Tight races may yield new faces

PALMER — Voters seemed in the mood for a change in leadership, if not a change in tax structure, based on unofficial vote tallies in areas outside of Wasilla after Tuesday’s election.

Incumbents seem to have lost in Mat-Su Borough Assembly and school board races, but won in the cities. Palmer kept its mayor and one of two incumbent council members. Houston kept its incumbents.

Taxes will also remain the same with Houston voting to keep a tax that was set to expire and borough voters handily rejecting a proposed new tax on alcohol.

First, the borough. With all the votes cast at polling places counted, the Mat-Su Borough appeared poised to add two new faces — Jim Sykes and Matthew Beck — to the assembly, but both races were too close for anyone to declare victory. The borough issued 1,895 absentee, special needs and questioned ballots, which will be counted at the end of the week.

Beck led incumbent Noel Woods 735 to 712. Less close in the other race, but still a nail-biter, Sykes leads with 996 votes to Doug Glenn’s 951.

Elsewhere on the ballot, Susan Pougher, who was running unopposed, won re-election to the school board handily, but the two other incumbents running this year, Neal Lacy and David Cheezem, didn’t fair so well. Donna Dearman of Talkeetna had a slim lead over Lacy with 2,435 votes to his 2,300. The result could shift when the outstanding ballots are counted. The other race could also shift, though it seems much less likely. Cheezem was trailing challenger Ray Michaelson 4,457 to 3,723.

Probably the most heat in this election season came from the effort to levy a 5 percent tax on alcohol. Voters rejected that effort handily, casting 6,231 ballots in opposition and 3,548 in favor.

Mat-Su voters did, however, like the idea of building roads to current and future borough schools. A package of $16.2 million in bonds is passing with 5,600 “yes” votes to 3,987 “no” votes.

The city of Palmer, meanwhile, was friendlier to its incumbents. Mayor DeLena Johnson has thus far deflected a challenge from Linda Combs with 344 votes to Combs’ 289.

Palmer voters also appear to want to keep at least one incumbent council member. In a pool of four people seeking two council seats, the top vote-getters were Edna DeVries and Steve Carrington, who took 294 and 266 votes respectively. The next highest vote-getter was incumbent Kathi Vanover with 199 votes.

These Palmer races have a potential to change. The city says it issued 113 early, absentee and questioned ballots.

In the city of Houston, meanwhile, incumbent Jim Johansen seems to have fended off a challenge from Ron Gaffney, hauling in 96 votes to Gaffney’s 60.

His win will likely stand since the city reported just 20 outstanding absentee, early or questioned ballots. The two other council members up for re-election — Paul Stout and Kathy Barney — ran unopposed and won decisively. Also decisive, apparently, was a win for the city’s fire department, which stands to benefit from the vote to repeal the expiration date on a 2 percent tax on fireworks. The voters chose 110 to 79 to keep the tax in place.

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