By John Stang
Heather Lende and Tom Morphet won the Haines Borough Assembly election Tuesday – defeating four others including the sole incumbent running for re-election.
The unofficial tallies are Lende, 483; Morphet, 423; incumbent Diana Lapham, 363; Ryan Cook, 299; Judy Erekson, 230; and Leonard Dubber, 146.
Morphet’s win affects the Chilkat Valley News, of which he is owner, editor and a reporter. Morphet will cut back his active participation in the news operation, removing himself from decision-making on coverage of the borough government. He plans to hire one new staff member.
“I’ve proven I can stay away from it editorially,” he said. Morphet went on leave five weeks prior to the election – staying away from all of the newsroom’s functions.
He wants to sell the paper as soon as possible to someone local. He has been with the paper for roughly 30 years, owning it for the past 4½ years.
In a lower-profile Haines school board election, unopposed incumbents Sarah Swinton and Lisa Schwartz received 777 and 767 votes. Another 29 votes went to write-in candidates.
Overall, 843 Haines residents voted. A few more absentee ballots might dribble in. That is a 45 percent turnout, compared to a 38 percent turnout in the 2015 borough assembly election.
If no challenges are filed against the election, the assembly is scheduled to certify the results on Oct. 25, which will be the same day that Lende and Morphet take their seats.
“I just really like to thank all the voters and other candidates,” Lende said. “The election indicates we have lots of people involved in the community. It’s really clear that Haines’ citizens want to see changes. They want government to be more responsive and reflective.”
Morphet said: “I was a bit surprised (by the results). I worked hard. But I didn’t know what to expect. … I’m grateful, heartened and humbled of the support.”
“I want to educate myself on how we came to some (assembly) decisions, especially on the harbor,” Morphet said. He and Lende support taking segments of the Small Boat Harbor expansion project to a public referendum. However, it is unknown whether they can persuade two additional members of the six-person assembly to support that proposal.
Morphet wants to immediately tackle the borough’s $450,000 deficit. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla that no one wants to talk about. … If I have a constituency, it’s the people who want to take on thorny topics,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lapham said she will remain active in borough affairs. “Was I disappointed? Yes. Am I going to blow up and dry away? No,” she said.
She plans to keep attending assembly meetings and updating people on her Facebook page. “There is a huge group of people in the community I don’t believe will be represented by the assembly,” she said.
Lapham has strongly advocated moving ahead with expanding the Small Boat Harbor – a stance that Lende and Morphet want to slow down in order to hold a referendum on the subject. Lapham opposes the referendum idea, saying the project has been vetted for years and it is time to move forward.
Lapham said: “Will I run again next year? Probably. But I don’t have a crystal ball.”