2012 elections review: Few incumbents defeated in Alaska primaries
August 29, 2012
By Ballotpedia's Congressional and State legislative teams
The primary season continued yesterday with elections in Alaska, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Vermont.
Here's what happened in Alaska.[1]
Contested Primaries in Alaska -- August 28, 2012 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. House (1 seat) |
State Legislature (59 seats) | ||||
Total Democratic Contested Primaries | 1 (100%) | 8 (13.6%) | |||
Total Republican Contested Primaries | 1 (100%) | 25 (42.4%) |
Congress
U.S. House
Alaska has a single congressional seat on the ballot in 2012. A total of 10 candidates filed to run, made up of 5 Democratic challengers, 2 Republican challengers, 1 incumbent, and 2 third-party candidates. A total of 415 U.S. House seats have held primaries. Thus far, 54.94% of possible primaries have been contested. Alaska's contested figure of 100% (2 out of 2 possible party primaries) is more competitive than the national average.
In Alaska's lone congressional district, 39-year incumbent Don Young, with 79% of the vote, defeated challengers John R. Cox and Terre Gales in the closed Republican primary. In the Open primary, state representative Sharon Cissna with 50% of the Democratic vote defeated Debra Chesnut, Matt Moore, Doug Urquidi and Frank Vondersaar for the Democratic nomination, and LibertarianJim McDermott was unopposed and is that party's nominee in the November election.
Members of the U.S. House from Alaska -- Partisan Breakdown | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | As of November 2012 | After the 2012 Election | |
Democratic Party | 0 | 0 | |
Republican Party | 1 | 1 | |
Total | 1 | 1 |
State legislature
In Alaska, there are 59 total legislative seats with elections in 2012. There were 8 (13.6%) contested Democratic primaries and 25 (42.4%) contested Republican primaries. Thus, there were 33 (28.0%) races yesterday with at least two candidates on the ballot. The 28% figure of contested primaries in Alaska is higher than the current national contested average of 18.4% for states that have had filing deadlines.
Of the 59 incumbents up for election in 2012, 53 (89.8%) of them are running for re-election. A total of 17 (32.1) of those incumbents faced primary opposition -- 4 Democrats and 13 Republicans.
Senate
District 4 (D): Incumbent Linda Menard was defeated by Mike Dunleavy
in the primary. Dunleavy will be unchallenged in the general election.
District 11 (K): Incumbent Republican Lesil McGuire
defeated challenger Jeff Landfield in the primary. McGuire will be challenged by Roselynn Cacy (D) in the general election.
District 13 (M): Incumbent Bettye Davis
defeated challenger Harry Crawford, Jr. in the Democratic primary. Davis will go on to be opposed by incumbent Republican Anna Fairclough in the general election.
District 15 (O): Incumbent Thomas Wagoner was defeated by challenger Peter Micciche
. Micciche will be unopposed in the general election.
House
District 1: Republicans Lynette Bergh, Paul Brown, Doug Isaacson
, and David Gardner faced off in an open seat. Isaacson will be challenged by Democratic challenger Janice Golub in the general election.
District 25: Incumbent Pete Petersen
defeated challenger Lynette Moreno Hinz in the Democratic primary. The winner will go on to face incumbent Republican Lance Pruitt in the general election.
District 33: Incumbent Republican Peggy Wilson
defeated challengers Agnes Moran and Patricia Mackey in the primary election. Wilson will be challenged by incumbent Kyle Johansen (I) and challenger Matt Olsen (D).
District 40: Democratic challengers Robert Nelson, Adeline Hopson, Benjamin Nageak
, and Greta Schuerch face off in an open seat. The winner will go on to be unchallenged in the general election.
Alaska House of Representatives | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | As of November 5, 2012 | After the 2012 Election | |
Democratic Party | 16 | 15 | |
Republican Party | 24 | 25 | |
Total | 40 | 40 |
Alaska State Senate | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | As of November 5, 2012 | After the 2012 Election | |
Democratic Party | 10 | 7 | |
Republican Party | 10 | 13 | |
Total | 20 | 20 |
See also
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- United States House of Representatives elections in Alaska, 2012
- Alaska State Senate elections, 2012
- Alaska House of Representatives elections, 2012
- Congressional redistricting maps implemented after the 2010 Census
- Redistricting in Alaska
Footnotes
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