Republicans roll in House races

MAT-SU — Republican candidates in six races for the Alaska House of Representatives are leading by wide margins after Election Day votes had been reported by the Alaska Division of Elections on Tuesday night.

The closest of the five House races was separated by more than 56 points, but record numbers of absentee by mail ballots still must be tallied in the coming weeks. Mat-Su Valley residents cast 13,641 absentee by mail ballots and 12,604 early ballots before election day that could still have an effect on races throughout the state.

In the House seat in District 7 that was vacated when Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard decided not to run for reelection, Christopher Kurka holds the slimmest lead of any house candidate with over 3,000 votes separating Kurka and nonpartisan candidate Jamin Burton. Kurka received 4,418 votes accounting for 78.25 percent of the 5,645 votes cast in the race for House District 7. Burton received 1,208 votes, accounting for 21.4 percent of the votes cast. A total of 35.71 percent of District 7 voters turned out on Election Day.

“It’s very humbling. I was very humbled at the primary with such a massive victory over kind of an established almost incumbent and the support is humbling and I look forward to serving the people of District 7 in Wasilla and being their voice in Juneau and in the legislature and working with the Republicans and hoping for a Republican majority coming out of this election in the House,” said Kurka.

There were 1,733 absentee ballots returned and accepted out of 2,628 distributed to voters in District 7. Of the 3,407 early votes cast in District 7, 1,154 still need to be counted. With a deficit of 4,437 votes, even if Burton received all of the absentee ballots and uncounted early votes, Kurka would still have more votes.

After unseating Rep. Mark Neuman in the Republican primary in House District 8, Kevin McCabe holds the largest lead of any Valley candidate after election night. McCabe received 5,470 votes accounting for 85.8 percent of the 6,375 votes cast in District 8. Democratic nominee Alma Hartley received 886, votes accounting for 13.9 percent of the ballots cast. A total of 37.81 percent of District 8 voters turned out to the polls on Tuesday. There were 2,213 early votes in District 8 with 642 that still remain to be counted. Of the 2,576 absentee ballots sent to District 8 voters, 1,754 were returned and accepted.

\While newcomers like Kurka and McCabe are planning to join a majority, incumbents such as George Rauscher are hoping to begin discussions to form a majority as well.

“I think we’ll be talking with our legislators who are projected at least very far ahead, if not those that are ahead and try to come up with how we’re all going to reassemble this year, how we’re going to organize, how we’re going to look forward and what we’ve done in the past and how we can learn from it and make sure that the state can expect a responsible organized group of legislators that go down there this year,” said Rauscher.

Rauscher received 4,453 votes in House District 9 accounting for 79.56 percent of the 5,597 votes cast in that race. Democratic nominee Bill Johnson received 1,114 votes and 34.24 percent of District 9 voters turned out to the polls on Tuesday. In District 9, 1,549 of the 1,559 early votes still need to be counted. Of the 3,069 absentee ballots distributed, 2,829 were returned and accepted. With a deficit of 3,339 votes, Johnson would need nearly all of the roughly 4,000 votes still available to catch Rauscher’s total.

“I really appreciate it. I thank those that stood out in the cold weather, those that waved signs, those that donated, those that worked on the campaign, those that put in the extra time, the extra mile through the primary, through the general election. I really have a warm hearted thank you and I want you to know how much I do appreciate it. I look forward to representing you again in Juneau and I look forward to working with you even closer these next two years,” said Rauscher.

After a more narrow victory in the Primary, Representative David Eastman holds a more than 4,000 vote lead over Democratic nominee Monica Stein-Olson. Eastman received 5,152 votes accounting for 81.38 percent of the 6,331 votes cast in House District 10. Stein-Olson received 1,149 votes and 37.18 percent of District 10 voters turned out to the polls on Tuesday.

Representative DeLena Johnson received 5,207 votes with a 58 point lead over Andrea Hackbarth, who received 1,377 votes with 41.33 percent of District 11 voter turnout.

Representative Cathy Tilton won her race for reelection without an opponent, receiving 5,752 votes and 135 write in votes were also cast.

“I definitely want to thank the people of District 12 for putting their trust in me and for allowing me to represent them for another term,” said Tilton.

In total, Mat-Su Borough voters in five different House districts cast 14,615 early votes with 5,582 that must still be counted. Valley voters have had 14,102 absentee ballots returned and accepted. That leaves nearly 20,000 votes from the Mat-Su that still have not been added to totals and likely will not have an effect on any of the local legislative races but could swing results for congressional races. House District 11 led all Valley House districts with 6,603 voters casting ballots for a voter turnout of 41.33 percent.

“I think there are some races that are going to be close and we will watch those very carefully but there’s going to be a lot of races that aren’t close and so those of us in those districts will be working very hard over the next hours days and weeks to put together the battle plan for the state house going forward,” said Eastman.