Results of the Anchorage municipal election haven’t changed after officials counted roughly 8,500 more ballots Wednesday.
All incumbent Assembly and school board candidates maintained their leads over their conservative challengers, except for South Anchorage Assemblyman John Weddleton.
The gap widened between Weddleton and his competitor, Randy Sulte, who now leads by 577 votes.
East Anchorage incumbent Assembly member Forrest Dunbar and West Anchorage incumbent Kameron Perez-Verdia have large leads over their conservative challengers. Dunbar has a 15-point lead over Stephanie Taylor. Perez-Verdia has a 12-point lead over his closest challenger Liz Vazquez.
In a slightly tighter race, Midtown’s incumbent Meg Zaletel still holds a lead over challenger Kathy Henslee, although it’s narrowed. Zaletel has 513 more votes than Henslee.
In the race to replace Eagle River incumbent Crystal Kennedy, conservative candidate Kevin Cross has a 25-point lead over his more progressive challenger Gretchen Wehmhoff.
Check out the full results here.
The race for two Anchorage School Board seats hasn’t changed, with incumbents Margo Bellamy and incumbent Kelly Lessens holding nine-point leads over challengers Mark Anthony Cox and Rachel Reis respectively.
All general bonds are still passing except two. The Anchorage school bond and the bond for capital improvements to city facilities are barely failing, with just over 50% of votes counted opposed.
Wednesday’s update brings the total number of ballots tallied to 54,787. The city clerk’s office will continue releasing election returns Friday, and officials say they’ll continue next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday if needed.
Correction: This story previously misstated the number of additional ballots counted Thursday.
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Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
