Alaska Primary Wrap Up

Another election, another night at Election Central. This party was subdued overall, with only one or two over-eager campaigns doing the march with signs, balloons, and volunteers. Lora Reinbold, and Shelley Hughes had teams of people. Hughes also had a guy in some kind of unitard that covered his face completely in blue spandex. Not sure what was going on there, but I realized later that I’d been a bit disturbed and fled the scene before snapping a picture of him.

There were quite a few candidates there, even those who had not faced a primary challenger.

TV stations were all set up on the podium, ready to do interviews. They also had scads of political analysts of one form or another, including one who shared the deep and penetrating analysis, “There will be winners, and there will be losers.”

Tables were also set up for reporters from various news organizations and radio stations.

And what would an event – any event – be without a party planner! Despite the recent and shocking cancellation of her TV show, “Alaska Live with Bernadette,” she was gad-flying about, rubbing elbows, and apparently exchanging phone numbers with Rep. Mike Hawker.

Here’s my quick take on most of the notable races. For full results and numbers, click HERE.

Senate District C

Good news for this brand new district.

Click Bishop is victorious over Ralph Seekins. Anyone who’s paid attention to either of these two has to be pleased. Seekins is well-known and has already been in office before. Apparently voters were impressed enough with this past performance to give him 30.2% of the vote. Sleep easier, Fairbanks.

Senate District D

Bad news

Moderate and well-liked Republican Linda Menard was ousted by the very well-funded uber-conservative Mike Dunleavy. Menard had worked with the bipartisan working group in the senate, and was heavily supported by Sarah Palin last time.  No peep this time.

Senate District H

Greater of two evils won.

Anchorage School Board member Don Smith (ick) was victorious over newcomer Clint Hess.

Senate District J

Greater of two evils won.

This is the biggest money district out there.  Ethics-challenged Bob Bell trounced Liz Vazquez for the chance to go up against Hollis French. Both primary challengers are pretty awful, but Vazquez would have been easier to beat.

Senate District K

Lesser of two evils won

The downest and dirtiest of them all… Trainwreck Lesil McGuire is victorious over blustering, underinformed, talking-point machine Jeff Landfield. She has been a member of the bipartisan working group. As I passed Landfield at election central, I overheard Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell saying, “Well, if it doesn’t turn out well tonight, here’s what we’ll do…” Then he huddled in and I couldn’t hear the rest.

Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and candidate Jeff Landfield

Senate District M

It’s a draw…

Former legislator Harry Crawford (D) threw his hat in the ring to primary incumbent Bettye Davis (D). The new district lines will have the winner running against Ana Fairclough in a new district which is more conservative than the old one, and Crawford thought he stood a better chance, and said if he lost, he’d throw his support behind Davis. This one had Dems a little wide-eyed. It’s not often they will primary one of their own, but the strategy was understood by some. The night ended in Davis’ favor with only a 75 vote lead. Absentees may have an effect here.

Senate District N

Bad news

Half-term incumbent Cathy Giessel prevailed over challenger Joe Arness, president of the Kenai Borough School District. She chose to be in the Senate’s tiny and extreme minority. Arness is well-liked on the Kenai, and would have chosen a seat at the table, but didn’t mount an aggressive campaign. He still managed to pull in a third of the votes. Giessel will face the unaffiliated moderate Ron Devon (spouse!) in November, in a district that gave up Eagle River, and now runs from South Anchorage to Nikiski.

Ron Devon will be running against Cathy Giessel in the general election for Senate District N’s seat.

Senate District O

Maybe good… Maybe bad…

This one was a bit of a surprise. Incumbent Tom Wagoner went down in defeat to Soldotna Mayor Peter Micciche, who also works for ConocoPhillips. Wagoner was pretty conservative, and also a member of the bipartisan coalition in the Senate. Micciche seems more moderate, but Republicans have mixed feelings.

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House District 9

Lesser of two evils won

Lynn Gattis soundly defeated Mark Ewing for the Wasilla House primary. Ewing is the one who made comments that children “who had a hard time making their wheelchair work” wouldn’t benefit from an education. He also tried, unsuccessfully to scrub anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim rants from his Facebook page. Gattis is also a staunch conservative, but lacks Ewing’s obvious dysfunction. She’ll be running against the awesome Blake Merrifield in November. This is one to watch.

Lynn Gattis will square off with Blake Merrifield in the general election for the Wasilla House seat.

House District 11

Bad news

The Naked Baker inexplicably lives to fight another day. Bill Stoltze (R) of Eagle River defeated a primary challenge from Thomas Connelly. More’s the pity.

Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and Rep. Bill Stoltze

House District 16

Lesser of two evils won

Harriet Drummond (D) will square off against Jimmy Crawford (R) in this new district. They each easily won primaries last night. Crawford beat Roman Romanovski, the guy who said if parents didn’t immunize their kids, and their kids died of some horrible disease, it was just too bad, but… hey. It’s the price of freedom. My money’s on Drummond in the general.

