Leighton Radner, who is running for Seward City Council, stands in the Seward Community Library & Museum on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 in Seward, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Leighton Radner, who is running for Seward City Council, stands in the Seward Community Library Museum on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 in Seward, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Leighton Radner, who is running for Seward City Council, stands in the Seward Community Library & Museum on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 in Seward, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion) Leighton Radner, who is running for Seward City Council, stands in the Seward Community Library Museum on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 in Seward, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Leighton Radner: ‘This has to be fixed’

Election 2021: Seward City Council

Leighton Radner is running for one of two vacancies on the Seward City Council. Radner is a night auditor who is active in the Libertarian Party. He has experience conducting candidate training at the Gold Rush 2021 Libertarian Event and at the 2021 Youth Americans for Liberty Revolution.

During an interview with the Clarion at the Seward Community Library and Museum on Aug. 27, Radner said he’s a part of the Libertarian Party’s Mises Caucus, which advocates Ron Paul-style libertarianism, including cutting government spending, letting private citizens take over the aspects that were cut and city fees for things like business licensing.

Those are the types of actions he’d like to see the Seward City Council take.

“I’d like to privatize the sectors of Seward that are doing things, not very well,” Radner said. “These are places like utilities departments, road maintenance, stuff like this. These are things that the city is supposed to be doing, that, in my opinion, can be done better by private citizens.”

Radner said he was motivated to run for the council in part because of how the city responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. He criticized the implementation of a citywide mask mandate and capacity limits for Seward businesses, which he said harmed the economy and affronted personal liberties.

“Everybody’s opinion on COVID is different and I respect that,” Radner said. “My point of view is if you want to get the vaccine, get the vaccine. If you want to wear a mask, wear a mask, but it should be voluntary. It shouldn’t be up to some overarching power to tell you what you can and can’t do with your body.”

Radner said he was especially troubled by the city reducing business capacity during the pandemic, adding that he has considered opening a business. More broadly, he said it would be good for Seward to invest in small business owners and not “put all of (its) eggs in the cruise ship basket.”

“Ultimately, what makes up small towns like Seward is small business owners, it’s not giant conglomerates,” Radner said.

If elected to the council, Radner said he hopes to limit the role of government in residents’ lives and cast what he calls “principled” votes. He spoke in opposition to politicians saying one thing and then voting in a different way.

“My whole political philosophy is principles,” Radner said. “If you’re a Democrat or Republican, I don’t have a problem with you, I just want you to be principled. I want you to vote and do the things that you say you’re going to do, and I don’t feel like that’s happened here.”

Among Radner’s principles, he said, are lowering taxes, which he said is “theft” from residents and privatizing city services.

He said he’d originally planned to run for city council next year, but that the small applicant pool for the upcoming election helped inform his decision to run. If nothing else, Radner said he hopes to garner more name recognition for whenever he runs for office again.

“I’m not going to leave till I win as far as that goes because this has to be fixed,” Radner said. “It’s my point of view that the only way it’s going to happen is if somebody runs.”

The municipal election is on Oct. 5.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

Mount Redoubt can be seen across Cook Inlet from North Kenai Beach on Thursday, July 2, 2022. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Alaska not included in feds’ proposed 5-year oil and gas program

The plan includes a historically low number of proposed sales

A copy of "People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska" stands in sunlight in Soldotna, Alaska, on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Moose Pass to receive award for community historical effort

“People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska” was a collaboration among community members

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board Member Debbie Cary speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. Cary also served on the borough’s reapportionment board. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
School board president receives award for meritorious service

Debbie Cary, of Ninilchik, is the Alaska Superintendent Association’s 2024 recipient of the Don MacKinnon Excellence in Education Award

Dr. Tara Riemer is seen in this provided photo. (Photo courtesy Alaska SeaLife Center)
SeaLife Center president resigns

Riemer worked with the center for 20 years

Voters fill out their ballots at the Challenger Learning Center in Kenai, Alaska, on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Election 2023: When, where to vote Tuesday

City council, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, the local school board races are all on the ballot

Dianne MacRae, Debbie Cary, Beverley Romanin and Kelley Cizek participate in a Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education candidate forum at Soldotna Public Library in Soldotna, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
School board candidates wrap up forum series

The forum was the eighth in a series hosted by the Clarion and KDLL ahead of the 2023 elections

Signs direct visitors at the City of Seward’s city hall annex on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021, in Seward, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Electric sale referendums to be reconsidered next month

The two referendums aim to remove from the city’s Oct. 3 ballot two propositions related to the sale of the city’s electric utility

Sockeye salmon caught in a set gillnet are dragged up onto the beach at a test site for selective harvest setnet gear in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish proposals center on king salmon, east side setnet fishery

Many proposals describe changes to the Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Senior Prom King and Queen Dennis Borbon and Lorraine Ashcraft are crowned at the 2023 High Roller Senior Prom at Aspen Creek Senior Living in Kenai, Alaska, on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.
Senior prom crowns king and queen

In brainstorming options, the concept of putting on a prom turned some heads

Most Read