By AlaskaWatchman.com

Based off initial returns from the April 2 Anchorage election, Alaska’s largest city is on the cusp of being controlled almost exclusively by the ideological hard left.

For the last three years, conservative Mayor Dave Bronson has served as a check to radical leftists who enjoy a supermajority on the Anchorage Assembly. That counterbalance may soon be gone.

According to the city’s Department of Elections, radical left-wing Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance is narrowly ahead of conservative incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson. With about 45,000 ballots tallied as of election night, the Planned Parenthood-backed LaFrance leads Bronson 16,121 to 15,549, in a mayoral race that included eight other candidates. Since neither LaFrance nor Bronson is likely to win 45% of the vote – the minimum to claim victory – the contest is probably headed to a run-off election on May 14.

If that occurs, LaFrance seems better positioned to defeat Bronson and consolidate leftist power over the city, especially given the fact that the other left-of-center-leaning candidates garnered substantially more votes than their more conservative counterparts. Presumably, most votes that went to leftist and Democratic candidates will go to LaFrance in a run-off with Bronson.

For Bronson to pull out a victory, his campaign will need to convince far more conservatives to turn out in the run-off, especially those from the more traditionally-minded Eagle River/Chugiak area.

Leftists also ran the table in school board races with all three entrenched liberal incumbents enjoying double-digit leads over their conservative challengers.

Educational bureaucrats and the teachers’ union also had a good night with a $63 million school construction and improvement bond enjoying a 52% to 48% advantage.

Other bonds for storm drainage, parks and recreation improvements, police service, public safety and transit, and state park improvements were all comfortably ahead on election night with Anchorage now set to take on roughly $124 million in new bond debt.

The only bonds that seemed likely to fail were the $5 million proposal for public restrooms and another to improve the city cemetery.

Election officials will continue to count ballots over the next few two weeks as they arrive via mail. All ballots must be received by April 16.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.

Election night returns suggest hard leftists are set to turn Anchorage a deep, dark blue

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


44 Comments

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    I went through the initial results and I think that I only counted one Republican that won (initially) in their area. All counting should have stopped tonight, but it sounds like they are still going to be counting mail-in ballots that are coming in? It is another rigged election.

    • Becky says:

      Hun, Alaska, by law, has to wait until after polls close before they can count mail-in ballots. What part of that is hard to understand? Mail in voting is legal in Alaska. A great many Alaskans are abroad in the military or in villages with no polling places, or have medical issues. You cheapen how serious actual fraud is every time you claim legal votes shouldn’t count.

      • Friend of Humanity says:

        I am not your “Hun” for starters. I am not saying that mail-in voting is illegal. It should be – except in approved situations. For the “villages that have no polling places” – if they were serious about these elections and getting rid of the fraud, they’d be getting some people trained up on how to count ballots. An organization by the name of Cause of America is working on getting people trained in hand-counting ballots. I think that every village should get people involved with Cause of America, so that we can drive the evil out with honest elections! I don’t “cheapen” anything. I only try to expose the lies that you and your people keep putting out there and I am trying to help America get educated in how we can take back our country legally, lawfully and fairly.
        Cause of America’s website is causeofamerica.org

      • Friend of Humanity says:

        Additionally, in a perfect world, all mail-in ballots should have arrived before counting starts – no counting up to a week after “counting” was done. This election was rigged as I said before.

  • Burtg says:

    The MATSU must contain the contagion of Marxist who will inevitably seek to move to the valley. Can we blow the bridges across the Knik to keep the Locust People out?

    • Reggie Taylor says:

      Amazing. The Valley has been the destination of Anchorage cultural refugees for the past 75 years, and the most recent flood of refugees has been breathtaking in scope. I went to a recent community council meeting out here and found myself sitting between Dick Traini and Amy Dembosky, both of whom wouldn’t shut up, as if they thought they’d arrived just in time to save us.

  • Akdale says:

    hmm actually I think conservatives will move. like I did 30 years ago. Anch is lost folks. it may never recover.

  • Dee Cee says:

    Hate to say I told you so! This year there was far less energy from conservatives. Indeed, they have started to leave. Alaska is blue now. Bye-bye Bronson. Dunleavy is next.

    • Coliseum in the Snow says:

      Hey, you were wrong on the Portland Loos!
      All is not lost!

      • Friend of Humanity says:

        I laughed when I saw that big NO on the loos! That was funny. They’ll just get those installed some other way I figure!

    • tata says:

      Dee Cee. Hope you are right about Bronson and Dunleavy. Both grossly incompetent

  • Michael Johnson says:

    If this is true and I pray it isn’t, Anchorage will become the next Seattle, Portland or San Francisco. It will be a cesspool where people of common sense will move out of. Until we have control of our elections again, you will see Marxism spread like a cancer. Your families and children will suffer the consequences. Until Alaska has free and fair elections, meaning no mail-in ballots, clean voter rolls and an end to RCV, it will be doomed to be added to the 8 failed Democrat States in the USA that are collapsing due to failed policies. America is under attack by people that have sold their souls to the devil. Why do I say that? Because Marxism in any form is evil and destroys freedom. If you think your life will somehow be better under these kinds of people, think again. Do not allow Alaska to fall to communists. Fight for your liberty, or it will be gone forever.

    • Proud Alaskan says:

      I agree, CESSPOOL put a fence around anchorage to keep them in. I moved out of a beautiful city Anchorage many years ago, early eighties.

