Unofficial results of Tuesday’s primary election are in, and it looks like there may be one upset in the Valley.
Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver could upset incumbent Eric Feige for the Republican nomination for the House District 9 race. With only one precinct still to be counted in the district after midnight this morning, Colver had a little over 36 percent of the vote in the three-way race.
“I guess we are in a wait and see position here,” Colver said. “We don’t know what precincts out yet. And we have a lot of absentees. I’m glad we’re up, but it’s a long way from being over.”
George Rauscher was close, with 34 percent of the vote, but incumbent Feige lagged behind both challengers with 29.5 percent. Absentee ballots have yet to be counted.
It came as no surprise that former state representative Bill Stoltze has won the Republican nod for the Senate District F candidacy in November. Stoltze took the lead early in the evening, and finished the night with almost 71 percent of the vote, while challenger DeLena Johnson gained only a little more than 29 percent after all the precincts were in. Stoltze said at Election Central in Anchorage that he’s looking forward to the general election.
“A lot of it is not new, because I have been representing the whole Valley, trying to look beyond boundaries. And I’ve routinely done a good job representing Palmer even thought it wasn’t in the district. And other areas, so I think that those kinds of things paid off, that I didn’t pay attention to the boundaries, arbitrary poliltical lines. We tried to take care of the Valley as a whole. You do one thing for one part of the Valley and it benefits the whole Valley.”
Stoltze will face Democrat Pat Chesbro in November for the new Senate F seat, which links Anchorage suburbs of Chugiak and Peters Creek, with the greater Palmer area in the Matanuska Valley.
The Republican race between two first-time candidates for the House District 12 candidacy went to Cathy Tilton. Tilton, a former legislative staffer, finished the night with more than 64 percent of the vote.
“I think the key to the support in all the precincts was just really the boots on the ground, going door to door and talking to the people, listening,” Tilton said. “Not even just talking to them but listening to them, and that’s probably more important than talking to them.”
Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Ron Arvin took 35.6 percent of the vote.
In other contested legislative races on Tuesday:
House District 1.
Republicans. Gregory Bringhurst defeated Jomo Stewart..
House District 2.
Democrats. Larry Murakami defeated Uriah Nalikak.
House District 3.
Republicans. Tammie Wilson was ahead of Doug Isaacson.
House District 6.
Republicans. David Talerico defeated Thomas Dunning.
House District 16.
Republicans. Don Hadley defeated Kevin Kastner.
House District 21.
Republicans. Anand Dubey defeated Matt Fagnani.
House District 22.
Republicans. Liz Vazquez was ahead of Sherri Jackson.
House District 32.
Republicans. Louise Stutes defeated Carol Austerman and Rich Walker.
House District 36.
Republicans. Chere Klein was ahead of Patti Mackey and Agnes Moran.
House District 40.
Democrats. Benjamin Nageak was ahead of Dean Westlake.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
