Adam Trombley, Mike Gutierrez and Paul Bauer are all vying for the east Anchorage Assembly seat. 
Born and raised in Alaska, Adam Trombley is an account manager for Champion Technologies, an oil field service company, and also serves as chair on the city's budget commission. 

“We've made a lot of recommendations to the Assembly and administration that have helped the city come $15.5 million under budget. One of the things that's important to east Anchorage is having police officers and one of the things we are going to do with that surplus is help fund a police academy,” Trombley said.

His top priorities: government efficiencies, public transportation and establishing an east side district plan. 

“When you look at east Anchorage, it's kind of a smattering of commercial, residential and trailer parks,” Trombley said. “There is no real continuity, so a long-term east side district plan will help better define limits as far as how east Anchorage will be developed in the future.”

Incumbent Mike Gutierrez has served on the Anchorage Assembly for the past three years. 

Gutierrez has been in Alaska since 1998 and is the coordinator for Weed and Seed, a federal grant program aimed at cleaning up high crime in low-income neighborhoods.

On the top of his list: public safety, lowering the burden on property tax payers and road maintenance. 

“In east Anchorage in particular we've got crumbling infrastructure, we've got roads that are barely paved,” said Gutierrez. “ I think calling them 'paved' is almost a joke sometimes.”

Candidate Paul Bauer has been in Alaska for 20 years and is a business manager at the Ted Stevens International Airport and a retired military member.

While these candidates have made their top priorities clear, where do they stand on recent contentious issues?

“Collective bargaining is just a basic right. It's something that's very important for people who are working hard everyday to build this community to make it a better place. Some of them, like our cops and our firefighters, put their lives on the line every single day for this community,” said Gutierrez.

Trombley has a different view on union issues. 

“The relationship has to be advisory. You can't have it single-handedly funded by public sector unions and then turn around and vote on other contracts. There has to be some type of check and balance there,” Trombley said.

“I'm not really in so much of support for public unions,” Bauer said, “because I think it's an adversarial position and it puts tax payers in this position that there is always guarantee to get a salary or increases no matter what, so I think it's a conflict in that aspect.”

In 2009, the Anchorage Assembly was bitterly divided over whether anti-discrimination laws should be changed to protect sexual orientation.

“Is it an issue in Anchorage? No,” Trombley said. “Do I think people should be discriminated against? No. I think everyone deserves fair treatment under the law. So I believe you deserve special treatment? No I don't.”

“I think what it comes down to is whether you support one man, one woman in marriage and that's what I support,” Bauer said.

Registered east Anchorage voters can cast their ballot Tuesday, April 5