Primary Primer

Either by design or by chance, almost all of the Valley’s Republican races this year are hot, some very hot. But every Valley Democrat is expected to sail through Tuesday’s primary unchallenged. Voters will be asked to choose one of three ballots:

• A ballot containing Democratic, Alaskan Independence and Libertarian party candidates as well as ballot initiatives.

• A Republican party ballot, which also contains the ballot initiatives.

• A ballot with only the initiatives.

The Republican ballot will contain the following candidates vying for their party’s nomination for national office:

• For U.S. Senate: Incumbent Ted Stevens, Vic Vickers, David Cuddy, Michael Corey, Gerald Heikes, Roderic Sikma and Rich Wanda.

• For U.S. House of Representatives: Incumbent Don Young, Gabrielle LeDoux and Sean Parnell

The Republican state Senate Seat G and state House District 14 races have candidates running unopposed. But also on the Republican ballot, folks in each of the following State House of Representatives districts will be asked to choose between the following candidates:

• For District 13: Incumbent Carl Gatto, David Parks and Florence Scott.

• For District 15: Incumbent Mark Neuman and April Moore.

• For District 16: Incumbent Bill Stoltze, Justin “J.D.” Hatley and Kent Hermon.

Democratic state House and Senate races are all unopposed, but the national races have multiple Democratic opponents:

• For U.S. Senate: Mark Begich, Ray Metcalfe and Frank Vondersaar.

• For U.S. House: Diane Benson and Ethan Berkowitz.

The ballot measures, appearing on all three ballots:

• Ballot Measure 1 to establish an Alaska Gaming Commission.

• Ballot Measure 2 to amend same-day airborne shooting.

• Ballot Measure 3 asking whether to provide public funding in campaigns.

• Ballot Measure 4 the controversial and much-debated initiative changing regulations on water quality.