Voters favor incumbents, bonds

MAT-SU – Voters were feeling generous and mostly OK with the people already representing them in Tuesday night’s election.

Each municipal body will have to certify the results before they can be deemed official, which usually takes a week or two. In the Mat-Su Borough races, as of 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, only Sutton hadn’t reported in but even if all 972 registered voters in the area went to the polls and voted the same way only the $214-million raft of school bonds could be swayed. Voter turnout borough-wide was 12.88 percent of registered voters as of 9:20 p.m.

Starting with the Mat-Su Borough: voters chose to approve both sets of bond propositions. That massive raft of bonds to implement a five-year plan for school improvements passed 4,090 to 3,547. The $32-million package of road bonds passed 4,517 to 3,059. The other ballot proposition, approving the new lines for borough assembly district redrawn to reflect changes in the 2010 census passed handily – 5,235 to 2,071.

There were no incumbents running for borough assembly. The closest borough race was the one between Steve Colligan and Pat Johnson to replace Mark Ewing representing Wasilla. Unofficial tallies had Colligan up 114, with 641 ballots to Johnson’s 527. Darcie Salmon didn’t have an opponent in his election to replace Cindy Bettine who'd reached her limit of two terms representing the Knik-Big Lake area. Unofficial tallies showed 108 voters chose to write in another candidate. Salmon took in 840 votes.

On the school board, another uncontested race saw incumbent Ole Larson take in 5,649 votes and 276 voters choosing to write someone else in. School Board Vice President Erick Cordero seemed to pretty easily take out challenger Lynette Warhus, winning 3,839 to 2,570.

Turning to the City of Wasilla, with all city precincts reporting, a four-way mayor’s race saw Mayor Verne Rupright smoking his competitors, with 453 votes. The next closest was city councilwoman Diane Woodruff with 284. Councilwoman Taffina Katkus took in 192 votes, former councilman Michael Carson raked in 27 votes.

Incumbents also faired well on the city council. Leone Harris defeated local businessman David Nyberg 438-394 while Colleen Sullivan-Leonard pulled in 502 votes, outpacing local volunteer and advocate Patrick Brown’s 344 votes.

In Palmer, where the two candidates to win the most votes each win one of two open seats, the two to prevail were volunteer, bookkeeper and wife of the city’s former mayor, Linda Combs, who won 230 votes and incumbent Brad Hanson, who took in 228 votes. Former councilman Mike Chmielewski will not be returning to the body, having won only 163 votes.

Palmer also had a ballot proposition. Voters chose 342 to 120 to sell bonds to build a water system and sewage treatment plant and repay those bonds with utility fees.

Last but not least, in the City of Houston three seats were up for grabs and, again, it appears incumbents were popular with voters.

Mayor Virgie Thompson didn’t draw an opponent and beat the write-in numbers 166 to 21. Houston Fire Department volunteer Alma Hartley beat out former councilwoman Rosemary Burnett 120 to 98. Incumbent Ruth Blanchard just barely held on with 89 votes to her closest competitor, insurance agent Gina Jorgensen’s 87. A third person in that race, septic pumper Kenny Champ, took in 32 votes.