{"id":19909,"date":"2016-08-15T08:01:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T15:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/a-dozen-state-lawmakers-face-challenges-in-alaska-primary\/"},"modified":"2016-08-15T08:01:44","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T15:01:44","slug":"a-dozen-state-lawmakers-face-challenges-in-alaska-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/a-dozen-state-lawmakers-face-challenges-in-alaska-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"A dozen state lawmakers face challenges in Alaska primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014<\/strong> A dozen Alaska state legislators face challenges from within their parties during Tuesday\u2019s primary election.<\/p>\n

In an unusual move, the Republican and Democratic parties \u2014 generally reluctant to pick sides during a primary \u2014 have gotten involved in some of the races.<\/p>\n

All 40 House seats and half of the Senate\u2019s 20 seats are up for election. Two senators, Republican Bert Stedman of Sitka and Democrat Donny Olson of Golovin, are unopposed this year. Seven House Democrats, six of whom are in the minority, and Republican House Speaker Mike Chenault also face no opposition.<\/p>\n

It is still possible for someone to run as a write-in candidate, however; the deadline for doing so is five days before the November election.<\/p>\n

Republicans control both chambers.<\/p>\n

The races will be held against the backdrop of a multibillion-dollar deficit that lawmakers have yet to close.<\/p>\n

In all, nine legislators are giving up their seats, either because they aren\u2019t seeking re-election, or \u2014 in the case of Reps. Lynn Gattis, Craig Johnson and Shelley Hughes \u2014 they\u2019ve opted to run for the Senate.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, state GOP leaders took the unusual step of endorsing George Rauscher over incumbent Republican Rep. Jim Colver of Palmer. Rauscher made a failed bid for the seat in 2014.<\/p>\n

State Republican Chairman Tuckerman Babcock said the action wasn\u2019t taken lightly. But he thinks Colver is a Democrat who would organize with Democrats at the first opportunity.<\/p>\n

Colver is part of the \u201cMusk Ox Coalition,\u201d a loose affiliation of moderates in the Republican-led House who on a handful of issues have bucked leadership or aligned with minority Democrats.<\/p>\n

Another \u201cmusk ox\u201d facing a primary challenge, Republican Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer, is being targeted by a third-party spending group.<\/p>\n

Colver, on his website, defends his voting record as one of the most conservative in the Legislature and said he works for his constituents \u2014 not \u201cparty bosses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Colver said he\u2019s a proud member of the Republican-led majority and said there\u2019s nothing wrong with having some independence and different points of view within that group. He pegs his troubles with party leaders to his vote against a bill that would have put legislators on a gas line board. The bill passed the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Bill Walker. Colver saw the bill as unconstitutional \u2014 a conclusion also reached by the attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess the lesson is, if you don\u2019t go along with the flow and do what you\u2019re told, you might get thrown under the bus,\u201d Colver said.<\/p>\n

The state Democratic party, meanwhile, has donated to the challengers of fellow Democratic Reps. Bob Herron of Bethel and Benjamin Nageak of Barrow. Herron and Nageak are among four Democrats in the House majority.<\/p>\n

Herron is a leader within the majority who expressed frustration that pieces of the governor\u2019s plan to address the deficit weren\u2019t sent to the House floor for a vote. Nageak is a co-chair of the House Resources Committee.<\/p>\n

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Casey Steinau said there was no formal decision by the party to back Herron challenger Zach Fansler and Dean Westlake, who made a failed run against Nageak in 2014. Fansler and Westlake asked the party for its support, Steinau said.<\/p>\n

She said her party\u2019s goal is to get a \u201ctrue bipartisan coalition\u201d in the House that holds shared power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 A dozen Alaska state legislators face challenges from within their parties during Tuesday\u2019s primary election. In an unusual move, the Republican and Democratic parties \u2014 generally reluctant to pick sides during a primary \u2014 have gotten involved in some of the races. All 40 House seats and half of the Senate\u2019s 20 seats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19909"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}