Local Elections

The election for municipal offices in Mat-Su is Tuesday.

Seats are up for grabs in Houston, Palmer and Wasilla, and on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly and School Board.

A lot of them are uncontested, though. No one drew a challenger on the school board incumbents are bound to skate through in on all of the other bodies as well.

Mat-Su Borough Assembly

Two seats are up in the borough. Steve Colligan is running unopposed to represent greater Wasilla. Bill Kendig and Dan Mayfield are squaring off to vie for the seat that Darcie Salmon vacated representing Knik and Big Lake.

Steve Colligan

Colligan is running unopposed for re-election to the assembly. He is businessman, owner of a technology firm that does a lot of work in digital mapping.

He was intimately involved with the redistricting efforts after the 2010 census that are just now wrapping up after numerous court challenges. He is also a long-time participant in Republican party politics, at times serving as vice chairman of the party.

Bill Kendig

Kendig works in real estate and has lived in the Valley for 27 years. He serves on the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission.

He says on his campaign website that he is running for office because he is concerned about the Valley’s transportation infrastructure and wants safe roads. He is also interested in public education.

He wants the borough to be fiscally responsible and business-friendly.

Dan Mayfield

According to his campaign website, Mayfield graduated from West High School in Anchorage in 1973 and recently retired after 34 yeas in business, 33 of those in the property and casualty industry. He led a response team for the Miller’s Reach fire in 1996, and also for various hurricanes in the Lower 48. He is founder and current president of Big Lake Trails, Inc., vice president of the Big Lake Community Council, and has worked extensively on the big Lake Comprehensive Plan.

Mayfield also describes himself as fiscally conservative. He says he supports strengthening local communities and sound business development, as well as improving local infrastructure.

City of Palmer

There are two open seats in Palmer, both carrying three-year terms. Council candidates in Palmer run in a group with seats going to the two top vote-getters. This year three have signed up: incumbents Brad Hanson and Linda Combs, as well as challenger Elden Tritch.

Linda Combs

Combs has been on the council since 2011. She’s married to a former mayor of the city and is active in Palmer-Saroma Kai sister city organization and her church. She’s an unabashed Palmer booster.

Combs has been an opponent of the city’s current mayor, running against DeLena Johnson for that office in 2013. When the city council had to decide whether to ban smoking in Palmer businesses she opposed the move. Voters later implemented a ban at the ballot box.

Brad Hanson

Hanson is a longtime Palmer councilman, property owner and high school football and youth hockey coach. He was first elected to the council in 2002.

In his time on the council, Hanson has guided everything from the MTA Events Center expansion to the downtown revitalization and state plans to rebuild roads through downtown. Like Combs, he also opposed the smoking ban when it came to the council.

Elden Tritch

Tritch is a retired Army veteran and federal civil servant. He’s lived 37 years in Alaska and three in Palmer. He was a campground host at the Mat River RV Park for three years. This is his third time running for council and said if he loses again he’s done.

He said he wants to run to give voters a choice other than the two incumbents. After a dramatic dog chase at his home, he said he would like to see the city either return responsibility for animal control to the borough or better train its police officers to deal with animals. He said he also wants to see traffic snarls on Evergreen Avenue addressed.

City of Houston

There are two seats up for election in Houston. One of them belongs to the currenty mayor, Virgie Thompson, but mayors in Houston are selected from among the council after each election so if Thompson loses that doesn’t mean her opponent, Ron Gaffney, would be mayor. Gina Jorgensen is running unopposed.

Ron Gaffney

Gaffney is a carpenter who takes care of foreclosed houses and does other properly maintenance work. He said he has no political background at all and thinks that’s actually a good qualification for the job.

He said he doesn’t agree with the way the city is run. He said he thinks the city council is able to get away with a lot because nobody is paying attention. He believes there is too much cronyism at the city and that the city doesn’t spend money wisely. This would be Gaffney’s third run for council. He lost by 13 votes the first time and seven the last time.

Virgie Thompson

Thompson works as a resource assistant at Houston Middle School and has lived in Houston more than 20 years. She has been on the council since 2008.

