This story has been updated with additional candidate filings through the end of Friday.
Plenty of Juneau residents seem to believe it’s possible to fight City Hall, as 11 people have officially declared their candidacies for four available Assembly seats in the upcoming municipal election as of Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the first two people registered as candidates Friday for two available school board seats, which had attracted no contenders since the filing period began Monday morning.
The deadline for people to file as candidates for the Oct. 3 municipal election is 4:30 p.m. this coming Monday.
The four seats opening on the Assembly are to fill positions currently held by members Maria Gladziszewski (areawide), Alicia Hughes-Skandijs (District 1) and Christine Woll (District 2), and recently resigned Carole Triem (areawide) whose seat is temporarily filled by previous Assembly member Loren Jones until the election.
The areawide seat means the Assembly member may live anywhere in the borough, while District 1 means the member must reside in either Douglas, Thane, the downtown area, Lemon Creek, or the Mendenhall Valley south of Egan Drive and east of the Mendenhall River (near the airport). District 2 includes the rest of the Mendenhall Valley, Auke Bay and out-the-road.
The seven candidates for the Assembly’s areawide seats as of mid-morning Friday were Paul Kelly, Ivan Nance, Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks, JoAnn Wallace, Ella Adkison, Michele Stuart-Morgan and Emily Mesch. The candidate who receives the most votes during the areawide position election will take Gladziszewski’s seat for a full three-year term, and the candidate with the second-most votes will take Triem’s seat for two years as she resigned prior to finishing her full term.
Declaring for the District 1 seat are Hughes-Skandijs and challenger Joe Geldhof. District 2 candidates so far are Woll and challenger Dorene Lorenz.
Hughes-Skandijs and Woll can run for reelection since both are eligible for two additional three-year terms after their terms expire this October. However, Gladziszewski will term out of her position come October after serving three, three-year terms — the maximum allowed by the city.
The two seats open on the Juneau School District’s Board of Education are currently occupied by Brian Holst and Martin Stepetin Sr. Unlike the Assembly, there is no term limit for school board positions, meaning both Holst and Stepetin are able to run for reelection if desired.
Holst registered to run for reelection Friday. The other declared school board candidate is Paige Sipniewski.
Anyone who decides to run for office after the filing deadline must file as a write-in candidate and their name will not be printed on the ballot, according to a bulletin posted Friday by the city clerk’s office.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
