Thanksgiving is just four days away! The Division of Elections finally finished counting ballots this week, and then ran the retabulations for the nine races that were decided by ranked choice voting. Even after losing a key seat, the new 21-member House majority coalition announced key committee positions. And Ballot Measure 2, the repeal of ranked choice voting, failed to pass by an extremely small margin. 

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I have been visiting friends in Spain the last week. I spent a few days in Madrid, then went to Granada in the south, spent a day at Alhambra, and spent a day hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We got back to Madrid yesterday. There have been a lot of takeaways, including the great roads and clean cities, but the biggest takeaway by far is the extremely low amount of homelessness and public camping. It was a strange feeling walking around cities for many hours a day and not seeing people sleeping, begging, or using drugs on the streets. I kept imagining what Anchorage would be like if it was like that.  

The Counting has Concluded

The Division of Elections finally finished counting the outstanding absentee and question ballots on Wednesday (11/20/2024) – two weeks after the election! They also ran the retabulations for the nine races decided using ranked choice voting.

The big one was Republican Nick Begich’s defeat of Representative Mary Peltola (D – Alaska) 51.3% to 48.69%. Begich will now take the seat that his grandfather held before disappearing in a plane in 1972. He will also be part of the incoming Republican majority in the U.S. House. Here is Peltola’s statement on her loss to Begich. 

The other eight legislative races went mostly as expected. But the race between Republicans Steve Menard and Elexie Moore for the seat Representative Jesse Sumner (R – Wasilla) is vacating is razor thin. After Republican Jessica Wright’s second choice votes were redistributed, Moore is winning by just 13 votes. The margin is within the range for a state funded recount, if requested. 

After the remaining votes were counted, Republican David Nelson beat Representative Cliff Groh (D – Anchorage). Groh posted this nice concession after the results were finalized. Even though it’s close, Nelson is up by more than 0.5%, meaning a recount would have to be paid for by Groh if he chose to do one. 

Ballot Measure 2 was defeated by an extremely thin margin, 159,955 to 160,619, or 49.9% – 50.10%. This is within the margin for a state funded recount. The Alaska Republican Party posted that they will be requesting a recount. They hired attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon to oversee the recount. The election is scheduled to be certified on November 30. 

House Solidifies Majority Coalition

Even with the loss of Cliff Groh, the new House majority coalition still has 21 members – the bare minimum for a majority in the House. The sent out a press release listing committee chairs and members of the finance committee. 

Representative Andrew Gray (D – Anchorage) chairing the House Judiciary Committee is definitely going to be the best show in Juneau this session!

It’s also noteworthy that they list six members on the finance committee. This means that they were unable to entice any of the other 19 Republicans to jump to their side. If that holds, the Republican minority will have five seats on the 11-membner finance committee. It also looks like Democrat Nellie Jimmie finally came around, and was rewarded with a seat on the finance committee. 

The Republicans in the House or Senate have yet to make any public announcements about how they will organize their minorities. This is likely because the majorities in both bodies are still trying to get some Republicans to join, and some may be considering it. At some point they are going to need to announce who their minority leaders will be and who they want to serve on committees. 

This Week’s Loose Unit

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this week’s Loose Unit is once again the Alaska Division of Elections. Their livestream on Wednesday for the retabulations was repeatedly delayed, which tracked for what we saw in the two weeks following the election.

But what was really loose was Carol Beecher, the director, or Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom (R – Alaska), who oversees elections, did not appear on camera or take questions from the media. After the fraught counting process over the last two weeks, for them not to make any statements or take any questions is maximum loose. Let’s hope this all gets fixed for 2026, where there will be three statewide elections!

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.