Democrats, independents make key gains in latest legislative results/APOC to weigh subpoenas in Dunleavy coordination case

The latest batch of ballots gave progressive and moderate legislative candidates the lead, breathing room or an outright majority.

It’s Tuesday, Alaska!

In this edition: The Division of Elections has released the latest batch of ballots, which appears to cover a little more than half of the outstanding ballots. As expected, the absentee and early votes have trended toward the left, which is good news pretty much across the board for Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans in tight races. At the top of the ticket, Murkowski and Peltola saw their share of the vote improve while Dunleavy saw his slip a bit. In the Legislature, Fairbanks Democratic Sen. Scott Kawasaki took an outright majority in his race and Democratic candidate Donna Mears took a narrow lead in her race for a vacant East Anchorage House seat. In general, Democrats extended leads they already had or tightened the distance with their challengers, which means the House could be looking bipartisan. Meanwhile, the election may be over, but the election-related complaints live on and APOC is set to consider issuing subpoenas to Republican Governors Association officials to determine whether they illegally coordinated with Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s campaign.

Current mood: ⛸️

The latest batch of election results looks good for Dems, independents and moderate Republicans

Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash

The biggest news at the top of the ticket is that Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has now pulled up practically even with her far-right Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka. Fewer than 600 votes separate the two with Murkowski currently sitting at 43.11% of the vote to Tshibaka’s 43.34% of the vote. Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola also put some distance on her Republican challengers and now sits at 48.13% of the vote, just shy of the outright majority needed to avoid the ranked-choice voting tabulation. Still, both are in excellent spots to win once the tabulation occurs on Nov. 23.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy still won’t have to worry about the tabulation as he still sits above an outright majority with 51.04% of the vote.

As for the legislative races, there’s been a fair bit of movement with it generally being good news for Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. One Democratic incumbent took an outright majority in his race and another Democrat took the lead (as well as an outright majority in her race).

There are still quite a few ballots left to be counted and today’s count generally covers early votes and absentee ballots received through election day. It also doesn’t include any big update from Region IV—rural Alaska—where we’re watching House District 39 where Democratic Rep. Neal Foster holds a slim 10-vote lead on his opponent.

Find the latest results here.