The second day of vote tabulation revealed no substantial changes in key Anchorage Assembly and school board races on April 6.
Three of the four hard-left incumbents are still leading comfortably, while fellow liberal John Weddleton continues to trail his conservative challenger Randy Sulte.
Roughly 41,300 votes were counted on election night, with another 4,900 tabulated today. There are still tens of thousands of ballots left to tally.
If current results hold, the Anchorage Assembly will remain firmly controlled by the radical leftists who imposed Covid mandates, shut down churches, limited religious liberties and personal freedoms, pushed LGBTQ politics and bungled homelessness.
The school board also appears to remain in solid control by the 6-1 liberal majority. The two conservative candidates – Mark Anthony Cox and Rachel Reis – continue to trail Planned Parenthood-endorsed incumbents Margo Bellamy and Kelly Lessens.
The Eagle River seat, which is open thanks to the retirement of Crystal Kennedy, will likely remain in conservative hands with Kevin Cross enjoying a large lead over liberal opponent Gretchen Wehmhof.
The only real pick up for conservatives may be John Weddleton’s Assembly seat. Conservative Randy Sulte expanded his narrow advantage and now leads by about 350 votes.
If current standings hold, the Anchorage Assembly would pick up one new conservative, for a total of three. That would still be one short of being able to block the other eight Assembly members from overriding Mayor Dave Bronson’s vetoes. Conservatives had hoped to pick up enough seats to grant Bronson the use of his veto power.
Two key bond packages were still too close to call. The $111 million school construction and maintenance bond was losing 50.3% to 49.6%, while the city facilities and capital improvement bond was also failing 50.2% to 49.7%.
Additional election updates will be released throughout the rest of the week and next as mail-in ballots that were postmarked by April 5 continue to arrive. Results will be posted at 5 p.m. each day.
VOTE COUNTS
Anchorage Assembly
Eagle River: District 2 Seat A
— Kevin Cross – 3,908 (59.45%)
— Gretchen Wehmhof – 2,338 (35.56%)
— Vanessa Stephens – 328 (4.99%)
West Anchorage: District 3 Seat D
— Kameron Perez-Verdia – 4,521 (53.92%)
— Liz Vazquez – 3,447 (41.11%)
— Nial Sherwood Williams – 417 (4.97%)
Midtown Anchorage: District 4 Seat F
— Meg Zaletel – 3,987 (53.24%)
— Kathy Henslee – 3,502 (46.76%)
East Anchorage: District 5 Seat H
— Forrest Dunbar – 4,595 (56.18%)
— Stephanie Taylor – 3,365 (41.14%)
— Christopher Hall – 219 (2.68%)
South Anchorage: District 6 Seat J
— Randy Sulte – 6,083 (50.65%)
— John Weddleton – 5,736 (47.76%)
— Darin Colbry – 192 (1.6%)
School Board Seats
Seat A:
— Margo Bellamy – 21,463 (50.1%)
— Mark Anthony Cox – 16,541 (38.61%)
— Cliff Murray – 3,459 (8.07%)
— Dan Loring – 1,375 (3.21%)
Seat B:
— Kelly Lessens – 21,816 (50.8%)
— Rachel Ries – 17,563 (40.89%)
— Benjamin R. Baldwin – 1,518 (3.53%)
— Dustin Darden – 2,052 (4.78%)
Prop. 1 – School construction/improvement bonds
— Yes – 22,681 (49.66%)
— No – 22,989 (50.34%)
Prop. 2 – City facilities capital improvement bonds
— Yes – 22,697 (49.74%)
— No – 22,931 (50.26%)
Prop. 3 – Public safety and transit bonds
— Yes – 25,244 (55.37%)
— No – 20,350 (44.63%)
Prop. 4 – Road and storm drainage bonds
— Yes – 27,931 (61.15%)
— No – 17,742 (38.85%)
Prop. 5 – Parks and Recreation bonds
— Yes – 25,121 (55.32%)
— No – 29,286 (44.68%)
Prop. 6 – Fire protection bonds
— Yes – 28,396 (62.43%)
— No – 17,086 (37.57%)
