Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Fairbanks North Star Borough voters Tuesday elected one new member and one incumbent to the Borough Assembly, while a third race was too close to call.

Mike Musick, a contractor from Ester, easily beat out former Assemblywoman Bonnie Williams, and Assemblywoman Nadine Hargesheimer, who was appointed to the Assembly in January, won easily against challenger Mark Ames.

The race between incumbent Charlie Rex and challenger Tammie Wilson was too close to call Tuesday night. As of 10:30 p.m., Rex had 5396 votes to Wilson’s 5,385 — a lead of 11 votes — with hundreds of absentee and questioned ballots still uncounted.

Three of the Assembly’s nine seats were up for election this year.

The race for the vacant Seat G pitted Musick against Williams, with Musick taking 62 percent of the votes.

“I think we both ran a good, positive race,” said Musick, who credited his win to help from his wife, Ritchie.

In his campaign, Musick, the project manager on the recently completed Cold Climate Housing Research Center, promoted energy efficiency as a way for the borough to save money and called for training programs to prepare residents for gas pipeline jobs. He said the assembly should also consider property tax exemptions for seniors and others.

Williams, a former tuition director for the University of Alaska and three-term assemblywoman, voiced her support for private property rights and called for long-term fiscal planning that didn’t take a gas line for granted.

Musick said he would ease his way into his new job.

“My first meeting I’m going to listen and try to absorb the process like a sponge,” he said. The race for Seat F put Hargesheimer, a Fairbanks consultant, up against Mark Ames, who lives in Fairbanks and has often run for political office.

Hargesheimer worked for state government and for three borough mayors before being chosen in January to replace Terry Aldridge, who resigned from the assembly following reported ethical violations.

“It’s nice to actually get elected,” she said.

Hargesheimer also won 62 percent of votes in her race.

She said she would continue to be a strong supporter of the borough’s Parks and Recreation Department programs and would push for a study of the borough’s property tax and alternative sources of revenue.

The race for Seat A proved to be the closest.

“I can’t be upset,” Wilson said of her near tie with Rex, a current Assembly member who has also served on the Fairbanks City Council.

Rex, a Fairbanks businessman, said friends and business associates encouraged him to run for local office. During his campaign, he stressed the importance of making the borough attractive to businesses to lower the tax burden on residents.

Wilson, a North Pole mother who has served on various groups advising the borough government, also pointed to economic development as a way to help taxpayers, and she advocated for limiting taxes through the borough’s tax-revenue cap.

Both candidates supported making changes to the borough’s “junkyard laws,” and Rex called for greater enforcement of them.

Mona Drexler, the borough’s clerk, said there could be more than 500 valid absentee ballots in addition to an unknown number of questioned ballots. Both will be counted by Oct. 10.

Rex and Hargesheimer both expressed confidence in Musick’s addition to the assembly. “I think Mike’s going to be a good assembly member,” Rex said. “He’s well-versed on borough issues.”

Hargesheimer said she appreciated the willingness of current members to address each issue individually and without preconceived ideas, and she said she assumed Musick would do the same.

Musick promised Tuesday that he would keep an open mind.

“I’m certainly not going in with an agenda,” he said.

Stefan Milkowski can be reached at smilkowski@newsminer.com or 459-7577.