Familiar names get nod from Valley

MAT-SU — There weren’t a whole lot of surprises in Valley races in this year’s primary. Like most recent election cycles, incumbents kept their seats.

“There’s only one way you can feel about winning,” Carl Gatto said, when asked how he felt about Palmer voters sending him back to the state house for a fifth term. “People seemed to be satisfied, at least in the Valley, with people that represent them.”

Gatto said his margin of victory was slim by some measures and a landslide by others. He’s had tighter races and he’s had wider ones. On Tuesday, 55.8 percent of voters chose him over challenger Don Benson. In raw votes, that would be 1,747 votes cast for Benson and 2,209 for Gatto.

Gatto’s colleague up in the Valley’s northern reaches, Mark Neuman, also won his race. He said he believed people were voting based on his record and on work he’s done with his constituents. A lot of people know him personally in his district.

“We’ve been working for six years together now and we’ve helped thousands of people and I think they recognize it,” Neuman said.

Which is also, he said, why his margin of victory was so wide. Neuman took in 64.7 percent. Expressed in vote totals, that would be 2,298 for Neuman and 1,253 for his challenger Stephen Jacobson.

For his part, Benson said he was proud to have run a good, positive campaign. If he could point to one thing he might have done better it would have been to differentiate himself more from Gatto. But he did feel he shed light on issues he wants the state to address.

“I think that’s the most important thing. We got out there and we made people make some promises,” he said. Promise he intends to make sure are kept.

And, for a first-time candidate, he didn’t think he did too badly.

“We started out with 7 percent and ended up with 44,” Benson said. “I think I made a real good show and I’m kind of proud of that fact.”

He said he doesn’t intend to put politics aside. He’ll be back, though he couldn’t say in what capacity.

Up in Meadow Lakes, Jacobson said he expects to see his vote total climb as absentee ballots are counted, though he doesn’t think that will overcome his deficit.

“I think when it’s all said and done when absentees get in there I might have 40 percent,” he said.

As votes came in Tuesday night, he steadily ate away at Neuman’s lead. He said that was because the first votes to come in were from precincts north of Houston. Jacobson said he didn’t spend any time there at all and chose instead to focus on Meadow Lakes and Knik. Drilling down into the numbers, there’s some truth there. Neuman’s totals in Talkeetna and Willow were more than double Jacobson’s. But in Meadow Lakes, Jacobson took 384 votes to Neuman’s 467.

Like Benson, Jacobson said he’s not done with politics.

“We’re not sure how we’re going to play the next couple years out. We’re going to regroup, take a little break and go back to work,” said the former gas station manager who quit his job to take a shot at Neuman.

Both Neuman and Gatto saw their campaigns end Tuesday. Neither has to face a Democrat in the fall.

Though there were six Valley legislative seats up for grabs this year, only three were contested in the primary. Rep. Wes Keller (R-Wasilla) and Sen. Charlie Huggins (R-Mat-Su) skated through unopposed. The Chugiak/Butte seat didn’t have much of a primary, but Bill Stoltze will have to defeat Democrat Bonnie Nelson in the fall if he wants to keep his seat.

The only other race with multiple candidates was in Valdez/Chickaloon/North Pole/Sutton. In that contest, three Republicans nearly evenly split the vote — the difference between the candidates was only a fraction of a percentage point. Chickaloon’s Eric Feige appears to have prevailed to face Bert Cottle — who ran for the Democratic nomination unopposed — in the general.

Feige took in 666 votes. Pete Fellman of Delta Junction took in 656. Don Haase of Valdez took in 654. The state’s division of elections reported receiving no absentee or questioned votes in that election.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.