Politics

Did election tip balance of power on Anchorage Assembly?

Six Anchorage Assembly seats, two school board seats and nine bond propositions awaited Anchorage voters at polls in Tuesday's municipal election. With the fate of the Anchorage Assembly and the possible identity of the next mayor depending on the results, by the end of Tuesday night, about 92 percent of the votes had been counted, with an estimated 5,000 absentee and questioned ballots still to be counted. If the results hold, however, the Assembly will likely take a short left turn and shift the current 6-5 conservative advantage to liberals.

The turnout for the 2014 election was in line with the average turnout of non-mayoral municipal elections, at just about 20 percent.

Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones said the absentee ballots have been under review for the last couple of days, and like the questioned ballots, they will be counted after Tuesday's polling is done. The result could come over the next couple of days.

East Anchorage

In the most hotly-contested race, the election for East Anchorage Assembly seat I remains undecided, but challenger Pete Petersen is likely to go to bed tonight leading with about 42 percent of the votes in his district, about 350 votes more than his next-closest challenger, incumbent Adam Trombley. Former NFL player and community activist Mao Tosi, despite an election complaint and almost no money spent on the race, garnered about 20 percent of the votes in the race but remains a distant third on election night. The three-way contest in East Anchorage saw the infusion of thousands of dollars in campaign commercials, with pro-union and conservative business interests contributing most of the funding.

The race has been seen as a bellwether for the future direction of the nonpartisan Assembly, which before the election remained bitterly divided, 6-5, with conservatives holding the slight majority. The race has also been seen through the lens of the controversial labor law change, proposed by Mayor Dan Sullivan and passed by the Assembly in March 2013. That ordinance, AO-37, set tighter controls on bargaining with the city's municipal unions, and has been suspended pending the outcome of a citizen's referendum, set for November.

"I think we just outworked (Trombley)," Petersen said as the outcome became clearer Tuesday night.

Petersen said he believes that fewer than a thousand of the 5,000 outstanding absentee and questioned ballots were cast in his race and is confident that the results will hold.

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The East Anchorage race brought at least some people to the polls.

"I voted for Petersen because I was not pleased with Trombley's support for AO-37," said Anchorage teacher Amanda Zogas. Zogas said she votes in every election because as a teacher, she couldn't encourage kids to get involved if she didn't get involved.

Trombley supporter Bill Johnson said he voted for the incumbent. "Trombley is basically a Republican," Johnson said as he left East High School after casting his ballot. Johnson said he doesn't vote in every city election but believes the tight race in East Anchorage encouraged more people to show up at the polls.

South Anchorage and beyond

The South Anchorage race, pitting Pete Nolan, Bruce Dougherty, and Bill Evans, was also too close to declare a winner Tuesday night, with Evans and Dougherty separated by only a few hundred votes. Evans is considered to be more conservative, with Dougherty resonating with both liberals and conservatives. By late Tuesday night, Evans had a narrow lead of about 3 percent.

The remainder of the incumbents, Patrick Flynn, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Bill Starr and Tim Steele, appeared to be on their way to victory, so control of the Assembly will be decided by the East and South Anchorage races. The Assembly will reorganize at a special meeting April 15, assuming the results of the election are certified, where it could elect a new chairperson, who would likely take the mayor's job in December, should current Mayor Dan Sullivan win the race to be Alaska's next lieutenant governor.

Two Anchorage School Board positions -- areawide positions -- were also contested Tuesday. In the race for seat D, Kameron Perez-Verdia, the incumbent, appears to be on his way to an easy victory over challenger and former school board member Don Smith. In the other school board race, incumbent Pat Higgins is comfortably in front of challengers, with about 52 percent of the vote. Liz Ross has 18 percent and Dean Williams has 28 percent.

Voters also passed bond measures and propositions to fund everything from new fire trucks, to parks, and school construction.

A complete list of results is available online.

Contact Sean Doogan at sean(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Sean Doogan

Sean Doogan is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

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