Mayor's race crowded with five candidates

July 28, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman

PALMER - The upcoming election for Mat-Su Borough mayor offers voters a variety to choose from, with five hopefuls registered with the borough clerk by Friday's deadline.

Chuck Fannon, Curt Menard, Jody Simpson, David Straub and Bruce Walden all hope to fill the seat vacated by Tim Anderson, who has served his maximum two terms as mayor. Notably absent from the list is assembly member Jim Colver, who announced in March his plans to seek the position. He now is running for school board Seat A instead.

Facing so many opponents in the October election, the candidates face a tough road.

&#8220It's going to take a lot of hard work,” Simpson said. &#8220I'm hoping to win in the general election and avoid a run-off. But it's going to be difficult to get the 40 percent of the vote needed to win with five candidates.”

Tough elections are nothing new for Fannon. He lost to Anderson by five votes in the 2003 election.

Close races and multiple candidates also are not new for the borough mayoral race. Six of the last 10 mayor elections featured four or more candidates, and on two occasions, run-off elections were necessary to declare a winner.

The five candidates each wished they had things as easy as Ron Larson in 1979, who ran unopposed for his second term as mayor.

Simpson and Fannon are both veterans of borough elections. Simpson served on the assembly for six years and Fannon ran in the last mayor's race. The others are newcomers to borough government, but not all are strangers to the election process.

Menard represented Wasilla in the state Senate from 1986-94, and before that he served on the Mat-Su Borough school board for two years.

&#8220I hope to bring unity back to the Mat-Su Borough with increased planning for a strong economic future,” Menard said. &#8220Something needs to be done to relieve the burden on the homeowners and property taxpayers. We can't afford to just be a bedroom community any longer, we need strong economic development.”

While borough voters will be electing a new mayor, the old one is not simply walking away from service. Anderson wants to continue serving the community and has filed paperwork to run for the assembly District 3 seat being vacated by Talis Colberg, who also has reached his term limit.

&#8220I feel I've accomplished a lot as mayor, but I was really limited in what I could do,” Anderson said. &#8220As an assembly member, I'd be able to make a motion and be able to finish up what I've been doing for the last six years as mayor.”

Michelle Church, a newcomer to the election scene, is primed to challenge Anderson for the District 3 seat in October.

&#8220I'm running because I think the Mat-Su Borough can do a better job planning for the future,” Church said. &#8220I was surprised to see Anderson entered the race, but I decided back in November to run for office and am not going to let his entry change my mind.”

Wasilla's Ronald Arvin also is in the race for the open assembly seat.

School board member Rob Wells is looking to make the transition onto the assembly as he filed for the assembly District 6 seat. Wasilla resident Nola Bragg also submitted paperwork for that position. Both officially entered the race Thursday, prior to that, there were no candidates for the seat, which represents the Hatcher Pass, Wasilla Fishhook, Schrock, and Memory Lake areas.

Talkeetna resident Tom Kluberton is running unopposed for the District 7 assembly seat after incumbent Betty Vehrs withdrew from the race late Friday. District 7 encompasses the area from Meadow Lakes to the borough's west border, to the northern border of the borough up to the Denali Highway, including the Trapper Creek, Talkeetna, Willow and Sheep Mountain areas.

Colver will face a full field of challengers for school board seat A. First-time candidates Christian Hartley of Willow, and James Milne and Donald Zoerb of Palmer are also seeking the seat, which was held by Wells.

School board president Sarah Welton will be challenged by Barbra &#8220Tamie” Miller for school board Seat B.

Two Palmer City Council incumbents, Larry Hill and Ken Erbey, have filed their nominating petitions with the Palmer clerk's office, joining Richard Best, who filed just inside the 5 p.m. deadline, and Butch Fondahn, who turned in his paperwork last week. The four seek to fill one of two council seats.

By midday Friday, no one had filed for the two open Wasilla City Council seats, currently held by Diana Straub and Howard O'Niel, although six people picked up candidate packets.

&#8220I still can't believe it,” Wasilla deputy clerk Jamie Newman said at 4 p.m. &#8220Hopefully, they'll come in. They're running out of time, but I'm expecting to have four or five come in just before the deadline.”

Having a lack of candidates for the election would be nothing new for the City of Wasilla. There were no official candidates for a vacant council seat during the 2002 election, when Rob Sande conducted a successful write-in campaign to win the election.

However, Wasilla Planning Commision member Greg Koskela submitted his paperwork just before the deadline for Wasilla council Seat A, and Doug Holler filed for Seat B.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@frontiersman.com.