State Office Candidates File Before Friday Deadline

June 01, 2012|By Chris Klint | Channel 2 News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — State office candidates rushed to file for this year’s primary elections Friday, producing several surprises before a 5 p.m. filing deadline.

Fifty-nine of the state Legislature’s 60 seats -- all 40 House seats and 19 of 20 Senate seats – are up for votes due to redistricting. The only seat not open is Senate District P, currently held by Sen. Dennis Egan (D-Juneau) after he was selected in 2009 by then-Gov. Sarah Palin to replace resigning Sen. Kim Elton.

Alaska’s 2012 elections are being conducted under an interim redistricting plan approved for use by the Alaska Supreme Court, despite its March rejection of the Alaska Redistricting Board’s original plan as insufficiently compliant with the state constitution.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, candidate listings by the state Division of Elections showed 149 candidates filing for the House and the Senate in this year’s elections. Republicans outnumbered Democrats, with 88 Republicans, 56 Democrats and five legislative candidates, who are not affiliated with a party.

The non-affiliated candidates have filed to bypass the primaries entirely and appear on the general ballot in their selected races. One of them is Rep. Kyle Johansen of Ketchikan, who withdrew his name from the District 33 Republican primary to make an independent run for his seat after voters nearly tried to recall him last year.

Other non-affiliated candidates include Phil Isley in House District 16 and Ron Devon in Senate District N, in addition to Clinton Desjarlais, Fletcher G. Fuller Jr., Ted Gianoutsos and Sidney I. Hill for Rep. Don Young’s U.S. House seat.

Five Democrats -- Debra Chestnut, Sharon Cissna, Matt Moore, Doug Urquidi and Frank Vondersaar -- as well as Republican John Cox and Libertarian Jim McDermott are set to oppose Young’s bid for re-election as Alaska’s sole representative in Congress.

Of the 59 legislative seats up for elections this year, 8 are running unopposed, 7 for the House and 8 for the Senate.

In the House, two Democrats are unopposed: Beth Kertula of Juneau and Bob Herron of Bethel. Five Republicans face no opposition: House Speaker Mike Chenault of Nikiski, Mike Hawker of Anchorage, Steve Thompson of Fairbanks, Kathy Munoz of Juneau and Alan Austerman of Kodiak.

Also of note, two Anchorage Assembly Members are running for House seats -- Dick Traini and Harriet Drummond. Traini is a Republican candidate in District 15, known as the University District. Drummond is a Democrat running in District 16, Spenard and Rogers Park, which Berta Gardner now represents.

In the Senate, there is only one incumbent running unopposed, Sen. Lyman Hoffman (D-Bethel.)

In the August primary, the Repubican primary is especially lively with 6 three-way races, as well as a four-way race in District 1, which encompasses North Pole & Eielson Air Force Base. The Democrats also have one four-way race in House District 40, a seat that's being vacated by Rep. Reggie Joule (D-Kotzebue).

The Division of Elections has posted full lists of candidates who have filed for primary races and the general election.

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