Mayor Pierce wins in landslide on Kenai Borough, and Fairbanks conservatives rock the vote on Assembly

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FAIRBANKS PUTS CONSERVATIVES ON ASSEMBLY, SCHOOL BOARD

All three conservatives running for Fairbanks Borough Assembly seats won on Tuesday.

Aaron Lojewski won by 1,900 votes, as Tammie Wilson won by 1,100 votes, and Jimi Cash won by 1,000 votes. Lojewski and Cash are incumbents.

Absentees are not yet counted but are unlikely to change the outcome for these races.

Also, two conservatives won for the School Board in Fairbanks — April Smith won by 700 vote sand Maggie Matheson won by 1,300 votes.

Overall, conservatives in Fairbanks appear to be winning 7 of 8 elected seats.

KENAI LANDSLIDE FOR PIERCE

Kenai Borough residents returned Charlie Pierce to the Mayor’s Office for his third and final term. He won over Linda Farnsworth Hutchings by at least 21 points. At nearly 60 percent, it’s a landslide.

Also Richard Derkevorkian defeated incumbent Democrat Hal Smalley, who has held the seat on the Assembly on and off for decades.

Newcomer Teea Winger offed Democrat Tim Navarre, the incumbent, for City Council. Incumbent Henry Knackstedt also won for city council.

WASILLA

It looks like Doug Holler is leading for mayor of Wasilla, but there are a lot of votes yet to be counted. Glenda Ledford is trailing in second and Stuart Graham is third.

11 COMMENTS

  1. I forget how many terms ago this was. Election day and the day of a school board meeting fell on the same day. Sean Rice didn’t show up for the meeting, yet he was reelected unopposed. There were other meetings I attended during that timeframe where he was also absent. On the Assembly side, Shaun Tacke’s tenure was distinguished by a frequent need to recuse himself from votes due to his ties to the cannabis industry. Eventually, those sort of things catch up to you.
    .
    There’s an issue I’ve previously discussed with some of the Assembly members elected this term. The Census Bureau established a firm deadline of September 30 for counting. This means the census report is likely to appear soon, which then leads to an obligation on the Assembly’s part to address the matter of its apportionment. Is there any chance that we can get an Assembly member to start a community dialogue on the other three apportionment options available to the FNSB under AS 29.20.070? Since the 1980s, the Assembly has only offered voters a yes/no question on keeping the existing apportionment scheme (all seats at-large) intact. While such a vote is perfectly legal, it’s highly disingenuous to keep suppressing knowledge of AS 29.20.070 and its applicability to the FNSB, plus treating the vote as though it’s nothing more than a routine housekeeping measure which doesn’t need to be opposed. One small corner of the borough, comprising less than a fifth of the borough’s population, has often been the home of five or even six of the nine Assembly members. It stretches credibility to say that the Assembly represents the entire borough under such circumstances.

  2. Go Mayor Pierce. You are a decent and honorable man, along with your wife and family. You reflect the values of the majority, and glad they came out to support you.

  3. Fairbanks had a fantastic night. Candidates with realistic goals and common sense caught a waves of voters. Next up, the state races. Incumbents beware! The voters are on a roll.

  4. 2020 Elections are going to be interesting to watch. If anything, the panicdemic lockdowns have demonstrated which elected officials are looking out for the best interests of their citizens, and which officials are just petty tyrants. Generally, each of those perspectives reside on different sides of the political aisle.

    One can only hope that freedom will win in the overwhelming majority of the cases.

  5. Vote out the Dems! They have had multiple opportunities to properly serve the public which they fail to do. Hope this momentum continues.

    • Hmmm, some years ago on a local radio show, the topic of trading mayors was tossed around. The plan, if memory serves, was to trade Berkowitz for Stubbs the cat (the honorary mayor of Talkeetna). This was soundly rejected by the Talkeetna folks. Anchorage most likely would have done much better under a Mayor Stubbs administration…..

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