In an attempt to persuade Mat-Su voters into electing him to the local school board, Ben Kolendo is downplaying his leftist ideology while visiting churches and other religious venues to raise support for his candidacy in the overwhelmingly conservative Mat-Su Valley.

He’s running against Tom Bergey, a principled conservative who has a track record of opposing leftist ideology, and supporting robust parental rights, school choice, girls’ sports and a more traditional approach to education.

While Kolendo spends a lot of time talking about students’ rights, increasing teacher pay and supporting vocational education, he is evasive and coy when it comes to publicly acknowledging his support of gay student clubs, hyper-sexualized library books, LGBTQ curriculum content, or gender-confused males playing on all-girls sports teams.

Earlier this month, Kolendo scheduled a sparsely-attended campaign stop at Band of Brothers, a Christian café and ministry in Wasilla.

Upon entering the venue, the 10 to 12 attendees were greeted by Kolendo and one of his top Democratic supporters, Dave Musgrave, the former Vice Chair of Mat-Su Democrats.

In fact, according to the most recent campaign disclosure reports, Kolendo’s well-heeled campaign is largely funded by entrenched hard-leftists and established Democrats such as Anchorage School Board Members Andy Holleman and Margo Bellamy, Scott Kendall, Patricia Chesbro, former Mat-Su School Board Member Sarah Welton, Anchorage Assemblyman Christopher Constant, Rep. Forrest Dunbar and many others from across the state.

By contrast, Bergey’s re-election effort is backed by well-known conservatives and Republicans such as Sen. Shelley Hughes, Rep. Cathy Tilton, Alaska Republican Party, Mat-Su Republican Women’s Club, Amy Demboski, Ron Johnson and Mat-Su School Board Member Kathy McCollum, among others.

Kolendo, however, has outraised Bergey $24,522 to $10,220, which has many conservatives concerned that Kolendo’s campaign may be making inroads in the Mat-Su.

At the start of the Oct. 10 Band of Brothers event, Kolendo hobnobbed with a few attendees, as he railed against school district administrators’ salaries, the need for higher teacher wages and his support of career and technical education.

He also spoke about his belief that a certain student group, which he led before graduating high school last year, should have greater influence over the elected school board members.

Kolendo, who is just 18, was the student representative on the Mat-Su School Board for several years before board members decided to remove him after he repeatedly used his non-voting position to push for hard-leftists causes surrounding LGBTQ initiatives, sexualized library books and other divisive issues.

Kolendo avoided these topics entirely during the first hour of his recent meet-and-greet, choosing, instead, to focus on issues that might resonate with social conservatives.

About an hour into the event, however, he sat down to field questions from a small group that formed a semi-circle around him to hear more details about his ideas.

At this point the Alaska Watchman asked Kolendo about his comments from an April 6, 2022, school board meeting, in which he, as the then student representative member, publicly advocated for expanding LGBTQ student clubs throughout the Mat-Su School District.

In 2022, Kolendo said “I as student representative, with support of the rest of the executive board, have decided to take on the challenge of trying to better represent, as well as gain the LGBTQ+ community more representation within the school district … We thought of no better way to do this than to meet with the Gay/Straight Alliance or GSA, as to be better informed on how to represent their community.”

Kolendo then told the school board that he was meeting with Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in order to better promote and represent the concerns of LGBTQ students. He added that this community wanted schools to talk openly about LGBTQ sexuality during school hours, especially in heath classes. He also noted that expanding gay student clubs “could greatly help with LGBTQ+ representation across the district,” and highlighted a survey by his student government group that recommended introducing classes about LGBTQ sexuality, various gender identities and the historic movements that advance the LGBTQ social agenda.

Taking such actions, he suggested, would help normalize, and create greater acceptance of LGBTQ issues and identities.

When asked about these comments at this month’s meet-and-greet, Kolendo tried to claim he was only speaking as a student representative – merely “transmitting” information from the student government group.

When pressed on whether he personally holds these views, Kolendo repeatedly dodged questions and said he “supports giving a voice to all students.”

Kolendo also tried to distance himself from his prior statements that pushed for LGBTQ content in heath classes.

He said was a member of the larger committee that helped write the current heath curriculum, and noted that it does not have an LGBTQ component, as written.

Next, Kolendo was asked to explain why he publicly defended a hyper-sexualized book about a gay sexual relationship between a minor boy and a young man.

In a March 2024 presentation to the school board, Kolendo wrote a fawning review of the book, “Call Me by Your Name,” which he said should not be removed from school libraries.

Despite the book’s graphic descriptions of masturbation and gay and oral sex, Kolendo wrote that the “profound work” provided a “valuable perspective” into the “struggles and life experiences of queer youth.”

His March review defended the novel as a way to give “non-queer readers” a “window into the inner turmoil and self-reflection experienced by many queer individuals.” He added, “It celebrates the diversity of human experiences and identities, encouraging readers to embrace their true selves and cultivate empathy for others.”

When asked, this month, why he so adamantly defended a book that clearly presents statutory rape in a positive light, he said he opposes removing any books from school libraries.

He claimed children should have access to such books in school libraries, so long as their parents were okay with it.

He also tried to downplay the sexual relationship between the adult character and the minor boy, claiming it was not a major emphasis of the book.

“I believe every single American citizen, which starts at birth, has access to information,” he told event attendees. “Our government should not restrict information, no matter what age you are.”

At that point, one of the attendees asked Kolendo whether he supports letting gender-confused students use bathrooms designated for the opposite sex.

Kolendo said he opposes the school district’s current policy of requiring students to use bathrooms that match their biological sex. Instead, he said there should be special allowances for so-called transgender students to use separate single-use bathrooms.

Kolendo was then pressed on whether he thought gender-confused biological males should be permitted to compete on all-girls athletic teams.

At first, he tried to dismiss the question, by claiming it wasn’t a current problem. When forced to answer, however, he initially said he didn’t support letting biological males compete against girls, if it resulted in males “over-performing.”

Kolendo could not, however, define what he meant by “over-performing,” and he eventually admitted that he supports letting gender-confused males compete against girls so long as the child’s parents were on board.

One of his campaign workers then tried to redirect the line of questioning, as Kolendo was clearly uncomfortable with the direction his event had taken.

A few minutes later, the campaign helper pulled Kolendo aside to speak with him privately outside the café. Upon returning, the worker informed attendees that the meet-and-greet was ending early, as Kolendo had other places to be that night.

TAKING ACTION

— Among many other decisions on Nov. 5, Mat-Su voters in District 1 will decide whether to retain conservative School Board Member Tom Bergey, or replace him with Ben Kolendo. Early in-person voting runs Oct. 21 to Nov. 4 at the following locations.

— Mat-Su Borough Building: 350 E. Dahlia Avenue, Palmer (Mon-Fri, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

— Division of Elections, Mat-Su Regional Office: 1700 E. Bogard Road, Building B, Suite 102, Wasilla (Mon-Fri 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.)

— Houston City Hall and Talkeetna & Trapper Creek Libraries (During Normal Business Hours)

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.