Alaska Elections

It was hit and miss for Assembly Candidates backed by conservative Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan in Tuesday’s Municipal Elections. And the makeup of the Anchorage Assembly seems as though it will be shifting.

“Nick Moe! Nick Moe!” supporters cheered as the votes rolled in for West Anchorage write-in Assembly candidate.

“It’s amazing the amount that this campaign was able to accomplish in two weeks. And regardless of the outcome, I am so pleased,” Moe said. “I think we sent the message that the public process should be followed, that we should have leaders that listen to us not shut us out of testimony and the public process. Regardless of the outcome, I’m very happy. It’s very encouraging to be ahead this late in the game. But we still have a long way to go both tonight and we’ll see what happens this next week or so”

Moe and Assembly Chair Ernie Hall were neck and neck, trading places for the lead all night long. At the end of the night, Hall led Moe by just 93 votes. Hall received 3,628 votes, that’s 50.65 percent, while, write-in Moe had 3,535 votes that’s 49.35 percent.

The 26-year-old Moe, who works for the Alaska Center for the Environment, launched a write-in campaign late in the game. He said he jumped into the race with only two weeks to go in response to Hall’s handling of AO37, a controversial ordinance that stripped municipal worker unions of power. Hall oversaw a vote of the assembly which ended a public hearing before everyone had a chance to testify. Hall said Moe’s success was due to support of unions, especially those representing fire fighters.

“People are gonna jump on a bandwagon,” Hall said. “In this case it was the fireman’s association that decided that decided that they wanted to get behind Nick Moe and help him get elected.”

Six of the 11 Assembly seats were on the ballot. Chugiak/Eagle River Candidate, Amy Demboski, who was endorsed by Mayor Sullivan won her race. The paralegal who also sits on the Mayor’s city Budget Advisory Commission beat out two other candidates to replace outgoing Chugiak/Eagle River Assembly Member Debbie Ossiander. Demboski said she ran in support of the Mayor’s controversial ordinance but she’s ready to work with a reconfigured assembly.

“I live in facts and data and that’s the type of decisions that I’ll make,” Demboski said. “So regardless of what the other side is saying, or what my side is saying, if you will, I will always be fair and I will always do my homework. And the facts and the data will say what they will and our community will speak. And whatever my community says that they want, that’s the direction we’ll go in.”

Assembly Vice Chair, and Sullivan supporter, Jennifer Johnston ran unopposed for her South Anchorage seat. Cheryl Frasca, the Mayor’s former budget director, who was appointed to fill the West Anchorage seat left vacant by Harriet Drummond after she was elected to the State House, lost her race to Tim Steele. Steele, a former School Board member said voters sent the Assembly and Mayor a clear message.

“It’s a message from the voters that they’re not real happy,” said Steele. “It seems to be a change election. We’ll see how it all pans out, but I think they’re mad as heck and they’re not gonna take it anymore.”

Midtown Assembly member Dick Traini beat out conservative challenger Andy Clary, whose politics align closely with Mayor Sullivan’s. Traini said he’s looking forward to change on the Assembly.

“There’s going to be a major shift in this Assembly,” Traini predicted. “I think Nick’s gonna win it. We’ll see what happens. I know Steele’s gonna win it for sure. I think the public is speaking and we’re going to listen to them. If there’s a big change [we] should reorganize the Assembly and put it back where it needs to be, where everybody who comes down to testify gets to be heard, and we’ll go from there.”

Assembly member Paul Honeman, who ran unopposed in East Anchorage, agreed with Traini.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Honeman said. “You know past elections have been somewhat mundane on the assembly race, but with the write-in campaign and certainly right on the heels of what we just recently went through — a couple of weeks of pretty rancorous testimony from the public and not feeling like they’ve been heard. I think their message is loud and clear. They want to respect the public process. They want their local elected officials to listen to them.”

Mayor Sullivan blamed special interests for shifting the terrain of the election. He said they were responsible for upsetting Frasca’s race and giving Hall an unexpected run for his seat.

“Here you have again, special interests pouring a ton of money and a ton of ground support into a ground campaign against a candidate who, quite frankly, didn’t intend on raising any money,” Sullivan said. “So I think it kinda put Ernie at a disadvantage, if you will. Ernie Hall is a great guy, a great gentleman, a great leader — he always tries to find consensus and I think be’s going to prevail in this race, ultimately.”

It won’t be known for a week or so whether it’s Hall or Moe who will prevail. Officials with the Municipal Clerk’s office say there are more than 22-hundred early ballots yet to be counted and an unknown number of absentee and question ballots. The write-ins don’t get counted by name unless Moe gets more votes than Hall.

The Election is set to be certified on April 16th.

U.S. Senator Mark Begich has already received an endorsement for his 2014 reelection bid.

The Alaska AFL-CIO endorsed the Democrat this week, more than a year and a half before voters go to the polls.

