In 1974, Lee Jordan was elected the first-ever mayor of Chugiak-Eagle River.
He also turned out to be the last. The next year, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the effort by Chugiak-Eagle River residents to secede from Anchorage and form a separate government was unconstitutional.
"There have been a lot of mayors thrown out of office, but I'm the only one that's had his office thrown out from under him," Jordan, now 85, chuckled during a recent interview at his home in Birchwood.
Instead of taking office, Jordan returned to his post as the editor and publisher of the local weekly newspaper, the Chugiak-Eagle River Star, now the Alaska Star. And Chugiak-Eagle River -- a collection of suburban and rural residential communities northeast of downtown Anchorage and separated from it by a military reservation -- was absorbed into the newly formed Municipality of Anchorage, though the local residents hadn't voted on unification.
Since then, the area has produced state legislators, Anchorage Assembly members and School Board representatives, but never a serious contender for Anchorage mayor. That was until earlier this month, when Amy Demboski, a Chugiak resident and first-term Assembly member from the district, won a spot in the runoff race. On the campaign trail, Demboski has emphasized less taxation and keeping the size of government in check, stances that mirror the broader viewpoints of the community she's lived in since the age of 12.
Her rival, Ethan Berkowitz, is a San Francisco native and lives in West Anchorage. In an interview, local mystery writer and former Anchorage Daily News reporter Stan Jones referred to Berkowitz as a "downtown Democrat" whose business interests include part-ownership in the popular downtown eatery Snow City Cafe.
The two candidacies highlight some of the regional differences within the more than 1,950 square miles of the municipality — more than a third bigger than Rhode Island — as well as the sometimes uneasy relationship between the core municipality and the neighborhoods farther from the city center.
Tale of two cities?
Chugiak-Eagle River spans about 65 square miles between Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and upper Knik Arm, about halfway between downtown Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Since the establishment of the military reservation during World War II, the area has seen decades of rapid population growth, with new arrivals attracted by the availability of land, small-town ambiance and nearby wilderness access.
There are larger lots and well and septic systems, similar to the Anchorage Hillside and Girdwood. Certain parts of the community, such as Eklutna Valley, are more rural.
"People out here don't think of themselves living in a city at all," said Rick Sinnott, retired Anchorage-area state wildlife biologist and president of the Eklutna Valley Community Council. "People in Anchorage might think of themselves being in a city."
Between 1990 and 2010, the population of Chugiak-Eagle River grew 40 percent, from 25,324 people to 34,982. In 1980, the population was 12,858. The area now makes up 12 percent of Anchorage's overall population, compared to 7.4 percent in 1980.
The economy remains largely tied to locally serving retail and service industries, though larger chain stores have arrived in the last two decades, including Fred Meyer and Walmart. A new industrial park is on Artillery Road across the highway from downtown Eagle River; future land use decisions are tied to the Native corporation that controls many of the landholdings, Eklutna Inc.
About 85 percent of Chugiak-Eagle River's employed residents commute to Anchorage for work, according to Susan Gorski, executive director of the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce. The high commute rate, rooted in historical trends in homesteading and few job opportunities locally, reinforces the image of Eagle River as a bedroom community for the more densely populated city to the south.
"Most of the people here in this area work in Anchorage, or are in the military," said retired state Sen. Fred Dyson, a longtime representative of Chugiak-Eagle River who has advocated for more independence for the community. "And they feel very much a part of the greater Anchorage area."
Demographic data collected by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development show about a quarter of Chugiak-Eagle River residents are members of the military, and 36.8 percent hold bachelor's degrees, compared to 26 percent statewide. The median age in Chugiak-Eagle River was 34.2 in 2010, a couple years above the median statewide age of 32. Politically, residents tend to elect conservative candidates.
According to Chugiak-Eagle River's 1993 comprehensive plan, which included a historical overview section, "dissatisfaction with the borough government" fueled the secession attempt from the Greater Anchorage Area Borough. Newcomers who didn't know the community were too often the officials planning for new facilities, according to the planning document. In the debate for independence, self-determination and cost emerged as key issues.
As the editor and publisher of what was then the Chugiak-Eagle River Star, Jordan editorialized strongly against secession.
But he said he understood the basic sentiment and joined the movement when he was elected mayor.
"People preferred to do it themselves and we thought we could do it better," Jordan said.
Us versus them
In testimony to the Anchorage Assembly more than two years ago, Demboski bluntly articulated her community's sometimes strained relationship with the rest of Anchorage. The video has been circulated online in recent weeks by critics of her mayoral campaign.
In the video, Demboski, then the president of the Chugiak Community Council, was arguing for regional representation on the Anchorage School Board. She said her community should have a voice on the board, and she only saw School Board members at her community council meetings in an election year or when they were asking for bond money.
Though she said recently she sees herself now as a "consensus builder" among different parts of the city, she didn't sound that way in 2012.
"Chugiak-Eagle River does not want to be a part of Anchorage," Demboski told the Assembly during the testimony. "I hate to break it to you, but we don't. We like our independence. We like our values. We do things differently."
Objecting to the "at large" election of School Board members, Demboski said Chugiak-Eagle River should have its own seat. "We think we deserve a voice on a board that spends nearly $850 million a year. It's a basic, basic idea. It's not about politics, it's about accountability and representation."
Asked earlier in April about the video, Demboski said she was making a point about taxation, and it's not accurate to tie her comments to her feelings on the municipality as a whole.
When the question of whether the candidates believed Chugiak-Eagle River should become a separate and distinct municipality was raised in the "yes or no" section of a debate Wednesday, there was a murmur in the audience — most people seem to have known about the video. Demboski raised her paddle to say "no."
