Thank you for your service, Rep. Carl Gatto

We were saddened Tuesday to learn about the passing of longtime Palmer Rep. Carl Gatto.

We admit we had disagreements with Gatto in the past, one of which involved a hang-up call on election night followed by a months-long period of stony silence.

But if Gatto was mad, he had trouble staying that way. The year wasn’t up before the silence had ended and he was back to his old habit of dropping by the Frontiersman when he had something on his mind. Sometimes he’d just stop by to hang out and visit. We’d beat him up in an editorial on Tuesday, and Wednesday he’d stop by smiling, ready to talk cordially about our differences.

He was always genial and well spoken. He seemed to enjoy explaining the minutiae of legislation and the legislative process. Remembrances from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle seem to bear out our impression that Gatto wasn’t the type to take a political fight personally.

But he also wasn’t one to shy away from a fight.

We remember a time in 2007 when he fought the Legislature’s attempts tooth-and-nail to change a voter-approved initiative adding regulations to cruise ships in the state.

If he pulled punches talking about other members of the House — even those in his own party — he didn’t let on when talking to us. And he paid for that dearly. He wound up with much less desirable office space and lost some committee seats.

Regardless of the results, we admire that Gatto fought hard for what he believed was right, what he believed was best for his constituents. He worked on numerous pieces of legislation designed to help ordinary residents. The legislation bringing down the cost of purchasing a car by restricting what he believed were greatly inflated “document fees” springs to mind.

He also was among the first to work on legislation to ban texting while driving. He said he just wanted to make driving safer for his constituents. And the bill to ban texting while driving passed the House Tuesday one hour before colleagues there received the news of Gatto’s death.

A tireless advocate for senior citizens, Gatto often talked of his dream of making Palmer the community where Alaskans chose to retire. He was instrumental in getting a new and larger senior center built in Palmer. Though he objected and worried about rules on these kinds of things, the center named a van after him.

Above all, Gatto was a family man whose children grew up and went to school here. We offer them our condolences and our gratitude. Thank you for sharing him with us. We know long nights away from home are hard, and months every year spent in Juneau were no picnic either. We know Gatto thought the world of you. We know because he bragged about you often and wore his pride on his sleeve.

On balance, Gatto left the Valley a better place. We hope people can say the same about us as individuals when our time on Earth is spent.