Candidates Line Up for Busy Debate Tonight

Jay Barrett/KMXT
With two weeks until election day, it will be a full evening of candidate forums tonight, as candidates for school board, city council and borough assembly face off in the borough building.
All three governing bodies have a much larger candidate pool than in recent years, especially for the assembly. The unpopular “decorum ordinance,” which the assembly recently repealed, has been cited as a reason for so many people throwing their hats into the ring.
There are five challengers in the assembly race, former school superintendent and Alaska Department of Education director Larry LeDoux, Brenda Schwantes, Dan Rohrer, Rebecca Skinner and Jascha Zbitnoff. They will take on incumbents Dave Kaplan and Tuck Bonney, but not Assemblyman Mell Stephens, who chose not to seek re-election. Three seats are up for grabs this year, and all terms are for three years.
For the school board, there are three candidates for two open seats. Incumbent Katie Oliver is be joined on the ballot by Jeff Stewart and Duncan Fields. The second open seat was once filled by Todd Haley, who left Kodiak earlier this year.
There are two challengers for the two incumbents on the city council. Marnie Leist and David Haught are looking to unseat Terry Haines and Randy Bishop.
There are a number of people running for the various borough service area boards, but they are not part of tonight’s debate.
The municipal election two weeks from today, on Tuesday, October 7th.
KMXT will broadcast all three forums live tonight, starting at 6 p.m.
As a result of tonight’s candidate event, the Kodiak City Council work session has been rescheduled for Thursday, before its regular meeting.