Trio in the running for borough assembly seat 7

Mat-Su Borough Assembly District 7 is the largest district area-wise in the borough and also features the largest field of candidates. Tam Boeve from Willow, Dan Dees from Willow and Walter Kloepfer from Talkeetna are all running to fill the seat vacated by Randall Kowalke.

Walter Kloepfer worked in the United States Coast Guard and taught all over the state of Alaska. He currently lives in Talkeetna and considers himself to be the candidate least affiliated to any party or platform. Serving as a paralegal in the military, he served both sides of one court marshal case, able to present each argument without giving away what the other was working on, even though he knew. He has been involved in politics for some time, as the first 18-year-old to run for office in the state of Florida in 1971. He also served as city manager of Emmonak, and on the Emmonak city council.

“I’m trying to get the job so I can represent the people by so listening to them and doing what they need and want rather than doing what I think they want. I’m not a party puppet. I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m a “U” which is undeclared and I call it unbiased,” Kloepfer said.

Kloepfer had a variety of jobs in the Coast Guard, serving in Hawaii and traveling to Pacific Islands to negotiate housing contracts.

“When you look at what I did in the military I was kind of a trouble shooter which meant I had to look at ways to fix things without spending money,” Kloepfer said.

Kloepfer taught special education in Emmonak, Seward, Homer, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.

“I may have been administrative but I know accounting too. Having been a city manager I’ve worked every function in the city pretty much, which gives me a good background for being on the assembly because I know what a city is supposed to do. The borough is nothing more than a bigger city,” Kloepfer said.

When asked what separates him from the other candidates, Kloepfer noted geographical differences.

“I’m the one that doesn’t live in Willow.”

Tamara Boeve

Boeve moved to Alaska with her family over 20 years ago. She saw photos in National Geographic and traveled the Al-Can with two children and five dogs to live in a travel trailer and then a mobile home in Willow, perfecting the Alaskan lifestyle before building their first family home that burned in the Sockeye Wildfire. Boeve has dealt with hardship to an extreme level. Boeve was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer four years ago and suffered the loss of her husband, but stays involved in the community.

“What we’ve really done well in Willow and what I’m impressed with in the other communities is the community involvement so just getting more people informed and involved that’s a challenge,” Boeve said.

Boeve was involved in negotiations between the fire board and chief, and is now the fire board chair. She also negotiated with the borough following the Sockeye Fire home appraisal of the property that had burned.

“People who are really working with the borough have quite a bit of respect for them and they’re not perfect,” Boeve said.

Boeve has two daughters who are emergency responders, and says she has a lot of respect for the fire crews that spent six weeks on her property.

“I like talking to people one-on-one. It’s interesting to me because when I started this I really had the impression that district 7 is so huge we have such widespread communities and they all have such unique needs. I found out that’s really not true we really kind of all have the same issues,” Boeve said.

Boeve notes the difference in her and the other candidates is the amount of time she has lived in the Valley continuously and the amount of meetings and involvement she has sustained over 20 years.

“The goal is fiscally responsible vs. this fiscally conservative knee jerk reaction of we need to cut more services,” Boeve said.

“I’ve been involved for 21 years.”

Dan Dees

Dees also spent time working in emergency services and in the military. Dees particularly takes issue with the gun range ordinance passed by the borough.

“The fact that it has a sunset clause in it and why didn’t you talk to the stakeholders, the actual range owners? That particular range is a private club on private land but they would be affected under this and then I found even more interesting than that, the one I found that was hugely curious. Okay, you take a vote on this ordinance and two weeks later after it passes you send kind of an advisory notice out to the community councils,” Dees said.

Dees notes that he is the most conservative candidate running for District 7. He believes that more services need to be offered for rural Valley communities.

“We don’t need any more politicians in Palmer we need folks that are going to get down, roll their sleeves up and get dirty. We need not be the guaranteed fourth vote for the Mayor and his agenda,” Dees said. “I would work extremely hard on also getting back to the people. The assembly belongs with the people. They don’t get any interaction sitting in Palmer all the time.”

Dees has earned multiple degrees, including extensive military training in firearms. Dees decided to make Alaska home a little over five years ago and is retired from emergency services. He sees a greater need for trooper involvement in the north Valley.

“We’ve got to remember where does government generate its power from? It comes from the people,” Dees said. “We don’t need to have an all or predominantly liberal spin on things. We’ve already got that at a lot of the community councils. We need to have kind of a balanced view of life.”