Primary Results

Alaska Governor
Wow, that wasn't pretty. Governor Frank Murkowski (R) finished third in his primary, as the polls suggested he would. Murkowski managed to pick up just under 19%, a woeful percentage for an incumbent Governor. The new Republican nominee will be Sarah Palin, who took in 51% of the vote. This is bad news for the Democrats, who nominated Tony Knowles with nearly 69% of the vote. Knowles would have easily beaten Murkowski, but he runs behind Palin in the polls and has some work to do if he wants to earn a third term (remember, he served from 1994-2002).

Alaska CD 1 (At-Large)
Congressman Don Young (R) will face off against Diane Benson (D), who picked up 40% of the vote, narrowly beating Ray Metcalfe, who was about 4% behind. Young should win re-election easily.

Oklahoma CD 5 Runoff
As expected, Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin (R) won her runoff race against Mick Cornett, 63%-47%. Fallin now goes on to face David Hunter (D) in November.

Wyoming Governor
Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) easily won re-nomination over Al Hamburg, taking about 88% of the votes. On the Republican side, Roy Hunkins (R) also won an easy battle over John Self, taking about 2.5 times the number of votes. What's interesting is the disparity in votes between the Democrats and Republicans. About 32,000 voted on the Democratic side, with close to 71,000 voting for Republicans. Freudenthal is incredibly popular, with a 67% approval rating, but with so many more Republicans going to the polls in the primary, it certainly makes you wonder if Wyomingans are interested in going back to a Republican Governor despite Freudenthal's popularity. It's also quite possible, however, that Democratic turnout was depressed because Freudenthal was easily going to win and there was no chance to pick a candidate in the House or Senate race who was going to win.

Wyoming CD 1 (At-Large)
Congressman Barbara Cubin (R) faced a surprisingly strong challenge from Bill Winney, but still won, with 51,000 votes to Winney's 34,000. She will face Gary Trauner (D) in November.