One intensely local issue -- the regulation of wood smoke -- and the participation of a so-called "outside group" are so far defining next month's race for Fairbanks North Star Borough mayor.
There are four candidates in the nonpartisan Oct. 6 election, but the two who are best known offer voters a "fairly stark choice," said John Davies, a former Fairbanks state legislator who now sits on the borough Assembly.
One is Tammie Wilson, a conservative Republican legislator serving her third term in the Alaska House who says the borough needs to "roll back" its size and scope. The other is Karl Kassel, the borough Assembly's presiding officer, a former centrist Democratic legislator who says he's focused on "quality of life and keeping the services that our community enjoys intact."
The winner will succeed Luke Hopkins, who's barred by term limits from seeking a third three-year term.
The most eye-catching issue in the mayoral race is the candidates' approach to Fairbanks' air quality problem.
The borough has routinely violated federal standards and is notorious for its smoke-clogged air during the winter. Last winter, the Assembly passed an ordinance banning wood burning when weather conditions keep smoke trapped near the ground unless residents lack another source of heat.
Kassel voted for that ordinance after presiding over six hours of debate wearing a striped referee's shirt to help him "make tough calls."
He said in an interview Friday that the ordinance wasn't perfect but "came close to where we need to be," adding that Fairbanks has a "serious air quality issue in our community that we really need to resolve."
"If we don't do it, the state and the EPA are going to start getting involved in a much heavier level, and I think we'll see even more regulation coming from them," Kassel said, referring to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and federal Environmental Protection Agency. "We don't want to escalate to have the state or federal government tell us what to do."
Wilson, meanwhile, is sponsoring a citizens initiative that would bar nearly all borough regulations or enforcement related to wood- or pellet-burning stoves as long as they're certified by the EPA.
Wilson's response when she sees excessive smoke, she said, is a simple door knock and a conversation.
"Why do we think that if I slap you with a $100 fine, that's going to make things any better?" she said in a phone interview. She said the borough can't stop a meteorological phenomenon that traps smoke, known as an inversion, any more "than Hawaii can stop the volcanoes."
"We live in Fairbanks, and it gets cold here," Wilson said.
Wilson and Kassel also split on fiscal issues. Kassel voted for this year's borough budget that increased property taxes by 3.8 percent, in part to add $5.5 million back to the local school district's budget to reduce the impact of education cuts made by the state Legislature.
Kassel said he wanted to make that $5.5 million payment with surplus money in the borough's accounts rather than by raising taxes. "But I got outvoted," he said, and had to vote to pass the budget "because we have to pass a budget by law."
"I don't think our community can absorb tax increases right now, and I'm doing my best to keep the mill rate flat," Kassel said.
Wilson, meanwhile, who voted for the state budget that cut education funds, said she didn't support the tax increase. She said the "school district is going to have to look at harder decisions about where their money needs to go."
She said the school district's decision to put some of the extra money from the borough into a savings account amounted to a "slap in the face for those people who live here."
Kassel's vote on the budget has made him a target for the Alaska branch of Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative group that was co-founded by the billionaire Koch brothers. While in many parts of the country the Koch brothers are distant New York and Kansas figures; in Fairbanks they're practically neighbors -- they own the now-closed Flint Hills refinery in North Pole.
The group is running ads in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, has done door-to-door campaigning and has a radio commercial featuring a couple discussing its tight budget.
"Our economy is getting worse, and Karl Kassel votes to increase our property taxes?" a man asks incredulously. "I'm calling his office now."
A News-Miner report said the campaign was the first from a national group to target a local candidate there, though Jeremy Price, the group's state director, pointed out in a phone interview that public employee unions have also engaged in municipal races.
Price declined to say how much his group was spending on its campaign against Kassel but added in a follow-up email that Americans for Prosperity had raised a "considerable amount of money" from in-state donors, "and we're using these resources to hold elected officials like Assemblyman Kassel accountable for expanding government and raising taxes."
Kassel, meanwhile, said Americans for Prosperity's involvement had redounded to his own benefit.
"Every time they come out with an ad, my cash register rings and I get another couple of volunteers," he said. "I've got to thank Americans for Prosperity. They've been leading a very strong campaign against me with a fair amount of misinformation and it has really motivated my base."
If that's the case, the ad campaign should help counteract one of Kassel's problems. He's not the most charismatic politician, said Davies, the Assembly member and one of Kassel's allies.
"He doesn't have a big soapbox he's jumping on and yelling and stuff. He just wants to maintain a good, solid, quality borough government," Davies said. "And that's not sexy, frankly. It's just good stuff."
Davies added that "the excitement is the fear of Tammie. I think there's a lot of people alarmed at the possibility of her being mayor."
The conservative side, meanwhile, typically does a poor job driving its own people to the polls on Election Day, said Lance Roberts, a conservative borough Assembly member and Wilson ally.
But Wilson has one asset this year that should help drive turnout: the citizens initiative on wood burning, he added.
"The wood stove issue, that's bringing out people that nothing else would have," Roberts said in a phone interview.
The race, however, is still close, Roberts said.
"I wouldn't bet money right now either way," he said.