Turnout might be light for the fall municipal election in the City of Kenai, which has three seats up for election on the Oct. 1 ballot.
As with four seats in Juneau’s City and Borough Assembly elections, Kenai’s slate is filled with incumbents who are unopposed:
Jim Glendening, a retired oilfield operator, is seeking his second term on the City Council.
Glenese Pettey, a financial adviser, is also seeking a second term on the City Council
Mayor Brian Gabriel, a road foreman for the Alaska Department of Transportation, is also the only candidate running for his current position.
The Oct. 1 ballot will also have two propositions:
Prop. A would change the city charter to eliminate a requirement that candidates running for mayor or city council submit a nomination petition that has 20 signatures of registered voters. The city charter was approved by voters in 1963.
Prop. B would amend the city charter to change the time prescribed for the beginning of a council member’s term from the second regular Council meeting after their election, which is the meeting in which the election is certified, to the Monday following certification of the election.
[Read: Juneau Assembly election is four-for-four seats]
Voters have until Sept. 1 to register with the Division of Elections for the Oct. 1 municipal election. Absentee ballots will be available Sept. 16.
In the Oct. 2, 2018 Kenai municipal elections, the turnout was 27 percent. That election had a three-way contested city council seat and a school bond. With no bonds on the ballot and no contested seats, the turnout in Kenai may be “meh” for this cycle.
[Click here for the City of Kenai Election page at the City Clerk’s Office]
The late General George Patton is reputed to have said: “If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.” Similarly, a noted German – as it turns out, a communist – icon, Rosa Luxemburg, said “Freedom is always the freedom to think differently.” (The latter quote inspired the collapse of East Germany in 1989.). My view is that uncontested elections are a complex signal that something in our system is not working as it should. I invite other views.
Ed, “triple dipper”…what do you mean? I’m new in town so though we’ll be voting (even if everybody is unopposed) I don’t know any of these candidates. Makes me nervous though watching the Gary Knopp situation who also ran unopposed.
Dave, in this case you won’t be voting because the governor chooses the replacement for the late Sen. Birch. There will be a re-election during 2020. -sd
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