Vote-counting in Alaska’s primary is over, narrowing crowded fields to a final four advancing to the general election in the races for governor, the Legislature and Congress.
It was a chaotic last day of strategic maneuvering, especially in the governor’s race, and Alaska Public Media’s state government reporter, Eric Stone, joined Alaska News Nightly host Casey Grove to break it all down.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Casey Grove: Eric, I think it’s fair to say the most excitement was in the governor’s race. Walk us through what happened, and why the former attorney general’s wife is now on the ballot for lieutenant governor.
Eric Stone: Yeah. That was a wild one. Let me just walk through it step by step.
So we’re talking here about the governor’s race. From the moment the first count is released, we see two Democrats in front — Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins in first and Tom Begich in second — followed by Republicans Bernadette Wilson in third and Dave Bronson in fourth.
And immediately there’s talk of consolidation — in fact, those talks were going on before votes were even counted. So, if there are two Democrats, one drops out and endorses the other. Same on the Republican side — Bernadette Wilson called for that as far back as last year.
The idea being, if there’s one progressive, or one conservative, in the race, they’re more likely to win than if there are multiple similarly viable candidates. And —
Casey Grove: Hold on for a second — isn’t this the whole reason for ranked choice voting? Shouldn’t it allow for multiple candidates from the same party?
Eric Stone: You would think. But it doesn’t quite work that way in practice all the time. Take the 2022 U.S. House race, when the two Republican candidates got more votes than the Democrat in the first round. But those votes don’t always transfer from one candidate to another — maybe voters only liked one candidate, or their second choice was from the other party. And in that case, the Democrat won. So consolidating behind one candidate is seen as a safer bet.
And the No. 2 Democrat, Tom Begich, brought up another issue — funding. He told me on Monday there just isn’t the money out there to support two Democrats in the race. So he dropped out and endorsed Kreiss-Tomkins.
Bronson, the No. 2 Republican who came in fourth, came to the opposite conclusion. He said that because the field was so wide — and Wilson, who finished ahead of him, got only 10% of the overall vote — he wasn’t convinced she’d won a clear mandate.
Casey Grove: OK, got it. So Begich dropped out, Bronson stayed in. That should allow the fifth-place finisher to move up, right?
Eric Stone: Again, you would think. That fifth-place finisher was former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor — who, by the way, also called on Bronson and Wilson to combine tickets over the weekend.
But here’s another curveball: Last week, as ballots were being counted, the state’s campaign finance regulator, the Alaska Public Offices Commission, recommended Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom not certify his nomination for the general election — basically disqualifying him. And on Monday, hours before the deadline to drop out, Dahlstrom announced that she would take that recommendation and not certify him.
Casey Grove: Not certify him — why?
Eric Stone: It has to do with his financial disclosure form. Back in June, when Taylor officially filed to run, he was supposed to tell regulators about his sources of income — it’s a standard form that all candidates have to fill out. And Taylor initially listed more than a million dollars of income from tenants at an apartment building in Anchorage, but didn’t list the tenants themselves as he was supposed to. He said he’d attach their names to an email.
And according to the regulator, he didn’t, despite several follow-ups from staff. It wasn’t until late July that he submitted a list of names — and not even their full names — but the Alaska Public Offices Commission decided that since he’d missed the 30-day deadline to correct his form, Dahlstrom shouldn’t let him run in November.
Taylor issued a statement later objecting to Dahlstrom’s decision, saying it “set a precedent that will haunt Alaska elections well into the future.”
I asked Taylor’s campaign whether he planned to sue over the issue; they said, for now, all options are on the table.
Casey Grove: OK, so pending further developments, Treg Taylor is officially off the ballot. And now it’s his former running mate and his wife in the fourth spot on the ballot?
Eric Stone: That’s the way it looks for right now, yes. As the 5 p.m. deadline approached, Taylor’s running mate, businesswoman Candi English, filed to take Taylor’s spot in the race for governor. And she listed Jodi Taylor, Treg Taylor’s wife, as her running mate. I asked for an interview with English, and she has not gotten back to me, but she told me in a brief call shortly after filing that she was hoping to make sure California megadonors don’t control Alaska’s future.
It’s not final, at least as far as I can tell. The Division of Elections has the Candi English/Jodi Taylor ticket marked as “pending.” A spokesperson for the division told me it’ll stay pending until the Division of Elections certifies that English and Taylor have satisfied the requirements to be on the ballot, including filing a financial disclosure. It’s a yes-or-no proposition, basically, did they file the right forms?
It’ll be up to the Public Offices Commission to determine whether Jodi Taylor’s disclosure complies with the requirements. No word on what comes next in that process as of this afternoon.
But for now, it’s Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins versus Republicans Bernadette Wilson, Dave Bronson and Candi English.
Casey Grove: Alright. So that’s the governor’s race, just all of that. What about the other races? Any fireworks there?
Eric Stone: Just a few quick updates in the races for Senate and House, much less drama but still important and interesting.
No changes to the top of the ticket — it’s still Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan versus Democratic former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, and Republican Congressman Nick Begich III versus independent fisherman Bill Hill.
But in the Senate race, the third spot will go to Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan after he declined to drop out, and the fourth spot will go to Palmer Republican Gerald Heikes after democratic socialist David Leslie from Fairbanks withdrew from the race. Peltola also extended her lead in the primary to eight points over the incumbent Sullivan.
On the House side, we saw four candidates drop out, leaving Hill and Begich facing New York federal prisoner Eric Hafner, running as a Democrat, and Libertarian Jim McDermott of Fairbanks. Begich ended the primary with a 12-point lead over Hill.
And that’s about where things stand as we look toward November.