House District 17

Greater of the two goods won

This one was a nail-biter!  Cal Williams and Geran Tarr were in a contentious battle in a Democratic primary. Many progressives were distressed by Williams’ pro-life position, and the fact that some of the most vile and detested right wing bloviators were fawning over him. The Democratic primary is open and the fear was that Republicans were voting for Williams as the lesser of the two progressive evils. Williams was also becoming increasingly aggressive and snippy about Tarr. But after hours of see-sawing numbers, she pulled it out. There were more than a few sighs of relief in the room, although many still support Williams. She stayed classy and took the high road throughout the primary process, so likely did not burn bridges.

House District 20

Bad news

Mia Costello won by a wide margin over Tamara Von Gemmingen, which was a shame but not shocking. Costello is the very conservative incumbent, but Von Gemmingen is more moderate. An old-school Republican. I liked her, and I hope she runs again for something.

Rep. Mia Costello will face Democrat Michelle Scannell in November.

House District 26

Lesser of the two evils won

Lora Reinbold won handily over Kim Skipper. The two had been locked in a radio battle of negative ads. Skipper in particular came off sounding a little… unstable. This is backed up by more than one annecdote I’ve been told, so I have a feeling we dodged a bullet on this one. The chanting red army of Reinbold supporters in “Team Reinbold” shirts, and toting red balloons made a boisterous entrance.

House District 30

Good News

Paul Seton (R) won the right to defend his seat in November. John Faulkner, his conservative challenger, wasn’t able to pull it off. Homer loves them some Paul Seaton, but a few were nervous about this one.

House District 38

Popcorn time!

No contested primaries in this district, but I just have to point this one out as one to watch. David Guttenberg (D) from Fairbanks, will be handing Alan Dick (R) his backside in November. This I predict. Guttenberg is the only D in the state to win by double digits last cycle, and Alan Dick is the one who will sleep easier at night once women are required to get permission slips signed by their impregnators before they have an abortion.  Pop the corn, baby!

U.S. House of Representatives

Republicans – Guess who? Don Young. Again

Dems – State Rep. Sharon Cissna came out on top in a field of six Democrats vying for a turn at taking on Don Young who has served as Alaska’s one and only Congressman since 1973.  It’s starting to feel like Don Young is a lion – a crazy crazy geriatric lion – and Democrats are nice tender gazelle t-bones.  But some day, someone, some time, is going to do it, right?

Ballot Measure 1

Alaskans voted by a narrow margin not to decrease their property taxes. You see, having wealthy home owners pay a little more, and not-wealthy home owners pay a little less would be spreading the burden around. So, the vast majority of Anchorage residents decided they’d like not to pay less.

Ballot Measure 2

Bad news. Bad, bad news.

Alaskans also decided they’d rather not have a voice in coastal development, and leave it all in the hands of the feds. They like the fact that Alaska is the only state in the country without coastal zone management, even though we have more coast than the rest of the country put together. Boo hiss for local control. But one good thing to come of this is that at least we now know 68% of Alaskans will happily give away their voice to whomever sent them more mail.

The Alaska Sea Party, who organized the Yes on 2 effort made a statement this afternoon:

Bruce Boethelo, Sea Party Chair said, “…the volunteer effort that drove this initiative was truly heartening.  We gathered the necessary signatures in record time from across the state.  We saw scores of volunteers step forward to help in communities from Ketchikan to Kotzebue.  We collected over $200,000.00 in donations from hundreds of individual Alaskans along with a wide array of entities and organizations.  Every single person who supported this grassroots campaign has a lot to be proud of.”

Outspent during the campaign ten to one by Outside corporate donations to an opposition group, the Alaska Sea Party still managed to garner nearly 40,000 votes, or 38% of the total primary votes cast.

“Significant statewide support for our proposal tells me Alaskans want some form of coastal management program back,” Sea Party co-chair Terzah Tippin Poe said.  “This is not the end of the quest to restore Alaska’s voice in coastal development decisions.  All through the campaign, our opponents said again and again they wanted coastal management, just not this particular plan.  We’re going to hold them to that.  We’re ready to work with them to bring back the coastal management program.”

The Alaska Sea Party will remain active in seeking restoration of the program.  “The need still exists,” Botelho said,  “and Alaskans still want a voice in development decisions along their coastline.  The Sea Party will remain active and will work with all interested parties to promote Alaska involvement in coastal management.  This effort is far from over.”

“Beyond the coastal management issue, this exercise has inspired deep concerns for the future of all Alaska elections,” Botelho continued.  “Obviously, there is a problem with an election system that allows Outside interests to so thoroughly distort a conversation among Alaskans.”

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