What you need to know:
- A new Wasilla city law requires mayoral candidates to live in the city for at least two years before Election Day, making it the most rigorous residency requirement for mayoral candidates in the region.
- The rule is intended to prevent newcomers from holding the city’s most powerful elected office. It was proposed by Council member Ian Crafton and unanimously approved during a regular City Council meeting in late June.
- This is the second mayoral seat rule change proposed by Crafton and approved this year. A previous update bars the mayor from simultaneously serving on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, school board or as Mat-Su Borough mayor.
WASILLA -- Would-be candidates for Wasilla mayor must be residents of the city for at least two years prior to Election Day under an update approved by the Wasilla City Council.
The update makes residency requirements for Wasilla’s mayor the most rigorous in the region.
The change is designed to keep newcomers out of the city’s most powerful elected seat, said Council member Ian Crafton, who proposed the update.
“What I have concerns about is people coming into the city and changing their address for a short amount of time and being able to be our mayor,” he said during a June 23 regular council meeting. “I believe that extending it to two years really ensures that the people that are in that position are people that want to be here and are wanting to better our city.”
The Wasilla mayor’s seat will be up for election in October next year. Under the update, candidates must have lived in the city since October last year to qualify.
The council unanimously approved the change. A residency requirement for Wasilla city council members and candidates remains at one year.
Candidates for Matanuska-Susitna Borough mayor, Assembly and School Board, Palmer mayor and City Council, and Houston City Council are also required to meet a one-year residency standard, according to city or borough law.
Crafton said he would have proposed extending the residency requirement even further, but City Attorney Holly Wells advised him that doing so is prohibited under a 1994 Alaska Supreme Court ruling. The court concluded that a three-year requirement violates the state constitution.
The change marks the second recent update to mayoral candidate rules proposed by Crafton. Earlier this year, the council unanimously approved a separate update blocking the city’s mayor from simultaneously serving on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board, the assembly, or as the borough mayor.
Crafton declined to comment on whether either update to mayoral election rules was inspired by a specific individual's potential candidacy. No candidates have filed election paperwork for the seat with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. A filing period for the seat will not open until next summer.
Wasilla Mayor Glenda Ledford, who has lived in the city for decades, is blocked by law from serving a third consecutive term. City code requires a sitting mayor to take at least a one-year break from office after two full terms before running again.
Ledford was first elected in 2020 in a race against Doug Holler and Council Member Stuart Graham. She was re-elected in 2023 in a race against Bernadette Rupright.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
