor of Houston until he resigned in June 2010 on the eve of a recall election targeting him.

His tenure as mayor was tumultuous to say the least, but Purcell doesn’t shy away from his record. Rather, he said he is proud of his time as mayor.

“Sometimes we forget to look at the good when you just want to point the finger at the bad,” Purcell said.

In a short period of time, he said he paved roads, built a fire station, personally drove a rescue truck to Alaska from Washington, D.C., to save the city money, lobbied to get the rail spur to run through Houston — which it will when built — and fixed roads that were washed out in a flood.

“The council and all of us worked together doing it, but we got it done,” he said. “I made mistakes, but take a look at what we actually got done.”

Purcell grew up in Houston, but has worked all over the state.

Purcell is currently a small business owner, working in real estate and finance, and publishing a magazine — the Alaska Home Guide.

He said if he went to Juneau, he’d like to reduce operating budgets, but not necessarily the capital budgets. Which is to say, departments are spending too much money to operate but, in Purcell’s view, the state — and especially the Valley — has dire infrastructure needs and needs to spend money on things like roads and bridges.

He said voters should pick him if they want a fighter, someone who’s not afraid of a good political tussle — especially if they think the state’s Department of Transportation is the opponent.

“I’ve never been one to run from a good fight with DOT,” Purcell said.

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