Huggins eyed for senate seat

WASILLA -- The list of eight applicants for the Alaska Senate District H seat formerly held by Sen. Scott Ogan was whittled down Thursday night to three names -- Charlie Huggins, Larry DeVilbiss and Rex Shattuck.

Thirty-nine people representing the Republican Party for the two House districts covered by Senate District H cast ballots to choose who would be the next Mat-Su senator, at least for two years.

Those names were forwarded Friday to Gov. Frank Murkowski, and the governor has until Sept. 25, 30 days after the date Ogan resigned, to decide whom to appoint to the vacant Senate seat.

Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich said Murkowski isn't bound to appoint anyone selected by the Republican House District 15 and House District 16 committees Thursday -- in fact, he's not bound to pick a Republican at all.

But choosing someone from the same party as the departing Legislature member has been Murkowski's stated practice, and Ruedrich said the governor has had several opportunities to test that practice.

Six appointments have been suggested by the Republican Party of Alaska in the past two years, Ruedrich said, and the party has clear rules stipulating who can apply.

Applicants were invited to send a letter to the party headquarters by 5 p.m. Sept. 15, and all applications were considered valid if they met party criteria. Republican Party of Alaska rules stipulate that the person must conform to the same regulations applied to the elected candidate -- in this case, the potential appointee must have been a resident of the district since June 1, 2001.

The person must be a registered Republican for that period of time, as well, Ruedrich said. The information was checked out with the Alaska Division of Elections before each candidate was considered by the district councils.

Two candidates, Ruedrich said, were eliminated because their applications didn't comply with the party regulations. Larry Wood was eliminated, Ruedrich said, because he changed party affiliation to the Republican Party only one year ago.

Wood is a Lazy Mountain resident and former member of the Alaskan Independence Party who opposed Ogan in his 2000 House District 16 race and ran again for the seat in 2002. Wasilla resident Dallas Massie, Ruedrich said, was also cut from the list because he was registered as a Republican Moderate.

Willow resident Doyle Holmes, who's running for House District 15, was disqualified from the nomination process because his r/sum/ was received after 5 p.m.

Holmes said he was stuck in traffic after a recent accident, called party headquarters on his cell phone and was told his late r/sum/ would be admitted.

It was included with the packet of information distributed at the Thursday evening gathering, but Holmes was not on the list of prospective candidates.

Ruedrich, in announcing that Holmes was not to be considered a candidate, told council members they could waive the rules in order to accept Holmes' application, but no motion to waive the rules was made.

After taking the roll of who, from each district, was present and who would be voting by proxy, candidates were given three minutes to stump for votes, and party members were given time to ask questions before ballots were distributed. Just one question was asked -- where candidates stood in regard to supporting a full slate of Republicans in the coming general election -- from supporting presidential candidate George W. Bush to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Each candidate said they planned to support not just candidates, but Republicans.

"I have never polled as anything other than a Republican party lover in my life," Darcie Salmon said. "I believe in this party, and I believe in this platform."

Vote totals were not released when the top three vote-getters were announced, although Republican National Committeewoman June Burkhart said the names were released in the order of votes received. Burkhart said she would only release the vote totals if asked to do so by the candidates, but she said it was a close race between four candidates, with one narrowly missing the list.

While the votes were being tallied, members agreed to draft a resolution thanking former Sen. Ogan for his years of service. After a standing ovation in recognition of his service, members voted unanimously -- a single "nay" vote was cast, by Ogan -- to draft the resolution before inviting Ogan to speak.

"It's kind of like a relay race," Ogan told the crowd. "I'm kind of out of breath from handing off the baton."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.