4 on MEA ballot

MAT-SU — It’s official; four candidates will vie for the two open seats onthe Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors.

MEA spokeswoman Lorali Carter said the four candidates completed the nomination process by going through the utility’s nominating committee. A fifth candidate tried, and failed, to submit his name through the co-op’s alternate petition process, she said. The list was finalized Monday evening.

The four candidates.

• Lee Jordan — current board president, a four-year board incumbent and former newspaper editor and publisher.

• Peter Burchell — current board secretary and a retired educator.

• Janet Kincaid — Palmer businesswoman and former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly member.

• Tom Baird — former mayor of Houston, a semi-retired commercial pilot and a retired U.S. Army officer.

Burchell and Kincaid are running together, hoping to capture both seats. They are also hoping to change the utility’s bylaws so that board members are seated 15 days after elected. Currently board members are elected at the annual meeting in March and seated in July.

Carter said members will be asked to pick two candidates, but not to designate which candidate gets which seat. In the at-large election, the two top vote-getters will be seated.

Tom Staudenmeyer is the would-be fifth candidate. Carter said Staudenmeyer failed to meet the requirement to get 50 signatures from co-op members to petition his way onto the ballot.

Reached Monday, Staudenmeyer said he was on his way that afternoon to the co-op’s meeting in Palmer. He said he intended to ask the board to recount the signatures.

Motivation for not putting him on the ballot could be that MEA doesn’t want to print his candidate’s statement in its election materials, Staudenmeyer said. His statement advocates one electric cooperative for Southcentral and Interior Alaska and disbanding MEA and other regional co-ops.

Carter said Staudenmeyer’s lack of signatures is the only reason he did not make it onto the ballot and it has nothing to do with his political beliefs.

“He was on the ballot last year and we published his statement then,” Carter said, adding for this year he submitted 67 signatures, of which only 49 were from co-op members. The signature list was checked against a master membership list.

Staudenmeyer disputes the count, saying he knows all 67 signers personally. If the board doesn’t recount his signatures, Staudenmeyer said he will take his grievance to court and seek an outside arbiter.

MEA’s annual meeting will be March 1 at Colony High School. Ballots will go out between Jan. 16 and Feb. 15.

Generally, the vast majority are returned by mail, Carter said. Members may also cast ballots at the meeting.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.