Monday, June 2, was the final day a candidate could file for election in either state or federal office in Alaska. I’ll be going through all the candidates, and doing some sort of analysis soon. For now, here’s a few interesting tidbits:
- There are 11 candidates for U.S. Senate. Four of them are Republicans. Two are Democrats. Three are Libertarians, and two are registered as Alaska Independence Party candidates. Former Valley lawmaker Vic Kohring is one of them. Kohring was caught up in the corruption scandal mess. He spent some time in prison. He hitchhiked from Wasilla to Anchorage so that the feds could get him there. And he still has a small following in the Valley.
- Six candidates are running for U.S. House of Representatives, the most viable of whom, so far, are incumbent Rep. Don Young, and Democratic challenger Forrest Dunbar. That, it should be noted, could change.
- In Sen. Lyman Hoffman’s Senate district, centered in Bethel, both House candidates, as well as Hoffman himself, are unopposed. Rep. Bryce Edgmon, who is one of those House members, won his election in 2006 by a coin toss. The other is Bob Herron.
- Of the 40 House members, seven are unopposed.
- Two incumbent Democratic House members are being challenged in their own party. Anchorage Rep. Les Gara will be running in the primary against Robert Benton, who ran briefly as a Republican for that seat in 2012. North Slope Rep. Ben Nageak is being challenged by Kotzebue’s Dean Westlake.
- In the Senate, 14 of the 20 seats are up, and three of them aren’t being challenged. Democratic Sens. Berta Gardner, Lyman Hoffman and Donnie Olson all get to breathe easy this time around.
- On the Republican side, Valley Rep. Bill Stoltze, who is running for Senate, will be facing DeLena Johnson in the primary and Fairbanks Sen. Click Bishop will face Mike Miller, who is a former legislator and former GOP lieutenant governor nominee. He is also Terry Miller’s brother, who was a former Senate president and served as lieutenant governor with Gov. Jay Hammond.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Kohring’s a good man. He was railroaded by political opponents. He was only state legislator to openly associate with the Libertarian Party a few years ago. He worked with Libertarians on a number of agenda items. And Libertarians remember that, and thank him for that.
Don’t think he has a good chance, but very interesting to see him running. He might want to switch though to the Libertarian Party.
Seriously, Kohring again? If he has a small following, it is largely comprised of the voices in his head.