By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
Two newcomers to local politics unseated the incumbents for the Girdwood Board of Supervisors' seats on the ballot in the Municipal Election held Tuesday, April 6.
Incumbent Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston easily defeated her 19-year-old challenger Keli Booher to retain the South Anchorage Assembly seat that represents Girdwood, Indian and Bird. Five of the 11 Assembly seats were on the ballot.
Girdwood resident, Tommy O'Malley, lost his bid for one of two open school board seats, coming in second to Don Smith.
As of this writing the results were still unofficial. The final vote count is scheduled for April 16, but should not affect the local races. The municipal clerk's office Division of Elections has to certify the results of the election before each of the new GBOS board members can take their seats.
GBOS member Russ Stahla was appointed to Seat B for one year, which leaves two years on the three-year term to be served by the winner, 23-year-old David Chadwick. Chadwick garnered 47 percent of the votes, defeating Stahla 151-88. Ryan Schlueter came in third with 77 votes.
Challenger Karen Zaccaro won a decisive victory over incumbent Bryan Epley for GBOS Seat C, receiving 57 percent of the votes and defeating second place finisher Tim Cabana 201-82. Epley came in third with 67 votes. Cabana was a recent GBOS member and former board chair.
Chadwick and Zaccaro will likely join the board at the May 17 meeting.
Johnston captured nearly 64 percent of the votes to win re-election and a second term for Assembly Seat J. She received 4,875 votes to Booher's 2,665.
Smith defeated O'Malley for School Board Seat A, receiving 40 percent of the votes, winning with 11,942 votes to O'Malley's 7,891. James Labelle came in a close third with 7,085 votes, and David Nees had 2,285 votes.
Jeannie Mackie won School Board Seat B with 15,764 votes. Bob Griffin came in second place with 11,133 votes. Ted Wilson finished third with 2,185 votes.
The big upset in the election was challenger Ernie Hall, who defeated one-term incumbent Matt Claman for Assembly Seat D, receiving nearly twice the votes 4,012 to 2,558.
Former Assembly member Dick Traini and Andy Clary are in a tight race for Assembly Seat F with Traini leading by 248 votes.
Incumbent Debbie Ossiander soundly defeated all candidates for Assembly Seat A receiving 3,126 votes. Second place finisher Josh Roberts had 823 votes.
Paul Honeman won a close race for Assembly Seat H, defeating Adam Trombley by a vote count of 3,177 to 2,704. Thomas Purcell came in a distant third with 240 votes.
There were five propositions on the ballot, four of them bond propositions, and all but one passed. The propositions that passed included: proposition 1-Storm drainage bonds, proposition 2-area-wide public safety capital improvement bonds, and proposition 3 fire protection bonds. Proposition 5 for a municipal exchange Sisterhood Park also passed. Proposition 4 for area-wide public transportation capital improvement bonds did not pass.
Voter turnout for this year's election was low with 17.88 percent turning out. At last year's April 7 city election 29.92 percent voters participated.
