May 27 – With days to go until the filing deadline for Alaska’s legislative candidates, more than a third of the 40 members of the House of Representatives are poised to run for re-election unopposed.
Candidates have until June 1 to formally declare their intention to run for the Alaska Division of Elections. Some candidates wait until the last minute to submit their paperwork. But in many parts of the state, lawmakers were able to keep their seats with little or no competition.
The 2022 elections produced the largest freshman class of lawmakers in two decades, with twenty of the sixty lawmakers new to the Alaska Legislature. The change was accomplished in part through a once-in-a-decade redistricting process that placed multiple incumbents in the same districts and allowed newcomers to step outside the shadows of longtime politicians.
But 2024 will yield much less turnover. In the Senate, every incumbent candidate seeking re-election has indicated that he plans to run for re-election. In the House of Representatives, only three lawmakers have indicated they do not plan to keep their seats, limiting opportunities for open races.
Rep. Jennie Armstrong, D-Anchorage, whose Alaska residency was challenged during the 2022 election cycle, is no longer running. Democrat Carolyn Hall is currently the only candidate running for the seat.
Rep. Laddie Shaw, R-Anchorage, is retiring this year at age 75. Several candidates have indicated they might run for the seat, including Girdwood Republican Lee Ellis, president of a craft brewery, and Ky Holland, a nonpartisan candidate and entrepreneur. .
Rep. Ben TimmermanR-Nikiski is not seeking re-election to his seat in the House of Representatives, but is running for a seat in the Senate against incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman. The two Republicans differ on key issues, including education funding. Bjorkman voted to override Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that would have permanently increased education spending, while Carpenter voted to uphold Dunleavy’s veto.
Two Republicans have registered to run for Carpenter’s seat: Ben Elam and John Hillyer, both of Soldotna. Elam is a member of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. Hillyer is a retired Air Force general and pilot.
Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, said Thursday he was still unsure whether he would run again after winning the open seat in a four-way Republican race in 2022. He said he was weighing several factors, including his family and his business, and would likely decide whether to stick close to the June 1 deadline.
While established players do face challengers, several races promise repeats of the 2022 competitions.
Rep. Tom McKay, R-Anchorage, will again face Democrat Denny Wells. In 2022, McKay defeated Wells in a ranked choice table by seven votes, and the race is expected to be very tight again this year.
Rep. Stanley Wright, R-Anchorage, has indicated he plans to run again. That includes Democrat Ted Eischeid, who lost to Wright by 72 votes in 2022.
Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, is once again facing Republican challenger Jeremy Bynum. In 2022, Ortiz defeated Bynum by 343 votes.
Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, will again face nonpartisan candidate Walter Featherly. In 2022, Featherly received more than 45% of the vote but was defeated by Coulombe in a ranked choice table, after Republican third-place finisher Ross Bieling was eliminated.
Rep. Cliff Groh, D-Anchorage, will face Republican David Nelson. Groh defeated Nelson in 2022, when Nelson received 44% of the district’s votes.
Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, will face Tyler Ivanoff, an Alaska Independence Party member from Shishmaref. In 2022, Foster defeated Ivanoff by 92 votes.
Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, will face Democrat Janice Park, who lost to Kaufman by more than 1,300 votes in 2022.
Sen. Kelly Merrick, R-Eagle River, will again face Republican Ken McCarty, along with two other Republican challengers. McCarty, a former member of the House of Representatives, ran to Merrick’s right in 2022 and lost to her by more than 2,400 votes.
For challengers seeking to dethrone incumbents, control of Alaska’s House and Senate is at stake. The Senate is controlled by a bipartisan coalition of seventeen members that will likely—but not guaranteed—survive the upcoming elections. But in the House of Representatives, Republicans narrowly gained control of the chamber in 2023 thanks to the support of four non-Republican members of the Bush Caucus, which represents rural districts. Control of the House, many say, could easily flip if one or more seats currently held by Republicans are won by Democrats or nonpartisan candidates.
A single seat can make a difference in control of the Legislature and in the outcome of major legislation, as lawmakers learned earlier this year when they failed to override Dunleavy’s veto of the education bill by a single vote.
In District 6, incumbent Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, faces multiple challengers — including nonpartisan candidate Brent Johnson, who currently serves as president of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. In announcing his legislative bid earlier this month, Johnson cited Vance’s decision not to override the governor’s veto of the education bill, which was widely supported by public school teachers across the state.
The announcement foreshadows what lawmakers have been discussing behind closed doors since Dunleavy vetoed Senate Bill 140 earlier this year: that opposition to vetoing the “override vote” would continue to haunt some Republican incumbents in their re-election bids.
Johnson said in an interview last week that he first considered running for the Legislature more than a decade ago. But he enjoyed working the local town meeting and living in his home in Clam Gulch.
“I didn’t want to change that. And I consistently stood by that position, even though people asked me to run several times, until I failed to override the governor’s veto on education funding,” Johnson said .
Vance is a conservative member of the current Republican-dominated majority and a key backer of Dunleavy’s policies. Johnson said that if elected, he would like to join a bipartisan caucus and rebuke some of Dunleavy’s policies, including on education and fisheries management.
The Kenai Peninsula isn’t the only place where the veto has motivated some challengers to enter a race.
In District 40, which covers the North Slope and Northwest Alaska, Robyn Burke, a Utqiagvik Democrat, said she decided to run for the state House after Rep. Thomas Baker, R-Kotzebue, became one of several Republicans who initially voted in favor. education legislation, but later voted to uphold Dunleavy’s veto.
“Baker’s vote all but created deep cuts to education that make it unlikely to adequately staff our schools or provide basic materials,” Burke, chairman of the North Slope Borough School District board, wrote in an op-ed published in the Daily News appeared.
Burke is one of two challengers who have so far indicated they plan to run against Baker, along with Kotzebue Mayor Saima Chase. Baker was appointed by Dunleavy after former Rep. Josiah Patkotak was elected mayor of North Slope Borough last year. Baker had not filed for the seat as of Thursday and did not respond to a message asking if he planned to do so. Earlier this month, Baker announced on social media that he would change his party affiliation from Republican to Black “to more effectively meet the specific needs” of his constituents.
The primaries will take place on August 20. Under Alaska’s election system, the top four votes in each legislative race, regardless of political party, advance to the general election.
