Alaska shows its red

Alaska, for the moment, has reclaimed its red-state status. You may not know it, but there was a statewide election on Aug. 28. The primary election was for 59 seats in the Alaska Legislature, the party candidates for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and two ballot measures. It went off without a hitch with only about 21 percent voter turnout.

There was not, and probably should not have been, a larger turnout expected, since it was a primary election and most of the primary races were uncontested. Some places with contested primary races saw up to 40 percent voter turnout.

There were some surprising results and quite a few that made the conservative folks in Anchorage happy. This election doesn’t decide a whole lot, but it does set the stage for the main event to happen in November.

First and foremost, a controversial ballot measure that would have re-introduced a coastal zone management program had the parties pitted against one another. That measure lost with more than 61 percent of voters.

The Senate elections also went very well for Republicans. Two Republican members of the “bipartisan coalition” lost their primary races. Linda Menard lost to Mike Dunleavy in the Mat-Su Valley, and Tom Wagoner lost to Peter Micciche on the Kenai Peninsula.

There is also one more thing to look at in a race like this, and that is how many voters pick the Republican ballot and how many pick the “other” ballot. Sometimes that can tell us quite a bit, and sometimes analysts read far too much into it. In a race like this, there probably is not much to learn there.

However, it may make conservatives feel good to know that in Senate District G, which will have Sen. Bill Wielechowski facing off against Bob Roses, a little more than 250 voters picked the “R” ballot. The other major Senate race that Republicans are focusing on is District J, in which Hollis French will square off against Bob Bell. There was a contested Republican primary and no contest on the Democrat side, so the primary poll numbers in that case do not tell us much about what will happen in November.

There were a few close and interesting races around the state. In Senate District M, Bettye Davis held off a challenge from former state House member Harry Crawford.

Crawford led the entire evening, but poll numbers at the very end came out in favor of Sen. Davis. She will, however, have a very tough general election battle against current House Representative Anna Fairclough.

In Fairbanks, there was a three-way race for Senate District C. In this race I expected former senator Ralph Seekins to win with no problem, but Click Bishop came out on top with a decisive margin of victory.

Another race that was expected to be close but wasn’t happened in the state House election in Eagle River. A three-way race between three very popular and well-known candidates — Laura Reinbold, Kim Skipper and Larry Wood — came out with Reinbold winning decisively. Also in House races, Cal Williams in District 17 led all evening, until a couple of Airport Heights precincts gave Geran Tarr the victory in that district.

So now the stage is set. The races are solidified and campaigns will soon kick into full gear once again.

There are a few interesting races you should keep your eye on. Obviously, the Republicans are focused on the Senate, where oil tax legislation died at the hands of fellow Republicans in the bipartisan coalition.

Republicans are hoping to see Senator Wielechowski fall to Roses in East Anchorage, and Senator French get beat by Bell in West Anchorage. They are also excited about the possibility of seeing the very popular Anna Fairclough be promoted to the Senate by way of victory over current Senator Davis.

The November elections are closing in, and they are shaping up to be fairly interesting. I know most of you did not participate in August. And even though I’m sure I am supposed to use this space to encourage you to “just get out and vote,” I’m fine with the fact that you didn’t.

Primary elections are an odd duck. They should be a mechanism for the party to choose their candidates. Because of what I feel to be a deep misunderstanding in the populous about what they really are, they have become more political than that.

I do hope, however, that you vote in November. This will be an election you don’t want to miss.

Mike Dingman was born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former student body president at UAA and has studied, worked and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late 1990s. His opinions are his own. He can be reached at michaeldingman@gmail.com.