Mary Peltola, Lisa Murkowski projected to win Alaska elections - ICT
TWO MORE TRUMP BACKED CANDIDATES LOSE.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
With most ballots cast, the two incumbents and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have insurmountable leads, even with ranked choice sorting ahead #NativeVote22
- Author: Alaska Beacon
- Publish date: Nov 21, 2022
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola , Yup'ik, being interviewed at an election night watch party held in Anchorage, Alaska, Nov. 8, 2022 (Photo by Joaqlin Estus, ICT).
With most ballots cast, the two incumbents and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have insurmountable leads, even with ranked choice sorting ahead #NativeVote22
James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
All three incumbents likely clinched final victory in Alaska's statewide elections Friday, as the Alaska Division of Elections updated results with thousands of additional absentee, questioned and early ballots from this fall's general election.
Final unofficial results will not be available until 4 p.m. Wednesday, when the division implements the state's new ranked choice sorting system, but voting trends have made the results clear in most races.
With 264,994 votes counted, incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy had 50.3 percent of the vote for governor, well above his leading challenger, Democratic candidate Les Gara, who had 24.2 percent. Independent candidate Bill Walker had 20.7 percent and Republican challenger Charlie Pierce had 4.5 percent.
Friday was the deadline for absentee ballots sent from within the United States to arrive and be counted. Ballots are counted by the elections division's five regional offices, and by the end of the day Friday, most offices had finished counting all ballots that had arrived through Wednesday.
A few hundred ballots sent from international destinations could be added to the count if they arrive by Nov. 23, but it appears all but certain that the remaining ballots are too few to alter the governor's race, where Dunleavy has a margin large enough that ranked choice sorting will not take place.
In races where no candidate earns at least 50 percent of the vote, the lowest finisher is eliminated, and voters who supported that person have their votes redistributed to their second choices. That process continues until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.
In the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races, no candidate is expected to finish with more than 50 percent of the vote.
For U.S. House, Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola, Yup'ik, had 48.7 percent of the vote, ahead of Republican challengers Sarah Palin (25.8 percent) and Nick Begich (23.4 percent) and Libertarian challenger Chris Bye (1.7 percent).
While the combined totals of Palin and Begich would surpass Peltola's tally, a special election in August showed the number of Begich voters willing to support Palin with second-choice votes was too small for her to overtake Peltola. Pre-election opinion polling showed little change in opinions since August.
In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski led all challengers with 43.3 percent. Her main challenger, Republican Kelly Tshibaka, led on Election Day, but Murkowski erased that deficit by the end of the day Friday with late-counted absentee and early votes. By the end of the day Friday, Tshibaka had 42.7percent, trailing by 1,658 votes out of 259,747 cast in the race.
When ranked choice voting begins, Murkowski is expected to receive the majority of the second-choice votes cast by supporters of the third-place finisher, Democratic candidate Patricia Chesbro (10.4 percent). Many supporters of the fourth-place finisher, Republican Buzz Kelley (2.9 percent), are expected to back Tshibaka, but those votes are not expected to be sufficient for Tshibaka to win.
This article was first published in the Alaska Beacon.
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Mary Peltola, Yup'ik, was elected a few months ago in a special election when Representative Young died, he had held the office for 49 years. This is her second election in a few months and another winner defeating Sara Palin for the second time. Mary is the first Alaska Native to ever serve in congress and is a democrat, which I believe is another first. Trump backed Palin.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) was re-elected and was targeted by Donald Trump who supported her opponent.
Congratulations to both.
anti-trump representation in congress is good news for the people of alaska. witnessing sarah palin take another humiliating national faceplant is a great bonus.
Lisa is a moderate Republican with a hell of a lot of backbone.
Maybe Palin will disappear now that she has lost twice in a few months to Peltola.
I doubt it. bible spice chases the spotlight as hard as trumplethinskin does.
Peltola and Murkowski. Great results!
Indeed it is, G.
Murkowski is a Republican that has her head on her shoulders instead of up Trumps ass.
Murkowski should switch parties just to prove a point. After all, what does the Trump GOP have in common with her values?
I've followed Lisa for some time and it seems that her moderate approach is what is best for her constituents. Remember she won in 2010 using a write-in vote so she does have a solid following in Alaska, which is unlike most other states.
Agree. Except more than once Murkowski pulled (The Stepford Syndrome) in senate votes. Do not understand why she did that. She was wrong and she knew it and did it anyway.
Give me an example of one of those votes, perhaps I could shed some light on it or not.
Kavanagh, Barrett, Gorsuch to name three.
Ah, the justices. Let me take one of them, Gorsuch. I can see why she would have voted for Gorsuch with over 16% of Alaskans being indigenous they represent a very large constituency for her and they are supporters of Murkowski. Gorsuch is an expert on US/Indian law, which only one other justice has any experience with it and that would be Sotomayor. He has gone against the conservative majority on some of the major US/Indian cases that have come before SCOTUS. The latest was Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta case where SCOTUS overturned decades of settled law. Gorsuch wrote the dissenting opinion and it was a scorcher directed at the conservative justices.
That is my opinion of the Gorsuch and Markowski vote. No opinion on the other two being voted for by Murkowski.
I agree. Her vote against kavanaugh and attempt to filibuster Barrett are inexplicable.
It was confirmed last night that both Murkowski and Peltola won their races and will be representing Alaska in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives.