Unofficial results: Micciche appears to have won mayor’s race in Kenai Borough

By
Suzanne Downing
-
12
1357

The special election for mayor, replacing former Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, is over and the results are coming in. The unofficial results as of Tuesday night are:

  • Peter Micciche: 2,526

Linda Hutchings: 873

David Carey: 555

Zachary Hamilton: 242

Unresolved write-in: 807

Total votes cast: 5,004

These results are from 27 of 28 reported precincts. There are 54,212 voters in the borough, and, as of now, the turnout is about 9.23% for this special election, with 5,004 ballots cast.

With over 50% of the votes cast for Micciche, it appears there may not be a runoff, which would have been scheduled for March 7 if no candidate received a majority of the vote. However, there may be more ballots on the way, as the mailing deadline was Tuesday, Feb. 14. Every eligible voter in the borough was mailed a ballot.

Micciche is a longtime public servant on the Kenai. Most recently, he served from 2013 to 2023 in the Alaska State Senate, was Senate majority leader from 2017-2018 and then became Senate president, before retiring in January.

Micciche had previously served as mayor of Soldotna and on the Soldotna City Council. He earned an associate degree from Kenai Peninsula College and a bachelor’s in business management from Alaska Pacific University. For many years he was the manager of the Kenai LNG Facility for ConocoPhillips.

The special election may put Micciche in place until the regular election in October, when the seat was already scheduled to be on the ballot.

Drill down into the precinct data at this Kenai Borough Division of Elections link.

12 COMMENTS

  1. Thank goodness! Remember the drag queen twerking debacle in Soldotna Creek Park? Linda Hutchings was quoted in the newspaper saying she thought it was impressive and had seen worse at high school sporting events or local dance studios. Insinuating youth dancers and cheerleaders were worse than a man in a school girl uniform twerking his g string in front of kids. That sealed it for me, would never vote for Hutchings.

  2. > Every eligible voter in the borough was mailed a ballot.

    Oh, that’s horrible – though I don’t recall receiving a ballot in the mail; I went to my polling place to vote.

  3. What a shame ! 5% of the electorate with only 10% voting is a total failure in a ” Representative Republic ” it is pretty clear that those that work for government voted for Peter the Pied Piper!

    • Only Linda Hutchings and Peter Micciche appeared to be making any kind of serious effort at running. So those were, honestly, the only two choices. We’ll have another chance in the fall…

  5. “Every eligible voter in the borough was mailed a ballot.”

    You might want to check your source on this one. Absentee by mail had to be requested.

  6. I didn’t get a ballot mailed to me. I’m a registered voter and voted in the last election. If that is what is should have happened, I think the residents of the Borough should demand a new election.

    How many other voters are in the same boat as me?

  8. Can anyone tell us what Micciche has done for AK besides being a career politician?

    Crickets….
    Expect the same.

  11. Jesse Bjorkman’s and Justin Riffridges best friend is now mayor of Kenai. I guess the Kenai is the capital of pseudo-conservatives.

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