A hotly contested race in the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Borough has two bush Democrats within five votes of each other.
Incumbent Rep. Ben Nageak is slightly behind in his race against newcomer Dean Westlake. All precincts in that district have been counted, but the state Division of Elections still has absentee and questioned ballots to count.
Westlake ran against Nageak two years ago and lost by 131 votes.
Nageak declined to comment and Westlake is out of reach at his fish camp.
Nageak is one of two rural Democrats targeted by members of their own party for caucusing with the Republican led majority in the state House. House Democrats are hoping to build a bipartisan coalition next year.
A challenger to the other Democrat Rep., Bob Herron, is winning that race. Zach Fansler has nearly 57 percent of the vote. There is one district left to report in that race.
Herron did not respond to multiple requests for comment, Fansler also has not responded. His campaign manager Mitchel Forbes says they won’t talk about results until every vote has been counted.
With no Republicans in either race, neither candidate will have a general election challenger.
Rashah McChesney is a photojournalist turned radio journalist who has been telling stories in Alaska since 2012. Before joining Alaska's Energy Desk, she worked at Kenai's Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau bureau of the Associated Press. She is a graduate of Iowa State University's Greenlee Journalism School and has worked in public television, newspapers and now radio, all in the quest to become the Swiss Army knife of storytellers.