“Senator Begich has shown time and time again that he cares about Alaska’s workforce. He values hard work and wants to make sure that good jobs come to Alaska, and stay in Alaska,” said Alaska AFL-CIO president Vince Beltrami in a statement.

The AFL-CIO represents more than 50,000 workers in the state.

Alaska joined with the rest of the nation yesterday (Monday) to cast its Electoral College ballots for U.S. President and Vice President.

The state has three electoral votes.

In a ceremony in Juneau, Kristie Babcock, of Kenai, Kathleen Miller, of Fairbanks, and Christopher Nelson, of Anchorage, cast and signed their ballots for the Republican nominees. 

“Their parties nominees, Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, received the most votes in Alaska for President and Vice President on November 6,” said Gail Fenumiai, Director of the state Division of Elections.

In Alaska, Romney and Ryan received more than 54 percent of the popular vote and President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden got about 41 percent; compared to the national popular vote, where the Democratic president got almost 51 percent of the popular vote to the Republican’s 48 percent.

Nationwide, Romney and Ryan received 206 Electoral College votes while Obama and Biden got 332.

Alaska’s Division of Elections is under the supervision of Lt. Gov.  Mead Treadwell.  He told the small group at the formal ceremony that the Electoral College guarantees small states like Alaska have more impact on the presidential election.

“With Alaska’s 3 electoral votes out of a total of 538 nationally, Alaskans have a point 5 percent impact on the election.  It doesn’t sound like much, but if the election is calculated by popular vote, Alaskans have about 300,000 eligible voters out of 200 million eligible voters nationally, or about a point one-five percent impact,” Treadwell said. “So the Electoral College more than triples our collective impact on elections.”

The electors are selected by their political party.  Kristie Babcock applied last spring at the Alaska Republican Party convention.  She called it an honor to participate in the Electoral College process, which is important to Alaska.

“It is a way to give every state its say. And for Alaska the Electoral College ensures that its opinion, its vote, has a little more weight than it would if it were just lost to larger states,” Babcock said. 

The Electoral College votes were sealed and will be sent to the U.S. Senate President, who is Vice President Biden.  Next month he will read the results of all 50 states and District of Columbia electoral votes to both houses of Congress.

Sitka Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins says he’s ready to get to work after a recount Monday made him the official winner of the Alaska House District 34 race.

Kreiss-Tomkins was at the state Division of Elections office in Juneau for the final tally.

“This is the point of punctuation on the election and it’s a relief to have some sense of finality,” he said.

 Kreiss-Tomkins defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Bill Thomas of Haines by 32 votes – two fewer votes then he had when the election was certified on Nov.  23^rd.

 Thomas requested the recount.  It was courtesy of the state Division of Elections, because the vote difference was so small, according to Elections Director Gail Fenumiai.

The final count was 4,130 votes for Kreiss-Tomkins and 4,098 for Thomas.

House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula says the caucus welcomes the young Democrat’s enthusiasm and creative energy.

She says the 23-year-old Kreiss-Tomkins will focus a lot on his large district, which runs from Haines to Sitka, and east to Metlakatla, including 11 other  small Southeast towns.   He will serve on the House Fisheries, Transportation and State Affairs committees.

Rep. Thomas served four terms in the state House, was on the House Finance Committee and served as co-chair last session.  Juneau Republican Rep. Cathy Munoz is the only Southeast legislator to hold a seat on House Finance, and there are no Southeast senators on the Senate Finance Committee.

Kerttula says the lack of Southeast representation on the finance committees is a concern.

“Everyone from Southeast in the legislature understands that and I think it’s going to tie us together better.  We know we have to work together and that we’re going to have to work harder and smarter,” Kerttula says.

Thomas says he may consider another run for office in the future.  Staff has already started packing up his legislative office on Main Street in Haines, though it won’t officially close until the 28^th Legislature convenes in mid-January.

Kreiss-Tomkins says he’s been hiring staff and gearing up for his move to Juneau.

An important Senate seat in Anchorage will remain with the Democrats.

The recount for Senate District J shows Sen. Hollis French 59 votes ahead of  Republican challenger Bob Bell.

French picked up eight votes in the recount, garnering 7,605  to Bell’s 7,546 votes.

Bell called for the recount, which was paid for by the state, because the  difference between the two candidates was less than half a percent.

Meanwhile, the recount in the House District 34 race is scheduled for Monday.  Democrat Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins, of Sitka, is 34 votes ahead of Haines Republican Rep. Bill Thomas.

Haines Republican Representative Bill Thomas has asked for a recount.

Thomas is 34 votes behind political newcomer Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins of Sitka for House District 34.

Elections Division Director Gail Fenumiai has set the recount date for Monday at 9 a.m. in the Juneau office.

Meanwhile, Alaska’s 2012 general election has been certified.

Fenumiai says the State Review Board has completed its review of all precincts.

But the Senate District J recount will not be finished until tomorrow (Thursday), she says.

Republican Bob Bell is 51 votes behind Anchorage Democratic Senator Hollis French and asked for a recount.