Sen. Wilson will not run for Lt. Governor, says filing was accidental

Alaska Public Media and KTOO’s Andrew Kitchenman contributed to this report.

On Wednesday, State Senator David Wilson filed a letter of intent to run for lieutenant governor. Later the same day, he amended that filing, saying he is not running.

Wilson, a Wasilla Republican, said he made the filing accidentally, and does not intend to run for any statewide office in 2018. He declined to elaborate on how he accidentally filed to run for the state’s second highest office, and says he has no further comment on the issue. Wilson won his current seat in last year’s election after serving on the Wasilla City Council.

Meanwhile, the state Office of Special Prosecutions has not made a decision about whether to charge Senator Wilson in the case in which he’s accused of slapping an Alaska Dispatch News reporter in the Capitol.

The Juneau Police Department handed the case off to the office in May, three weeks after reporter Nathaniel Herz said Wilson slapped him in an encounter. Herz made an audio recording of the incident, in which he asks the senator for his reaction to a recent story.

Chief Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson said he couldn’t provide further comment on an ongoing matter.

Typical criminal cases go to local district attorneys for consideration. The state constitution makes legislators immune to arrests for misdemeanors while the Legislature is in session. The Legislature has been out of session since Sunday, for the first time since the incident.