Primary election results

The final results of the state’s primary election won’t be known for a week but many races have easily been decided.

Representative Mark Neuman of Big Lake easily beat Meadow Lakes challenger Steve Jacobsen in the House District 15 race.  Republican Senator Charlie Huggins has no challengers in the fall election.

In the Upper Valley, 26% of the voters in Susitna turned out, 26% of the voters in Talkeetna voted and in Trapper Creek precinct, almost 18% of the voters turned out.  In district 15 overall, 28% of registered voters voted.  That number was pushed up by a large turnout in Big Lake and Willow.  33% of the registered voters in Big Lake and Willow turned out to vote.  Statewide, 27% of the voters turned out overall.

In the upper valley precincts, challenger Joe Miller defeated U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski fairly handily.  Susitna precinct voted 111 in favor of Miller to Murkowski’s 71 votes. In Talkeetna, it was 77 to 60, with Miller in the lead,  and in Trapper Creek, Miller had 50 votes to Murkowski’s 32.  It continues to be a tight race.  Statewide, there are seventy six hundred absentee ballots yet to be counted and the results may not be known until after September 8^th.  There is currently a 1,960 vote difference.

Statewide, Governor Sean Parnell is ahead in the Republican primary with almost 50% of the vote. Challenger Bill Walker beat Parnell in all the House District 15 precincts, except for Susitna, Trapper Creek and Talkeetna.  Ralph Samuels was the spoiler in that race, snagging a number of votes.

Even though Ethan Berkowitz will be the Democratic challenger in the gubernatorial fall election, the vote in the Susitna precinct is a tie vote between Berkowitz and challenger Hollis French.  In Talkeetna, French beat Berkowitz and in Trapper Creek, Berkowitz barely beat French by two votes.

Statewide, Mead Treadwell won 53% of the vote to be the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor and challenge Democrat Diane Benson in this fall’s  Lieutenant Governor race. Benson won overwhelmingly in the Democratic race.

It is no surprise that U.S. Representative Don Young beat challenger Sheldon Fisher by a large margin.

The Division of Elections gave out over 16,000 absentee ballots.  At least 7,600 have been returned.  They won’t be counted until Tuesday. More will be counted on September 3^rd and 8^th.