Anchorage Mayoral Election

Anchorage voted today on their mayoral runoff between liberal Eric Croft and conservative Dan Sullivan.  Despite the fact that Anchorage seems to be the “liberal” center of the state– which means that it’s about evenly divided between Ds and Rs– it sent the conservative to the mayor’s office by a comfortable margin– 57-43%.

This win is significant for conservatives, because Anchorage is by far the largest population center in the state.  Moreover, the mayor position is a pipeline for higher office (eg. Begich).  

This win is also part of a trend of very local level Republicans winning elections recently.  Since this year began, Republicans have picked up a few state legislature seats in places like Delaware and Maine.  The races involved were in highly liberal districts that conservatives were simply able to win because of crappy turn-out.  

My question to you guys is whether this is becoming a trend, or if it is just a few isolated incidents?  

31 thoughts on “Anchorage Mayoral Election”

  1. The Anchorage mayoral election seemed to turn on local issues and local advantages.  Like many cities, Anchorage is having financial problems and that may have played in the favor of the local GOP. Sullivan started earlier, had a more united party, and had more money.  Like a lot of GOP candidates, he’s a legacy.  The 57 year old Sullivan’s father was also mayor of Anchorage.  Sullivan won 43% in the first non-partisan primary to Croft’s 20%.  It was 57-42 in the run-off.

    The normally liberal Anchorage Daily News supported Sullivan because of his recent “moderate” stances.

    One interesting presence supporting Sullivan was dark lord, former convict turned loose Ted Stevens.  I would not be surprised to see Stevens, even at his advanced age, attempt some form of comeback now that he no longer has to consider facing prison due to BushCo ineptitude.  Long ago Governor Wally Hickel was the political godfather of Sarah Palin.

    The only statewide success enjoyed by Alaska Democrats in the last 35 years has come from two Mayors of Anchorage: Tony Knowles and Mark Begich.  The 44 year old Eric Croft would have been positioned for a statewide run in a few years.  No longer.

    Palin, of course, was mayor of Wasilla, a small town in the highly Republican Mat-Su Valley.  Lisa Murkowski was a legacy and state legislator.  Don Young succeeded Begich’s father, Nick, then the state’s congressman who died in a plane crash.  Not-so-young has been in office since 1973 placing him second in seniority among GOPers to Florida’s C.W. “Bill” Young.  Of course nobody can touch John Dingell on the Democratic side (1955).  The Anchorage Mayor’s job seems more important to Democrats than to Republicans in Alaska politics.

    Not much of a trend, I would say.

  3. It’s very sprawling and takes in a lot of areas that we would consider suburbs elsewhere. Mark Begich ran for mayor unsuccessfully twice before winning in 2003 (with a bare 45% plurality). Also, with the Democrats in power, the Republicans tend to have the advantage in low-turnout elections now, just as the opposite was true over the past couple years. I wouldn’t take this as a trend.

  4. This is a bad sign.  It means our bench in AK is now literally just Berkowitz and Knowles, both of whom have lost races in Pro-Dem years.

  5. I think it’s a function of voter fatigue for Democrats, who invested so much energy and emotion into the ’08 election.  Northern Virginia has also had some close ones as a result of this.  And don’t forget Joe Cao’s victory in the LA-01.

    Overall, this isn’t a huge concern – we still won the NY-20 in a close one – as these seats will get picked up again in a general.

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