Political neophyte gears up for race
BIG LAKE - A woodworking political neophyte who raised just $1,500 campaigning against a 10-year incumbent pulled off last week's biggest Alaska primary election upset.
Mark Neuman of Big Lake got involved in politics last year when he became disturbed by a plan to use part of the earnings from the Alaska Permanent Fund for government expenses. Last Tuesday he beat Rep. Beverly Masek, R-Willow, by just under 200 votes in the Republican primary.
Neuman was the lone blue-collar delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks last winter. Until then, he was a woodworker helping his wife home-school their children.
Neuman says he's just a straight-talker who got into politics the old-fashioned way.
"Here's a guy who thought he could do better," he said, sitting in front of the family desk he calls his campaign office. "You can sit there and complain, or you can see what you got."
Neuman said he was watching Gov. Frank Murkowski's State of the State speech last year and bristled at talk of spending earnings from the Alaska Permanent Fund on government. So he applied and was later accepted to serve as one of 55 delegates to the Conference of Alaskans, convened by Murkowski to discuss using earnings from the permanent fund to help close the state's fiscal gap.
Neuman said he also was tired of calling Masek's office to talk to her and getting no response.
"I voted for Bev. Every time, I supported Bev. I liked what she was doing down there," he said. "But I'd like the opportunity to speak to my state representative."
With the support from some folks he met in Fairbanks, including former Gov. Jay Hammond and his wife, Bella, he decided to run. Bella Hammond gave him $500 for his campaign. Neuman raised just over $1,500 in campaign contributions to Masek's $12,400.
Neuman will face registered Republican Doyle Holmes, a former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly member running as undeclared, and Independent candidate Myrl "Boone" Thompson in the Nov. 2 election.
Neuman said the race against Masek was the toughest he will face.
After 10 years on the Mat-Su Assembly, Holmes thinks he will win.
It wasn't so much that Neuman won the primary as his opponent lost it, Holmes said.
"He's a fine young man and he's doing good. But Bev Masek beat herself," he said. "The vote that came in for him was a protest vote. That vote told everybody that, 'Hey, we want her out. We don't even know this guy, but that's got to be better than her.'"
Neuman arrived in Alaska in the late 1970s, at age 19, with just under $300 in his pocket. The week before, he had been sitting in the Stump Lake bar in Wisconsin near his small hometown of Rice Lake. He told a buddy they needed to get out before they got stuck there. The pair settled on Alaska.
Neuman immediately got a firefighting job with the state. Then he supported himself with steady carpentry work until he took a job at Settlers Bay where he ended up as maintenance supervisor.
He went back to school, attending Mat-Su College for a two-year degree in refrigeration, heating and ventilation. He graduated in 1989.
After the Big Lake fire in 1996, he started a woodworking business. He and his family lived in a trailer while he rebuilt their home.
"We were Swiss Family Neuman out there. It was a character-building opportunity," he said. "It just goes to show what a lot of self-confidence and determination can provide."
That attitude has also helped him confront a genetic disorder that is fusing his spine together, Neuman said. Initially disabled by the disorder's onset, he said it now makes his back stiff and has led him to cut back some on his woodworking jobs.
Neuman favors V-necked white T-shirts and jeans at casual public appearances.
"I'm not afraid of who I am. I'm not ashamed of who I am," he said. "I had three suits. They all burned up in the fire. I didn't see any need spending money to replace 'em."