It's two horse races now

The suspense lasted right up to the last day candidates could file for Whitefish mayor and city council. By the time the five o'clock bell rang, 10 people had signed up for mayor and city council positions.

The mayoral race now has three candidates — deputy mayor Cris Coughlin, councilor Nick Palmer and past mayor Mike Jenson.

Filing for three seats on the city council are councilor John Muhlfeld, former councilor Turner Askew, city-county planning board chairman Martin McGrew and four Whitefish residents — Ryan Friel, Mark McGlen, John Murdock and Kent Taylor.

The term for mayor was recently increased from two to four years. Mayor Andy Feury has been working in China for much of this year and decided not to run for re-election.

The terms for councilors Coughlin, Muhlfeld and Velvet Phillips-Sullivan end this year. Muhlfeld was appointed in January 2006 to replace Tom Muri, who resigned. Phillips-Sullivan decided not to run for re-election. If Palmer wins the race for mayor, the council will have to appoint someone to fill his seat next year.

Jenson won the race for mayor in 1997, defeating Feury, who was the deputy mayor at the time. Jenson served one two-year term as mayor.

He has also served five years on the city-county planning board, nine years with the Flathead Valley Community College board of directors and 2 1/2 years with the Winter Sports Inc. board of directors.

Askew was elected to the city council in 1999. There were three open seats and three candidates that year.

The Pilot will interview all the candidates and publish their stories one-by-one in the upcoming months.

This week, see the interview for Martin McGrew on page A8.