Just 50 days until Aug. 16, and the candidates’ date with destiny.
Aug. 16 is the special general election date for the interim congressional seat, and also the day of the regular primary for all seats up for election this year, including state House, Senate, governor, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate. Only one seat in the Legislature — Sen. Donny Olson of Golovin — is not on a ballot somewhere. And Sen. Dan Sullivan gets a bye this year.
Monday, June 27 is the Division of Elections’ target date to post sample ballot for the Aug. 16 primary and general on its website.
In the Anchorage election for the 12th seat on the assembly, the latest unofficial results keep Daniel Volland in the lead and Stephanie Taylor close behind. See results here. The position will be a second vote on the Assembly for the very, very left-of-center downtown Anchorage.
Tshibaka: In this edition of “Notes from the trail,” we ran across a photo of Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, above, showing she has bounce in her step at the blanket toss in Utqiagvik. She can bounce and throw candy at the same time. We don’t know if there’s another candidate for Senate who would have the moxie to do the blanket toss — it’s a fairly athletic feat.
Also from the Tshibaka campaign, they’ve opened offices in Soldotna and Fairbanks, both key parts of the state for the campaign against Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Their Anchorage office is on Northern Lights, just a few blocks from the Nick Begich for Congress office.
Oddly, nobody has spotted any signs around the state for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, but there are a lot of signs for Tshibaka on the Kenai, in Anchorage, and in the Mat-Su.
Babcock for Senate: The Kenai Peninsula is blanketed with 4×8 signs for Tuckerman Babcock for Congress, with a smattering of Jesse Bjorkman signs. MRAK counted 26 Babcock signs in Soldotna alone. Bjorkman is the teacher’s union rep and assemblyman who is running against Babcock, who is a longtime conservative activist.
Constant gift: In the race for U.S. House, former candidate Chris Constant said he would “probably” write in the name of Tara Sweeney, who did not make the final four for the House seat. That should tick off Mary Peltola, who did make the final four and, like Constant, is a Democrat.
Charlie Pierce fundraiser: About 100 people and 40 classic cars gathered on the bluff in Nikiski to raise funds for Charlie Pierce for governor. The deep-fried halibut was a hit. The big-ticket item in the auction was an AR-15. Watch as the AR-15 gets auctioned off here.
Fundraisers coming up:
