Votes are counted, incumbents win

MAT-SU – With all precincts reporting, it appears that the Valley's incumbents have retained their seats in this week's state primary election..

As of 12:32 Wednesday morning, all Valley precincts had reported. The results were preliminary and don’t take into account absentee votes.

But the numbers show that in the race for the Greater Palmer seat, Carl Gatto took in 55.8 percent of the vote, which is just a point or two off from the lead he held all night. His vote total was 2,209. Challenger Don Benson trailed with 1,747 votes.

Up in the northern reaches of the Valley, it looks like Mark Neuman has defeated challenger Stephen Jacobson. Jacobson managed to eat into Neuman’s lead, which at one point in the night was as high as 70 percent. But Neuman still holds 64.7 percent of the total, which translates to 2,298 votes. Jacobson holds 1,253.

The tightest race was the only contested Valley primary which lacked an incumbent — the battle to represent the Valdez/North Pole/Chickaloon district. With all precincts reporting and 1,976 votes counted, the three Republican names on that ballot appear to have more-or-less evenly split the vote.

Eric Feige of Chickaloon took in 666 votes. Pete Fellman of Delta Junction took in 656. Don Haase of Valdez took in 654.