Though the candidate filing period doesn’t open until Aug. 1, Haines is abuzz with chatter about who will vie for two borough assembly seats up for grabs this fall.
The three-year seats are currently held by assembly members Diana Lapham and George Campbell.
Lapham said this week she will run for another term. The first three years have been “a huge learning process,” Lapham said, and she wants to continue to apply that knowledge for another three years.
“I enjoy it,” she said. “I want to give it another whirl.”
Campbell was more evasive when asked this week about his intentions, though he said he is “most likely going to run.”
“I’ve had a lot of people ask me to run and I am seriously considering it,” Campbell said. “Do I feel like I can win or not? I’m not worried about it. At this point, running is not about winning. Running is about giving people the option to choose.”
Campbell’s tenure on the assembly has been marked by strong opinions and positions that have delighted some and alienated others. On the losing end of many 5-1 votes, he has riled his fellow assembly members with dogged, sometimes antagonistic conduct. At a meeting in May, Campbell made five budget-related motions that died for lack of a second.
When asked if he was concerned his behavior may have put off the voter base that elected him in 2013, Campbell said, “If the people of Haines don’t like what I’ve done, they will vote me out.”
Incumbents aren’t the only ones contemplating a run.
Heather Lende, who has served on the planning commission for nearly three years, said this week she will be running for assembly this fall. Lende has lived in Haines for more than 30 years, and has served on the assembly and school board, as well as numerous boards and committees.
“Being on all these boards and commissions, I used to think that you could effect real, positive change or keep good things happening through the nonprofits and commissions and boards at a grassroots level,” Lende said. “And it seems like, in fact, a lot of the work we do gets blocked at the assembly level.”
Lende said she decided to give the assembly seat another go because now, more than ever, the relationship between the borough and the public has become an entrenched “us vs. them” attitude.
“I think it is time for a more positive approach to governing and it seems that in the last few years it has been reactive and fairly negative, and people seem to feel like they are put upon by the borough rather than the borough providing the services and support that the community wants,” Lende said.
Resident Susie McCartney is contemplating a run for one of the assembly seats, though she is still weighing the pros and cons of what serving would entail.
“I’m struggling with the decision because I don’t know if I have thick enough skin to pull it off,” McCartney said. “As a mother of a small child in this town, I honestly don’t know if I want to hang myself out there.”
In the past six months, four people have approached McCartney and asked her to run, to provide a new or unheard voice for those too busy to attend meetings or be hyper-engaged.
“The people who most desperately need a voice are the ones burning the candle at both ends to put their kids through school,” McCartney said. “What I see is the people in Haines who need to be represented are the ones who don’t have time to show up to these meetings.”
McCartney said she was encouraged to see assembly member Margaret Friedenauer elected last year. Friedenauer is the youngest member of the assembly and holds a full-time job; that’s compared to the majority of the group, who are older and/or retired.
When the assembly isn’t representative of the community, “working people are subjected to the policy of people with a lot more time on their hands,” McCartney said.
Still, McCartney said she is “afraid to go on the firing line.”
“I see small-town politics shut people out,” she said. “And that’s the thing: that’s exactly why I should run, but I am afraid to be singled out.”
The candidate filing period opens Aug. 1. Two assembly seats are available, as are two three-year school board seats currently held by Sarah Swinton and Lisa Schwartz.