A few minutes ago, the state of the race was as follows:
Stevens (R): 118,602
Begich (D): 117,631
And now?
Stevens (R): 125,016
Begich (D): 125,019
That still leaves some more ballots to be counted today, but this trend is excellent.
Up-to-the-minute updates are available here.
Begich did well in the outer rural parts, but Stevens was strong in the Mat-Su and in the Anchorage suburbs, so if this is just Anchorage reporting, the trend may not be as linear as we might hope.
Still, this is potentially very positive.
Will Alaska just be over already? Please?
All Begich needs to do is to finish today with a lead and he should be in the catbird seat.
In NY SD-11, incumbent Frank Padavan (R) has his lead cut to 523 from 700+ with more than 8k paper ballots remaining. If we pull this one out, dems will lead the state senate 34-28.
This is extremely important because 3 rebel dem senators have emerged refusing to support the current dem leader Malcolm Smith. They are a big pain in a lot of places.
by 814 with another around 15k in. 538 for the details.