Wasilla state Rep. Wes Keller has mixed emotions about losing his Republican primary. Bob Lynn lost his primary, as did Rep. Jim Colver. The MacArthur Fellowship victor and immigration attorney running for Senate as an independent won’t be on the ballot until the general election.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Lynn lost his Republican primary to Chris Birch. The seat is now held by Republican Lesil McGuire, who didn’t seek re-election.
Leading up to her primary, Sen.
Forrest McDonald won the Democratic nomination in that race.
It’s unusual for political parties to meddle in primaries. The general election – including the vote for president – follows on November 8.
The stage is already being set for how the U.S. House race will be waged this fall. The longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House faces no major opposition and is nearly certain to cruise through to the November election. Young handily won the race with about 70 percent of the early vote, and Lindbeck won his primary with about 70 percent of the vote.
“By the time he gets to my age, he’ll be dead”, Young told the Peninsula Clarion newspaper in Kenai this year. Lindbeck says, “Perhaps too long”.
“It’s also true that a lot of people feel like he has sort of left Alaska behind and that he’s working for special interests and for contributors, and so on, and that he’s not so closely in touch with Alaska as he used to be”, he said.
Young issued a statement from his home in Fort Yukon.
The biggest unknown is how Margaret Stock will affect the race. “It’s not a very democraitc Democratic party these days”, he said.
Edgar Blatchford and Ray Metcalfe are seeking the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate contest.
Keller was one of several legislators who lost their primaries. “I do not like the way he votes on issues”, Wolf said.
Metcalfe supported Bernie Sanders in Sanders’ unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Steve Lindbeck is the most prominent of the three Democrats in the U.S. House race.
He says Young’s service should be respected but said he doesn’t think Young wields the influence he should as the senior Republican.
The Democrat had a strong initial fundraising quarter, bringing in more money than Young.
The other Democrats running are William “Bill” Hibler and Lynette “Moreno” Hinz. He began his career in Congress in 1973.
Young said they could vote for him, who has “a proven record of standing up for Alaska”. And the 83-year-old congressman believes he can still do the job and do it well.
Wood said he’s known of Lindbeck’s public radio and television work for 30 years. Murkowski went on to keep her seat by mounting a write-in campaign. Murkowski is taking nothing for granted in her latest re-election bid.
Murkowski is Alaska’s senior senator. She is chair of the Senate energy committee, a post with significance for Alaska.
Voting at Kincaid Elementary School in southwest Anchorage, Nancy Shefelbine and Gabriele Peterson chose Young. If that stands, she says it would be the lowest since ’76.
Shefelbine called him a “known quantity”.
“I know him well”.
Alaskans are at the polls to decide whether to re-elect two congressional incumbents – the state’s senior U.S. senator and its sole member in the U.S. House.
On Tuesday, Anchorage voter Phil Cannon chose to send Murkowski back to Washington.
Another Anchorage resident, Republican Ken Owens, said there were no House candidates he wanted to vote for, so he didn’t vote for anyone in that race.
At a campaign party Tuesday evening at a downtown Anchorage restaurant, Murkowski, surrounded by family and supporters, thanked Alaskans for coming together and backing her.
“She’s just a bold-faced RINO as far as I’m concerned, a Republican in name only”, Owens said.
He also voted against Young.
“He should have retired 20 years ago, gracefully”, Owens said. Lisa Murkowski and U.S. Rep. Don Young are both expected to easily advance, and have been looking ahead to the general election.
Candidates who receive the most votes in the primary go on to the general election in November.
Voter turnout in Tuesday’s primary is one of the lowest the state has seen since it started tracking turnout in 1976.
Advertisement
Primary voter turnout has varied widely, according to Alaska’s Division of Elections, ranging from 17 percent in 2000 to almost 41 percent in 2008.
