Alaska News

Race for borough mayor position is a low-keyed affair

WASILLA -- For the first time in years, a mayor's race is not sparking a flurry of last-minute campaign ads and political fundraising.

Incumbent-but-barely Talis Colberg filed exempt, as did his opponent, John Leiner. Exemption means neither expects to raise more than $5,000.

Colberg said a few supporters sent him money but he canceled the three fundraisers he had planned. That's a far cry from 2006, when more than $70,000 was poured into the race for Mat-Su mayor.

Colberg, who served as state attorney general for two years under former Gov. Sarah Palin, has held the seat since July. He won a seven-way special election for the seat after former Mat-Su Mayor Curt Menard died of cancer in March. But that election was only good until October when Menard's three-year term as mayor would have ended anyway.

Leiner, a US Air Force veteran who farms south of Palmer, ran against Colberg in the earlier election and garnered 52 votes to Colberg's 3,095. His race comes on the heels of the completion of his self-published book, "The Great Eruption of Alaskan Corruption."

His writing is prompted in part by his frustration with the gravel companies whose land abuts his. Leiner's well and property were damaged when gravel mining below the water table pierced a lens separating an aquifer. The gravel company, Wilder Construction/Central Paving Products, did not admit fault for the flooding but did install a new irrigation well and septic system for Leiner.

A recent Mat-Su Borough report, completed in part at Leiner's continued prompting, stated the mining company is out of compliance with its mining permit. Leiner said because of the battle, he became concerned about how state and local government is run.

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"I saw politicians stand up and say the pledge of allegiance, then sit down and do the opposite. I think if you stand up and say those things, you should mean it," he said.

In part due to Leiner's concerns, the borough is drafting new rules regulating gravel mining focusing on mining in the water table, reclamation requirements and up-front bonds that would help pay for damages.

But the rules aren't why Leiner is running. Although Colberg is favored to win, Leiner said he hopes people will read his statement, issued in the Mat-Su Borough election pamphlet mailed out to voters, and judge him the better candidate.

"While Mr. Colberg was down in Juneau ... serving the governor and not the state of Alaska, which was his primary responsibility, I was up here, buying the annual budget from the borough ... and going to meetings and speaking about it," he said. "I'm more concerned about what's going on."

Colberg, on the other hand, wants to continue the job he started.

His three months in office have gone relatively smoothly, although he sparred with Assembly members over the sales tax measure on Tuesday's ballot.

He disagrees with the tax and vetoed an attempt to place it on the ballot. The Assembly overturned his veto.

Colberg said he believes the sales tax measure is regressive and, although it may help budgets by lowering property taxes in the near term, the savings will disappear as property assessments rise.

Despite the veto, Colberg said he believes he and the Assembly are working well together. The 2010 budget, if he wins the seat, will surely be another test. Colberg in his earlier campaign vowed to ratchet down costs and slow budget growth.

Although nearby Anchorage is fraught with a new budget battle each week, Colberg said he believes Mat-Su is in a better fiscal spot.

"We hopefully don't have a similar problem. It seems we're moving along at the same pace we have been," he said. "The big unknown is what the School District portion of the budget will be next year."

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her at 352-6709.

By RINDI WHITE

rwhite@adn.com

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