Incumbents take a beating

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly and school board will see four new faces this year.

The borough released unofficial election results late Tuesday, and a final tally won’t be in until the borough manages to count all of its absentee and questioned ballots. The borough says there are up to 2,088 votes still outstanding, which could, in theory at least, swing some of the tighter ballot questions.

For now, Warren Keogh of Chickaloon has apparently won the assembly seat representing the borough north and east of Palmer, including the communities of Sutton and Chickaloon.

“I’m glad the campaign is over and look forward to doing the work of the assembly,” Keogh said.

Keogh took in 857 votes, besting his next closest competitor, George Rauscher, who took in 682 votes. The race as technically a three-way contest, though there were four names on the ballot. James Tapley of Sutton took in 149 votes and Bruce Walden won 121, despite dropping out at the 11th hour.

Keogh said he ran an old-fashioned shoe-leather campaign, knocking on doors and shaking hands, and that people seemed to appreciate he was running as a genuine non-partisan. He’s ready to get to work.

“I’ll be retiring next month from the fish and wildlife service so I can give full attention to assembly work.”

The race for the Palmer seat was also a three-way contest with four names on the ballot. \Challenger Noel Woods easily defeated incumbent Pete Houston, raking in 819 votes to Houston’s 457 votes. Tom Braund, who dropped out, also at the 11th hour, took in 158 votes. Local farmer and frequent borough assembly meeting attendee John Leiner took in 133 votes. Woods is a self-described conservative, father of four and 65-year Alaska resident. He said he felt his conservative message resonated with voters.

Borough school board incumbents also took a beating. The only one to prevail was Susan Pougher, who had no opponent.

Challenger Neal Lacy defeated incumbent Colleen Vague 4,832 to 3,827. Lacy ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility, saying he felt the district spends too much money on sports facilities and had overpaid for its new superintendent.

“I think it’s still too close to call, but what do I know? I’m just a mechanic,” he said of the election.

But even though he was unsure, he said he was very pleased. “I’m ecstatic, actually.”

Also on the school board, Lynn Gattis appears to have taken down incumbent Myrl Thompson, pulling in 4,981 votes to Thompson’s 4,328.

Gattis said that she felt people appreciated that she planned to run the district like a business and that she was not a union member.

“I think that mattered,” she said. “They wanted to make sure I thought independently.”

As for propositions, borough voters are apparently fine with the strong-manager form of government. They chose 5,322 to 4,711 not to repeal it. The mayor will continue to be a mostly diplomatic position.

Supporters and detractors of the strong mayor form of government disagree as to which form is more expensive. Essentially, those who advocated repeal wanted an elected mayor to run the day-to-day borough operations instead of an appointed manager.

Borough voters also want their officials to continue to file financial disclosure forms with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, voting 7,732 to 2,635 to continue requiring those disclosures.

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