State Briefs
Consolidated Haines elects mayor
JUNEAU - Haines moved one step closer to consolidation Tuesday with the election of a new mayor, Assembly members and School Board. Residents voted earlier this year to consolidate the northern Lynn Canal community's city and borough governments.
The unofficial election results show former Haines Borough Assembly member Mike Case winning the mayoral election with 56 percent of the vote. Case ran against former borough Mayor Jan Hill who took 26 percent of the vote and former city Mayor David Black who garnered 17 percent.
Newly elected Assembly members include Stephanie Scott for seat A with 35 percent of the vote, Douglas Olerud for seat B with 55 percent, Debra Schnabel for seat C with 50 percent, Chip Lende for seat D with 47 percent, Lucy Harrell for seat E with 49 percent, and Jerry Lapp for seat F with 59 percent.
The new School Board will include Stacie Turner, Sarah Swinton, Brian Clay, Judy Erekson, Heather Lende, Gary Stigen and Carol Kelly.
Wasilla picks Keller as new mayor
WASILLA - Wasilla residents elected Dianne Keller as mayor Tuesday. Keller takes the city's top job from outgoing Mayor Sarah Palin, who could not run again because of term limits.
Keller beat three other candidates, including Palin's stepmother-in-law, Faye Palin, to take the $68,000-a-year position.
With up to 131 absentee and questioned ballots remaining to be counted, Keller had a lead of 402-256, over Palin. Borough Assemblyman Dan Kelly and construction worker Cliff Silvers garnered 179 and 35 votes, respectively, in the race.
Keller, a grant manager for the state Division of Emergency Services, stressed her familiarity with Wasilla projects during her campaign. She also said she would work to get police to do more patrols of neighborhood streets.
Officers now spend much of their time policing the Parks Highway, she said.
Kenai borough re-elects mayor
KENAI - Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dale Bagley easily won a second term in office.
Bagley garnered 55 percent of the vote against Ken Lancaster in Tuesday's municipal elections. Lancaster, 59, a state legislator and former mayor of Soldotna, gave up his seat in the Alaska House to challenge Bagley.
Bagley, 38, was first elected borough mayor with strong support in rural areas such as Sterling, Kasilof and Nikiski. A Soldotna real estate broker and Assembly member before his election, Bagley clashed at times with the Assembly majority. But he won support for his workmanlike running of borough business and for reducing the local tax rate.
Kenai Peninsula voters also approved two propositions with multimillion-dollar price tags, for school and landfill construction and defeated an initiative that would have repealed the borough 2 percent sales tax on groceries.
Homer stood to lose roughly $400,000 a year in tax revenues - money spent on basics such as police and libraries - if the initiative passed. Soldotna, dependent on the tourism season's massive summer retail sales, would have lost nearly $1 million a year.
The initiative's main supporter, James Price of Nikiski, said it was wrong and regressive to tax food.
Compiled from staff and wire service reports.