15 mayoral candidates running for city’s top position
Voters to choose school board seats and decide on 11
ballot propositions in the April 7 municipal election
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Ken Smith/Turnagain Times
Ten mayoral candidates attended the Girdwood Rotary “Candidate’s Night” Wednesday, March 25. The forum was held in the Girdwood Community Room before a full house of around 50 audience members. The candidates answered questions from the audience for about three hours. The Municipal election is April 7 with 15 mayoral candidates on the ballot. |
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By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
When voters head to the polls April 7 for the Anchorage municipal election, they will have a full slate of 15 candidates running for mayor. It’s the largest number of mayoral candidates to run in a municipal election, surpassing 14 candidates in 1994.
Like this year’s election, there was no incumbent in ’94—that was the year Mayor Tom Finks administration ended. Mayor Rick Mystrom went on to win the election defeating Mark Begich in a runoff, receiving 58 percent of the votes to 42 percent for Begich.
Because of the large number of mayoral candidates, the likelihood of one candidate receiving 45 percent of the votes, the percentage necessary to win the election, is slim. If there is no winner, then the top two candidates will be decided in a runoff election May 5.
In addition to the large number of candidates for mayor, there’s a long list of school board candidates. Twenty-three candidates are running for four school board seats. Two seats, B and E, are hotly contested.
Chris Tuck, who was elected to the legislature, vacated seat B. Thirteen candidates are competing for that seat.
Seat E is open after Macon Roberts chose not to run. Seven candidates are vying for that seat.
Jeff Friedman holds seat F and Dawn Bundick is challenging him.
Crystal Kennedy, who has no challenger, holds seat G.
There is also an extensive list of 38 service area candidates on the ballot, however, none of the seats are being contested.
Locally, the Girdwood Valley Service Area candidates are Erin Eker (Seat A) and Nick Danger (Seat B).
Voters must also decide 11 ballot propositions.
Proposition 1 for schools addition, renewal and design bonds, is of special interest to Girdwood voters. The proposition asks voters if Anchorage should borrow up to $69,890,00 through the issuance of general obligation bonds to pay for addition and renewal of Service High School, extension of water and sewer line at Eagle River High School and design plans for Girdwood K-8 School within Anchorage.
The proposition includes $680,000 design money for the Girdwood K-8 School. The Service High School and Girdwood K-8 School projects currently qualify for 60 percent state debt reimbursement, and a project for Eagle River qualifies for 70 percent reimbursement.
Proposition 2 is another important bond for educational capital improvement projects. It asks voters to decide if the city should borrow more than $27 million through the general obligation bonds to pay for educational capital improvements for districtwide major building systems renewals, replacements, renovations and acquisitions within Anchorage.
The proposition states, in part, “The projects, except for the districtwide site acquisition, currently qualify for 70 percent State debt reimbursement. If the State chooses to make full reimbursement, the annual increase in taxes would be $3.36 to retire the proposed bonds.”
Proposition 9 is drawing a lot of attention. It is a citizen-initiated proposition to limit the increase of property taxes.
The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Girdwood voters can cast their votes at the Girdwood Community Center, and in Indian and Bird, residents can vote at the Indian Valley Bible Chalet.