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?