"Don't believe everything you see on YouTube," she told the audience.
When Debbie Ossiander, a two-term Assembly representative from Chugiak-Eagle River, was elected to the Anchorage School Board two decades ago, she was the first in a long time. It was a big deal, she said.
She said the enthusiasm for Demboski seems to be more rooted in ideology than geography, though she said she likes the idea of a Chugiak-Eagle River resident serving as mayor.
"I don't think it's true we don't want to be a part (of Anchorage)," Ossiander said. "But sometimes we do feel misunderstood."
Following unification of the city and borough of Anchorage in 1975, the newly written municipal charter called for the establishment of community councils to retain some local control. Another provision allowed most government services to be determined by service area. That allowed the residents of Chugiak-Eagle River to keep control over parks, roads and water and sewer, which Jordan said was a critical tradeoff.
The system allows for more community involvement in local government, said Bill Starr, the senior Chugiak-Eagle River representative on the Anchorage Assembly in his third term in office. In addition to the service areas, a volunteer fire department in Chugiak provides emergency services to the region north of Eagle River.
"There's a natural sense of ... we don't particularly need the Anchorage oversight because we have our own system and it works just fine, thank you," Starr said.
There's generally less oversight when it comes to construction. Because Chugiak-Eagle River falls outside of Anchorage's building safety service area, there's no requirement for private developers or residents applying for a land-use permit to have plans inspected or reviewed for compliance.
Diversity questions
Chugiak-Eagle River is less diverse racially and ethnically than Anchorage. According to 2010 census data, 84.5 percent of Eagle River and Chugiak residents were white, compared to 66 percent in Anchorage overall, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. In Chugiak, out of a population of 11,384, just 15 people identified as black or African-American in the 2010 census.
The education system shows similar trends. In Chugiak-Eagle River, 71 percent of students were white, compared to 33 percent in West Anchorage and 20 percent in East Anchorage, according to an Anchorage School District report for the 2014-15 school year.
Among area high schools, Chugiak High, where Demboski graduated in 1994, had the highest concentration of white students at 72 percent. Eagle River High School and South High School were tied at 68 percent.
About 5 percent of the Chugiak-Eagle River population is Alaska Native or American Indian, according to census data compiled by the labor department. The Native Village of Eklutna, the only Alaska Native village in the Anchorage Bowl, is in the area, at the mouth of the Eklutna River 25 miles northeast of downtown Anchorage.
One Anchorage minority leader, Kevin McGee of NAACP Anchorage, said Berkowitz has invoked diversity more often than Demboski on the campaign trail. McGee called the rest of Anchorage "110 percent more diverse" than Chugiak-Eagle River.
Berkowitz, who grew up in San Francisco, moved to South Addition on the edge of downtown more than two decades ago. He now lives in West Anchorage in a home overlooking Westchester Lagoon.
His neighbor, journalist and former downtown Anchorage Assembly member Charles Wohlforth, said there are multimillion-dollar homes in the neighborhood along with a mobile home court. He said the area's residential diversity is reflective of the city as a whole.
"We don't really have a lot of class distinctions," Wohlforth said. "Our neighborhoods are all mixed up."
In Chugiak, the community council president, Maria Rentz, described herself as a "liberal-minded" resident of the area. She said she's watched her neighborhood change and become more diverse over time.
"I have no doubt that each of the candidates will defend and preserve the rural character that we value in Chugiak," Rentz wrote in an email. "The question to consider is which candidate will safeguard and celebrate the diversity and spirit that reflects the whole of the Anchorage community?"
Different perspectives
Demboski said that as mayor, her focus would be on representing the entire community, not just one piece of it. She said her strengths include an understanding of challenges facing the more rural parts of the community, such as Girdwood and the Anchorage Hillside.
"The strength that we have as a community is making sure that different perspectives are represented," she said.
Berkowitz also said in a recent interview that he seeks to understand different perspectives throughout Anchorage. He said he's lived in two neighborhoods and has ownership interests in businesses in Midtown and downtown. He cited 10 years working with Anchorage legislators in the state House, and said he's worked on issues across the city, including in Chugiak-Eagle River.
"I think people in Eagle River appreciate being able to go downtown, and people downtown appreciate attributes you find in Eagle River, going up above the trails," Berkowitz said. "It's different, and complementary."
When he was younger and growing up in Anchorage, Wohlforth said, visiting downtown Eagle River felt more like visiting a rural community. Now, he said, it's suburbanized.
Other residential areas, meanwhile, remain more rural. In Birchwood, Jordan, the one-time mayor of the short-lived Chugiak-Eagle River borough, looked out his window at the trees and said it's hard to feel like he's living in a neighborhood in a big city.
As the population grows, Jordan said, he sees the character of the area slowly changing. Subtle signs of rural independence are beginning to fade, he said. New arrivals are more used to having things done for them, he said.
Former Mayor Rick Mystrom, who as an Anchorage Assembly member supported creating a second Assembly seat for Chugiak-Eagle River and shrinking the size of the downtown district, said the community's distinct identity is comparable to the distinct identities of the Spenard neighborhood or South Anchorage.
"There isn't a sense of competition between cities, because (Chugiak-Eagle River is) not a city," Mystrom said. "It's a community of Anchorage."
Correction: A previous version of this story reported that Debbie Ossiander was the first Chugiak-Eagle River resident to serve on the Anchorage School Board. The first was actually Darlene Chapman, in the 1970s. This story has also been corrected to reflect that Lee Jordan was elected mayor in 1974, not 1964.