Election season is underway in earnest on the Kenai Peninsula now, with the candidate names finalized for the regular municipal election in October and the state primary less than a week away.
Candidate registrations closed for local government seats in Kenai, Soldotna, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on Wednesday afternoon. Only four races will be contested, with many seats only receiving one candidate registration. The local government seats will be decided in the election Oct. 2.
Kenai Peninsula Borough
The Kenai Peninsula Borough has three open seats of its nine-seat assembly this year as well as a number of service area board positions. On the assembly, two incumbents — Brent Hibbert of Soldotna and Kenn Carpenter of Seward — both filed for reelection as the sole candidates. A third incumbent, Willy Dunne of Homer, filed for reelection and will face Troy Jones of Homer in the Oct. 2 election for the seat representing District 9, a large district including areas from Anchor Point to Port Graham.
Some of the open service area board seats did not receive any applicants — which has been a chronic problem for the service area boards — and most of those that did have only a single candidate. A single seat, Seat F on the Nikiski Fire Service Area Board, has two candidates — Todd Paxton and Peter Ribbens.
The winning candidates on both the assembly and service area boards will each serve three-year terms. More information on the assembly candidates is available on the borough’s website.
Board of Education
Three seats on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education will be up for grabs in the upcoming election. One incumbent, Mike Illg of Homer, will go into the election unchallenged. Voters in the Kenai area will choose between incumbent Tim Navarre and challenger Matthew Morse to represent District 2 on the board.
Seward, Sterling and Funny River voters will have a choice of four candidates for their area’s seat on the board: Nissa Fowler, Greg Madden, Karyn Griffin or incumbent Marty Anderson. More information was not available on the candidate on the borough’s website on Wednesday night.
The winning candidates will each serve a three-year term on the board.
Kenai
Three candidates will compete for Kenai’s two open council seats. Council members in Kenai are elected at large, with the two top candidates claiming the open seats. Voters will choose from among incumbent Bob Molloy and newcomers Teea Winger and Robert Peterkin II.
The two winning candidates will serve three-year terms on the council. More information on each candidate is available on Kenai’s website.
Soldotna
Soldotna’s city council, with three open seats, will neatly fill each of them with one candidate without a contest. Two incumbents, Paul Whitney and Justin Ruffridge, each filed to retain his seat. A third, Jordan Chilson, filed for the third seat with no other candidates.
Whitney and Chilson filed for seats A and C respectively, both three-year terms. Ruffridge, who was appointed this year to fill a seat vacated by former council member Keith Baxter, filed for Seat F, a two-year term.
More information on each candidate is available on Soldotna’s website.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at eearl@peninsulaclarion.com.
