Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- In Mat-Su, twelve candidates are running for six legislative seats representing the Valley including five House seats and one Senate seat. In all the House seat races, challengers are hoping to oust incumbents. The Senate seat, meanwhile, features two newcomers -- Republican Linda Menard and Democrat Erick Cordero -- facing off to replace outgoing Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, who chose not to run for reelection.

The races have mostly featured moderate budgets, but there have been notable exceptions. In the race for House Seat 13, Democrat David Cheezem has raised $25,400, more than double the amount raised by incumbent Republican Carl Gatto.

In the Senate race, Menard, wife of Mat-Su Mayor and former legislator Curt Menard, is raking in contributions.

Her war chest holds $76,378 to Cordero's $15,791.

Most of the candidates attended forums recently where they had a chance to share their views.

Here's a sampling of where the candidates stand on some of the issues raised at the forums.

SENATE SEAT G

Linda Menard, Republican, responding to a question about whether state ethics laws should be changed: "I have a solution. I'd file a bill so (Legislators) could only run eight years ... I feel that everyone starts out with tons of integrity, but it's just like a little Pac-Man game ... it starts to erode."

Erick Cordero, Democrat, responding to the same question: "Term limits might be a solution ... I don't think that everyone falls into the category of being corruptible. What I would do is make sure when I am elected to Juneau, that my door is always open, and you will know who I am meeting with."

HOUSE DISTRICT 12

John Harris, Republican incumbent, discussing the state economy: "The problem we have today is this: The volume of oil coming down the trans-Alaska pipeline has declined rapidly. (Harris explained that around 600,000 barrels of oil a day is shipped now, versus the 1.5 million barrels per day when oil was $9 per barrel.)

"We have to be careful about how we balance the budget. We have done the best we can to put money away. If there is a major downturn in oil, which I think there will be, we have to be very careful."

Nancy Lethcoe, Democrat challenger, also discussing the economy: "I bet there's no one here who can predict where we're going to be with the economy next year. As we look to the future in Juneau, we have to think of two scenarios: one where the cost of energy is high and crude oil is high. We have to invest in renewable energy."

HOUSE DISTRICT 13

At one forum, Cheezem criticized Gatto's stance on education.

Here's how the pair responded to a question about how to slow dropout rates among Alaska schoolchildren.

Gatto, Republican incumbent: "This is such an important question because when kids drop out, they often end up in the judicial system ... We need to attach ourselves to these kids early on."

Gatto described a situation where students receive job-related training at school and are recruited for career-level jobs as they leave high school.

Cheezem, Democratic challenger: "Everything you said was good, it was great. The only thing is, you didn't start early enough. There's proof that Head Start programs keep (students) in school. You voted to slash Head Start funding. I think that's really important."

HOUSE DISTRICT 14

Wes Keller, Republican incumbent, in response to a question about his position on Pebble Mine: "The constitution says the resources of the state ought to be utilized and developed for the maximum benefit of the people. I think that mines like Pebble could be very good for the state of Alaska ... I would say I support Pebble Mine, but with the qualification that it's environmentally responsible development."

Rose Smith, Democrat challenger, responded to the same question by saying what she knows of Pebble is limited but "it doesn't sound like it's a good thing." She summarized her statements by saying she hopes to focus on education issues: "We need to have more funding for education, and the funds need to be distributed more thoughtfully, so the funds go to the children and not to activities."

HOUSE DISTRICT 15

Mark Neuman, Republican incumbent took the opportunity to tout a plan he's pushing to process side products of natural gas at Port MacKenzie if a gas line is built shipping North Slope gas to Southcentral Alaska.

"We could pull the propane off the gas line to send it to villages. For us to not be taking these natural gas liquids out of our product ... it's worth up to six times more than just methane. If we were to build a processing plant at Point MacKenzie to do this, what an opportunity!"

Lew Dischner, Democrat challenger was not present at local forums and did not return phone calls seeking a response.

HOUSE DISTRICT 16

Bill Stoltze, Republican incumbent, said he'd like to significantly revise the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which focuses on testing and standards to rate schools and distribute funding: "When you don't provide funding that allows the mandate to succeed, it doesn't. And funding doesn't always work ... It had some good points. Don't throw away the accountability."

Beverly Serrano, Democrat challenger, said the act needed to be dismissed: "No Child Left Behind should be left behind. It's been detrimental to our system. To penalize as a way to get schools on track is, I think, cannibalistic. It's eating up our system. No Child Left Behind has been an absolute failure."

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

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