This is the place to talk about Alaska politics -- state, local, national. Public life in the Last Frontier has probably never been more interesting than right now -- the governor as candidate for vice president, the broad and still-evolving corruption investigation, a big election, powerful members of Congress under scrutiny, and the usual hardball Alaska politics. Come here for news, tidbits and information, and join the discussion. Keep your comments civil and on point. Avoid personal attacks. Do not use profanity. Posts that violate the Terms of Use will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.
Erika Bolstad
Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.
Sean Cockerham
Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He spent three years based in Juneau for the ADN before joining the Tacoma News-Tribune to write about Washington state politics. He went to Iraq twice for the News Tribune, and previously wrote about Alaska government and politics for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com
Kyle Hopkins
Kyle Hopkins covers politics and other stories for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously was a reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com
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The FBI raided state legislatures offices in Aug. 2006, and the fallout since has been epic in Alaska's political world.
Bob Poe running for governor - 1/7/2009 1:50 pm
Before the storm - Palin e-mails from Aug. 27 - 1/7/2009 12:07 pm
Reid on punishment for Stevens - 1/7/2009 7:32 am
Polling on Palin vs. Murkowski - 1/6/2009 3:24 pm
Citgo 'suspends' free heating oil program - 1/5/2009 2:37 pm
Palin's comments on first grandchild - 12/31/2008 4:35 pm
Suicide council audit - 12/30/2008 9:11 pm
Son of Snowzilla - 12/30/2008 8:55 pm
'People' editor: No deal for baby photos. Yet. - 12/30/2008 1:12 pm
'Baby Name Bible' - 12/29/2008 8:14 pm
Anchorage Mayor: Begich out, Claman in Jan. 3 - 12/26/2008 12:40 pm
No trash power? (Plus: School board pay) - 12/26/2008 11:22 am
PETA's beef with Palin - 12/24/2008 12:02 pm
"The opportunities that were not seized." - 12/22/2008 1:48 pm
Palin's next big speech? - 12/22/2008 12:37 pm
Here we go - a look at potential 2010 election matchups (and Palin popularity) - 12/20/2008 1:42 pm
Hawker to Palin: Try again - 12/19/2008 5:11 pm
Video: Palin on salary, energy plan - 12/19/2008 9:58 am
Walt Monegan is planning to run for mayor - 12/18/2008 4:40 pm
Covering Juneau - 12/17/2008 5:07 pm
Palin says no to raise; energy plan delayed - 12/17/2008 2:19 pm
Meyer joins majority, gets LB&A (Updated with McGuire, Menard joining too) - 12/16/2008 5:45 pm
Posted: November 12, 2008 - 10:48 pm
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From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --
With the country’s attention turned to Alaska’s barnburner of a U.S. Senate race, state legislators watched the latest election numbers with their own hides in mind tonight.
Most frontrunners could breathe a sigh of relief. Of the four incumbent lawmakers who began the day fewer than 200 votes ahead of their opponents, three widened the gap in the most recent count:
• Fairbanks Democrat Rep. Scott Kawasaki’s lead over Republican Sue Hull grew to 280 votes.
• Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, expanded his lead on Democrat John Brown to 233 votes.
• Rep. Bob Buch, a Democrat who represents the Baxter neighborhood in Anchorage, roughly doubled his edge on Republican Bob Lewis to 124 votes.
In the narrow legislative races, only incumbent Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks, lost ground. His edge over Democrat Karl Kassel shrank by more than half, to just 32 votes.
Still, the count is far from over. The Division of Elections tallied an additional 59,000 ballots Wednesday, but tens of thousands more remain uncounted. The deadline for counting is Wednesday, Nov. 19.
“You work every day in the campaign for months and you’re going door to door talking to people and the day of the election … you’re ready to find out whether all the work paid off or not and then the race ends up being too close to call,” said Pete Petersen, a Democrat who watched his lead over incumbent Republican Rep. Bob Roses grow Wednesday in East Anchorage.
In a Fairbanks Senate race with no incumbent, Democrat Joe Paskvan saw his lead over Republican Cynthia Henry expand to 391 votes. The seat is being vacated by Republican Sen. Gary Wilken.
Two contests for open House seats had appeared close before Wednesday. But in each race, the frontrunner began pulling away.
Looking to replace Anchorage Republican Ralph Samuels, Democrat Chris Tuck is 225 votes ahead of Ron Jordan, while Alan Austerman is now more than 400 votes ahead of Democrat Andrew Lundquist in the race for retiring Kodiak Republican Gabrielle LeDoux’s post.
On Nov. 4, voters generally favored incumbents in the legislative races. The Division of Elections plans to resume counting ballots on Friday. Barring any surprises, Republicans and Democrats are tied at 10 seats apiece in the Senate, with Republicans holding a slight edge in the House.
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