Incumbents sweep the Valley

MAT-SU— Incumbent candidates swept the races in the House and Senate Primaries on Tuesday as results poured in from the Alaska Division of Elections early Wednesday morning.

In the House, DeLena Johnson defeated Edna DeVries 1580 to 1103 in the battle of two Palmer Mayors for District 11. George Rauscher defeated challengers Pam Goode and Jim Colver. Rauscher received 1323 votes, Goode 568 and Colver 748. Senator Mike Shower won his first election with 3289 votes to the 1547 cast for Assemblyman Randall Kowalke.

Mark Neuman won District 8 with 1769 votes over the 575 cast for Andy Murr. James Chesbro defeated Libertarian Mark Fish 294-146 for the Democratic nomination in District 8. The race between Patricia Faye-Brazel and Neal Lacy for the House District 10 went to Faye-Brazel with 2289 votes to 203 for Lacy. Unopposed candidates were: Republican Representative Colleen Sullivan-Leonard in District 7,Democrat Su Kay in Senate Seat E, Republican Representative David Eastman in District 10, Democrat Eileen Patterson in District 11, Republican Representative Cathy Tilton in District 10 and Democrat Stephany Jeffers in District 10.

Johnson will face off with Democrat Eileen Patterson in the November General Election, but had to defeat current Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries. Johnson gathered with friends and family in her home after a long weekend finishing up her campaign. Johnson waved signs from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Johnson returned home just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday to watch the results of the Primary voting. Johnson won by 17 percent and 477 votes.

“I always take elections seriously. I’ll probably get some sleep and regroup and I will plan my strategy for my next round and accordingly,” Johnson said late Tuesday night.

Johnson’s husband stayed until after 7:30, making sure that the last commuter returning to the Valley would see a ‘DeLena Johnson’ sign before polls closed at 8 p.m. The loyal group of Johnson supporters positioned themselves on the bridge hoping to hear honks from the drivers passing under the overpass, and placing small rocks on the bridge in a row to count until 200 horns had been blasted.

“I had to work harder to start with. I was in good shape before people started to do the last minute smear tactics and It’s really about the people and who they want to choose to represent them. I always try to remember that I’m highly privileged to be considered to do this have to pinch myself sometimes,” Johnson said.

Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries collected 41 percent of the votes with 1103 cast. She will continue to serve as mayor of Palmer.

Rep. George Rauscher was among other incumbents to win big on Tuesday night. Rauscher faced off against former representative Jim Colver and Pam Goode of Delta. Rauscher held the lead early and extended it to receive nearly two votes for every one cast for either of his challengers. District 11 encompasses Sutton, Glennallen, and Valdez covering a variety of Alaskan communities. Rauscher collected more than 50 percent of the vote with 1,323 cast.

“I think there’s so many people who really believed, in my race, who believed that I actually should've been the legislator for this. I think they came out of the woodwork. Smart people watch, they listen. They’re not easily swayed last minute in the election,” Rauscher said.

Rauscher gathered with his counterpart in the Senate, Seat E winner Mike Shower, to watch results come in. Rauscher headed home and went to bed prior to the final sets of results coming in. Rauscher faced last minute mailer attacks, but campaigned on the bills he had passed in Juneau.

“It shows that it wasn’t won or lost in the last two weeks, it was won quite a while ago,” Rauscher said.

Rauscher commended his competition, calling them champion campaigners, and now has his sight set on the General Election in November. Rauscher will face off against Democrat Bill Johnson who received 100 percent of the ballot with 420 votes cast.

“This isn’t the minor leagues,” Rauscher said.

Rauscher is eager to continue work on writing bills for the next legislative session, as he does year round. Rauscher credited his staff for their hard work during the campaign.

“We’re going to start writing bills. If you notice, a lot of my bills aren’t really laws, they’re trying to provide businesses a way to cut through bureaucratic red tape,” Rauscher said.

Republican Sen. Mike Shower received more than twice the vote of Assemblyman Randall Kowalke. Shower received 3,289 votes to 1,547 cast for Kowalke, who was nominated to the Senate Seat E position prior to Shower, but was not confirmed. Kowalke finished his duty at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting and returned home, opting to view results in the morning. Shower did not join the Republican caucus once confirmed, and that was a crucial issue among the candidates. The two shared views on nearly every major issue facing voters, but Kowalke has been in office much longer than Shower, and also planned to join the caucus. The seat became open when former senator Mike Dunleavy left his seat to run for governor. Dunleavy won the Republican nomination Tuesday night. Shower will face Democrat Su Kay who received 910 votes.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Mark Neuman won District 8 with more than three times the votes of his challenger. Neuman received 1,769 votes to 575 cast for Andy Murr. Neuman will face both Libertarian Mark Fish and Democrat Primary winner James Chesbro in the November Primary Election. Fish won the Democratic nod with 294 votes to 146 for Fish.

Republican Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard won District 7 unopposed, receiving 100 percent of the 1868 votes. Republican Representative Cathy Tilton won District 12 unopposed, receiving 2,421 votes. She will face off against Stephany Jeffers who received 497 Democratic votes.