Stoltze, Colver, Tilton win

MAT-SU — Though the tallies aren’t yet official, it appears Mat-Su voters saw fit Tuesday to send Bill Stoltze, Cathy Tilton and Jim Colver into November general election as the Republican Party candidates.

Three seats were in play in the primary — the Senate seat representing Palmer, Butte and Chugiak, the House seat representing Knik and Chugiak and the House seat representing Chickaloon, Sutton, parts of Palmer and a good stretch of the Richardson Highway. The state’s Division of Elections still has to count absentee ballots and early ballots cast after Aug. 15.

In the Senate race, Stoltze, a long-time representative hoping for a promotion, has a commanding, probably insurmountable lead over his opponent, Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson.

As of Thursday, with most of the early votes and all the ballots cast at polling places counted, Stoltze had 70.7 percent to Johnson’s 29.3 percent. In terms of raw votes, Stoltze had 4,525 and Johnson had 1,874.

Johnson seemed downbeat but expressed no regrets.

“I feel good that I ran this race, whether I win it or lose it,” Johnson said at Election Center in Anchorage Tuesday.

Also at election Central, Tilton was, understandably, much more upbeat than Johnson. As of Thursday, Tilton had 64.3 percent of the vote to Arvin’s 35.7 percent.

“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” Tilton said Tuesday.

She said that she and Arvin were pretty close on the issues. She thinks she probably prevailed through consistent messaging and boots-on-the-ground campaigning.

“I did have a great ground game,” she said.

In both the Stotlze/Johnson race and the Arvin/Tilton race, tthe results are all but a foregone conclusion. The Chickaloon/Sutton/Richardson Highway seemed like it could conceivably be a different story.

The race was the only three-way contest in Tuesday’s primary. Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver said in an interview Wednesday he’s pretty sure his lead will hold when all of the outstanding ballots are counted, though he thinks the early cast ballots will favor incumbent Eric Feige.

As of Thursday, the vote totals were: 1,140 for Colver, 936 for Sutton Community Council Member and former council president George Rauscher and 877 for Feige. Percentage-wise that’s 29.7 percent for Feige, 31.7 percent for Rauscher and 38.6 percent for Colver.

The Valley did field a few candidates for statewide office. The one that got the most attention was Bob Williams in the Democratic Party race for the Lt. Governor nomination.

Williams campaigned statewide, visiting villages and cities alike, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the well-known Anchorage Democrat and sitting state Sen. Hollis French.

Vote totals Thursday showed French with 61.8 percent of the votes to Williams’ 25.6 percent. A third candidate, Andrew C. Lee, took in 12.5 percent.

A math teacher at Colony High School, Williams and his family seemed subdued. However, he put a positive spin on the night, saying he accomplished his goals to run a race to represent all of Alaska and to bring people into the political process who wouldn’t usually participate.

“I’m really proud and honored by the people who have supported me and became involved in the campaign,” Williams said.

Even candidates who didn’t have races Tuesday turned out to the Egan Civic and Convention Center. Gretchen Wehmhoff, the Democrat Tilton is set to face in the general, shook hands and gave out hugs as people walked by her table. She was the only person in the race for the Democratic nomination for that seat.

“I’m feeling pretty good, I just won my primary,” she joked.

She said she looked forward to the general and to discussing her main issues of education, senior care and transportation.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright, who has chosen to run as an Independent against incumbent Rep. Lynn Gattis, showed up along with former Palmer City Manager Doug Griffin waving signs for Bill Walker, who is running as an Independent for the governor’s office. Rupright said it wasn’t Walker’s inspiration that drove him to run as an Independent, but they made the decision for similar reasons.

“I’m a political entrepreneur and I’m a little tired of the power polarization,” Rupright said of his run outside the party system.

Asked to handicap the races, Rupright was three for three — he picked Stoltze, Colver and Tilton — but said he thought the margins in the house would be tighter than they turned out to be. A survivor of various economic downturns in Alaska, including the one in the 80s when, he said, he was “damn near homeless,” Rupright said that whatever the outcome of the general, the state needs to solve its problems collectively.

“If we don’t work together we’re toast,” he said.

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