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.

Gutknecht Survives Ballot Challenge

I don't have anything against Gil Gutknecht, and the attempt to get him scrubbed from the ballot is the kind of silly legal challenge that gives the law a bad name (see post from 8/14 for more on this issue). However, and this is a BIG however, I have a major problem with what the Minnesota Supreme Court did today. After hearing arguments on the question this morning, the Court denied the challenge and allowed Gutknecht to stay on the ballot. So far, so good. However, the Court failed to justify its reasoning, refusing to issue an explanation of the order denying the challenge.

The Courts have a tremendous amount of power. When a State Supreme Court hears an argument in something like a ballot challenge, which is focused at the very mechanism by which those in power justify having that power, it is vital that every decision be explained. I have no doubt that this decision was the correct one; I'm not a conspiracy nut who believes that the powerful courts are protecting incumbents. However, it certainly seemed that the lawsuit that was filed, while petty, was based on legitimate legal reasoning. How long would it have taken to write a 2-3 page simplified analysis explaining why the Court did what it did? The answer . . . not too much, and doing so would have avoided a further deterioration of faith in the Courts held by some. This was a poor decision by the Minnesota Supremes.

Tuesday's Primaries

Alaska Governor
Governor Frank Murkowski (R), the former Senator who named his daughter to his Senate seat after becoming Governor, is not a popular man. His approval rating is sitting at 20%, according to Survey USA's June polling, and he's trailing in Rasmussen Reports polls even in his own primary, where he comes in third with just 17% of the vote. His opposition? Former mayor Sarah Palin, who leads the RR poll with 43%, businessman John Binkley (who has 30%), and also-rans Jerry Heikes and Merica Hlatcu. Murkowski, who I admit to rooting against because of the unabashed nepotism involved in the incident mentioned above with his Senate seat, is going to go down tomorrow, and hard.

On the Democratic side, the biggest name and likely nominee is former Governor Tony Knowles, who seems to run for every office in the state. He faced Murkowski's daughter Lisa in 2004 when she was running for a full term in the Senate. Now, he's back to running for Governor. He served two terms, and was term-limited in 2002. However, the term limits in Alaska only state that a person can't serve more than 2 consecutive 4-year terms; in other words, serving eight years, taking 4 off, and serving eight more would be perfectly kosher. Knowles opponents are Eric Croft and Bruce Lemke, but Knowles is going to win.

Alaska CD 1 (At-Large)
Congressman Don Young (R) is unopposed, and he can sit back and watch 4 Democrats fight for the chance to lose to him in November. Diane Benson, with $20,000 in the bank, is sadly the best financed of the challengers. After that, things get downright scary, with Frank Vondersaar and his $1,092 war chest second in the money rankings. Ben Frank Hyde and Ray Metcalfe are the other 2 running for the nomination. No idea whoh will win, but I'll give the nod to Benson.

Oklahoma CD 5 runoff
Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin (R) and Mick Cornett (R) face off in a runoff to determine who will be the Republican nominee for this seat. Fallin is the front-runner, having received 35% of the initial vote to Cornett's 24%. The winner will face David Hunter (D) in November.

Wyoming Governor
Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) faces a primary challenge from Al Hamburg, but with an approval rating of 67% (see Survey USA link above), he's not exactly in danger. He's also unlikely to worry about Republicans, although he is in Wyoming. Raymond Hunkins and John Self are fighting to be the Republican that gets a shot at taking him down.

Wyoming CD 1 (At-Large)
Congressman Barbara Cubin (R) faces a primary challenge from the under-funded Justin Winney, Jr. Cubin will win, and will face Gary Trauner (D) in November.