Race for House district heats up

WASILLA - The race to represent what, for now at least, is a new state House of Representatives district in the Legislature is heating up with a third candidate entering the contest.

Born and raised in Fairbanks with stints on archeological digs, his family's gold mine, a Bering Sea fuel barge, and training astronauts for space missions (yes, really) Blake Merrifield works in road construction as a member of Operating Engineers Local 302. He's running as a Democrat.

"Alaskans tend to vote more for the individual and not the party," he said. By not running as a Republican, "I can say what's really on my mind. Which I think improves my chances."

The race already includes a couple of familiar faces in Mat-Su Valley politics. Former Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman and Wasilla city councilman Mark Ewing is squaring off in the Republican primary with Lynn Gattis, a current member of the Mat-Su Borough School Board and former assistant secretary of the Alaska Republican Party.

Merrifield noted that with the state redrawing district lines after the 2010 U.S. Census, and with the plan tied up in court, it's unclear yet whether or not the two Republicans will have to face sitting Rep. Wes Keller.

However it shakes out, he said he likes his chances. Three things spurred him to run, Merrifield said.

The first is the Knik Arm Bridge and the borough's attempts to build a deepwater port.

"We put a lot of money into developing Port MacKenzie and they're pushing for this bridge, but there's no guarantee of industry even coming in," Merrifield said. "Everybody keeps throwing this word ‘boondoggle' around, but the state does have a history of it."

He said he worries that the bridge might drain state transportation coffers.

"It kind of sounds silly coming from a construction guy saying we should slow down some of these projects," he said, adding that "if the bridge doesn't pay for itself, the state's going to have to subsidize it."

That money, he said, will likely come from the transportation budget and could equal the amount Anchorage gets for road projects.

"As a construction worker, that concerns me because if you have construction money going to pay interest on a bridge that nobody uses, that doesn't help anybody," Merrifield said.

The second issue Merrifield said he wants to take on is homelessness.

"The homeless problem with the kids around here and veterans - that has just really bothered the heck out of me, especially when you see Burchell High School (and) half of the kids are classified as homeless," he said. "The kids still make it to school. Talk about perseverance."

And speaking of education, that's the third big issue Merrifield said sent him into politics.

"Graduation rates are dropping," he said, and "We need to get that student to teacher ratio down."

While most people tend to assume the Valley is bright, fire-engine red in its support for Republican politicians, Merrifield said that really, when you look at voter registrations, Mat-Su isn't all that different from the rest of the state.

Most people are registered as independents. And, again, he thinks his neighbors tend to vote for a person rather than a party affiliation.

"I'm really looking forward to debating," he said.

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