Elsewhere around Interior, lack of challengers give incumbents a free ride on city councils, school boards
Smaller communities around the eastern Interior also held municipal elections this week, and unofficial results show incumbents on track to defeat challengers -- except in Nenana, where sitting school board and city council members failed to retain their seats.
Challenger Kari Irish is leading Nenana City Council member Sheryl Turner by nine votes, according to unofficial election results. And challenger Johanna Coghill handily defeated Nenana City School District board President Maryellen Robinson.
Coghill said Thursday that it’s hard to say how she drew all those votes, but she guesses it’s partly because of her experience in health care and her previous service on the school board a decade ago.
“I think that people know me and know my values, and what I support,” she said. “And I think that just coming back to the school board, people were happy to see that and looking forward to what I had to bring to the table.”
Coghill says her last name probably helped. Her husband, Jeffry, is the grandson of Jack Coghill, the longtime lawmaker who earned a seat at the table of the Alaska Constitutional Convention in 1956.
“He was an amazing person to know,” she said.
Nenana Mayor Josh Verhagen said in a text message that Coghill holds a comfortable lead over Robinson. But he says election results won’t be official until the town’s canvassing board counts absentee and questioned ballots and the City Council certifies the election on Tuesday.
A tight race for a City Council seat in Eagle will be decided the day before.
“Darrel Christensen received 14 votes, Theresa Dean received 12 votes,” says Dan Helmer, who serves mayor of the tiny town on the Yukon River near the Canadian border. He said Thursday that the winner of that seat also awaits certification during Monday’s Eagle City Council meeting.
“I do not know the official number of absentee ballots that haven’t been counted yet,” he said, “but there were several of those that we will be counting on Monday. And those will likely determine the outcome of the race.”
But tallying the ballots won’t change the outcome of Helmer’s successful race for re-election -- because he had no challenger.
“I was able to retain my seat, with 28 votes,” he said. “I ran unopposed.”
That’s what happened in most of the other races for elected office in communities around the eastern Interior. Delta Junction City Council members Pete Hallgren and Mike Prestegard and Delta Greely School District board members Rich Mauer and Chris McCarrick, all ran unopposed.
And likewise in the Alaska Gateway School District, where school board members Shawn Champagne and Meranda Moran didn’t face challengers and will now both will serve another three-year term.
Correction: This story has been revised to correct the day Nenana's municipal election votes will be canvassed — that will happen on Tuesday, not Monday. The Nenana City Council will then meet that evening to consider certifying the canvassed election results.