Recall attempts on Houston mayors are actually relatively common; four of the last six mayors have had attempts made on their offices. Thompson survived hers handily.

In her time as mayor she has worked to obtain various new pieces of equipment for the city’s fire department. She also put together a parking lot for access to area trails in the Zero Lake Road area that has proved popular.

Gina Jorgensen

Jorgensen came to office during the Houston council’s less serene period. She has worked in the insurance industry and was a close observer of Houston politics before she successfully ran for office in 2011.

Jorgensen tends to favor smart development, saying in previous elections that she doesn’t want to see Houston turn into Wasilla.

Mat-Su Borough School District School Board

The two incumbents up for re-election, Tiffany Scott and Ole Larson, both failed to draw challengers.

Ole Larson

Larson is retired from a 29-year career with the Department of Corrections. When he left he was superintendent of the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. He currently sits on the Alaska Parole Board and is a resident of Wasilla.

Larson has said that he believes education is tied in with his professional career in that he believes a good education is the best way to keep a kid out of jail. He has been an outspoken advocate of transparency and of sticking to the public process.

Tiffany Scott

Scott is the youngest member of the school board, a graduate of Colony High School, an employee of Nana Development Corporation and a mother of young children.

She came to the board to replace the previously youngest member, Erick Cordero. Scott said at the time of her appointment in the fall of 2013 that she wanted to ensure that Mat-Su schools continued to perform well and to work with “like-minded individuals” in doing so.

City of Wasilla

The mayor’s race has Bert Cottle, currently the city’s deputy administrator, facing off against Loren Means, a member of the city’s planning commission. City councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard is poised to skate through unopposed, but three people are running for the other open council seat: Stu Graham, Tim Burney and Allison Sacco.Bert Cottle

Cottle was born and raised in Wasilla, a member of a longtime Mat-Su family that even has a road named after it. Cottle served as police chief and mayor in Valdez. He returned to Wasilla three years ago to take on the deputy administrator position.

He is in favor of forward-funding capital projects — which is government-speak for saving money to build new roads and buildings rather than borrowing money to do it — and of improving the city’s parks and recreation opportunities as well as its transportation corridors.

Loren Means

Means is a general contractor and a Nevada transplant who has lived in Mat-Su since the 1990s. He came to the planning commission, oddly enough, at the behest of Cottle who told him about an opening on the body after Means went to city hall to complain about a stop sign backing up traffic in downtown.

The starkest difference between Means and Cottle is on the subject of All-Terrain Vehicles in city limits. Cottle has argued in favor of banning their use and Means is adamantly opposed. He said he thinks the city needs to work on its priorities, focusing on enforcing laws on the books rather than enacting new ones. He said he also wants to see a tighter city budget.

Tim Burney

Burney is a Navy veteran with 20 years in the construction trades. He’s an Anchorage commuter and a father making his first run for public office.

At a Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce forum, he said he wants to bring people together and plans to do a lot of his work on the council face-to-face rather than over e-mail.

Stu Graham

Graham is an Air Force veteran who moved to Alaska in 1987, rising to the rank of Inspector General of Elmendorf Air Force Base. He is active on numerous Mat-Su boards and commissions and works for the Matanuska Telephone Association.

He said he wants to see the city move forward but remain financially stable. He says he intends to put to use the listening skills and investigative chops he acquired during his time as inspector general.

Allison Sacco

Sacco is a bartender downtown who is running her campaign on a $100 budget in order to prove that to achieve one’s dreams one doesn’t have to spend a lot of money.

She said that she likes what she sees in the city’s downtown plans and hopes to help the council implement its ideas for a more walk-able city. As a person who is downtown a lot, she sees public safety as a big issue in this election.

Colleen Sullivan-Leonard

Sullivan-Leonard is a businesswoman and a member of a storied Alaskan family — her brother is Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan. She has lived in Wasilla since 1996. She has been on the council since 2010.

She said she believes in promoting economic development, being accessible to the people of Wasilla and in small, limited government over unnecessary taxation.