      • Reggie Taylor says:

        If Anchorage was ever a “beautiful city”, I certainly can’t remember when that was. It transformed from Dodge City to the Small, Dirty Apple overnight in the early ’80’s. Now it’s San Francisco. The only bright spot is that it’s on the Russian Priority Targetting List, and when I write “bright”, I literally advise y’all not to look directly into the growingly inevitable flash………..

  • Mike Brophy says:

    It’s time for you radical hard-core right-wingers to realize that your reign has ended. Nobody these days wants book burning and discrimination against LGBT.

    • Proud Alaskan says:

      Mike, you have been discriminating against Christians, God loving people for century’’s
      God will be the ruler, Sodom and Gomorrah

      • Joel says:

        Good, next we’ll bring back crosses and show you what they’re really intended for.

      • Lobo says:

        Is Joel making a veiled threat to an individual ? .. Joel, some folks become consumed in the fires they create .. Bring it on.

    • North to Alaska says:

      I think we should execute groomers and child rapist like Florida does

    • Reggie Taylor says:

      Dude, can’t you read? This article is all about that sad realization. Rejoice! Your reign of perversion has won! So go enjoy your pornography. Literally, GFY.

    • John J Otness says:

      YES MANY INCLUDING MY SELF DO MIKE…. BURN THE PORN …we are still the majority until the pot boils we sit.

    • Aunt Sally says:

      Get back in your closet and stay away from kids, Brophy.

  • Jack Roberts says:

    Alaska has been blue for a very long time. Most of the republicans that are in the state legislature are leftist, (uniparty), and do the bidding of the marxist democrats. Anchorage, having mail-in balloting for the last several years, have cemented their hold on the ‘blueness’ of the state. Mail-in balloting is a legal way to steal elections because it’s the most insecure way to vote and so difficult to prove fraud. That’s especially true when, like Stalin said, it doesn’t matter who votes it only matters who counts the vote, to paraphrase.

    Anchorage has become Seattle/Portland north.

    • Mary Rapp says:

      I agree with you Jack that Anchorage is now a complete blue town. The leftists know this and feel quite secure in keeping their strangle hold on us. I got hit in the face with this fact once more after sending out an email to each school board candidate asking for their input. They were given a simple question on how they hoped to help promote better education for our kids if they got elected. Those running against the incumbents sent me an answer right away, but none of the incumbents bothered. This arrogance and disinterest just demonstrates the power they know they have over their fellow towns people. They know that their reelection is in the bag so why bother? They also realize most voters are disenchanted and are not voting. Anchorage’s only chance for better times is to regain fair elections. This means bringing back walk-in voting with ID, and with all voting ending the same day. Mail out voting should be only for those military stationed out of town and others who show special needs, As in the old days, the mail out ballots must be well authorized and arrive before election day or be postmarked that same day. In addition we must have a more alert Republican party so that we quit voting for RINO’s. The present Republican party is not even acknowledging that we have RINO’s much less alerting us to their actions in congress. We certainly need more concerned Alaskans involved in the election process if we are to win against the Leftists and their Marxist agenda. Actions work wonders.

      • AK Pilot says:

        Getting voter turnout above 30% would be a nice start. Until conservative voters start actually VOTING there won’t be any changes.

  • John J Otness says:

    Until Kevin Meyer is arrested for purchasing dominion machines we have no assured vote.

  • DaveMaxwell says:

    Why are they “ still counting “ votes? Stating they will be counting votes into next week?! Dalhstrom, dunleavy, Taylor, go to Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco! Your useless here!

  • Coliseum in the Snow says:

    I simply don’t believe LaFrance has actually garnered more votes than Bronson.

    Does anyone remember all the irregularities surrounding the ballot counting during the last mayoral election, and the fact that they were presented to the Assembly, who chose to do nothing about them? Also, does anyone remember all the changes Barbara Jones and the Assembly made to the rules regarding election watchers just after Bronson was elected? And Barbara Jones went from being the Municipal Clerk (in charge of elections) under our radical Assembly to LaFrance’s campaign chair.

    If there’s anything squeaky clean about this election, it hasn’t seen the light of day.

    • Friend of Humanity says:

      I hope that Bronson challenges the results. I honestly cannot believe that the human-haters won every seat except one. No way.

  • FreedomFred says:

    What did you expect, we have a AKGOP that is run by a Ronna McDaniel lover who’s effectively created a culture of blue dog democrats. The left has infiltrated the party. Get ready MatSu they are coming for you. The only RED WALL left is in the Valley.

  • V says:

    Most Chugiak – Eagle River voters didn’t receive their
    Ballots. Ask around.

    • Anon says:

      Did they have in person voting ?

    • PS says:

      So, did they get up off their lazy asses and go through the channels to get a ballot or show up at in person voting?! If every true conservative would actually get out and vote, the cheating would not work!

      • M says:

        Most of us did vote in person yes. But there are a lot of conservative moms who are at home with a house full of kids they are educating since the public schools are no longer an option. Many of those moms would have enjoyed voting via the mail ballot option, which never showed up to the post office to be delivered to registered voters.

  • Keeping it real says:

    It’s a damning indictment of Bronson’s Stewardship of the city. When he loses, his supporters will clam rigged election, they will claim he failed because of blah blah blah this that and the other….but they will never accept he lost because she wasn’t up to the task and he sucked.

    • AK Pilot says:

      You’re absolutely right. It’s Bronson’s fault that we got half a season’s worth of snowfall in November. It’s Bronson’s fault that the leftist Assembly stonewalled him on just about everything for three straight years. And the fact that gas is back over $4/gallon? That’s Bronson’s fault too.

  • Johnny says:

    The rot has spread, Anchorage IS diseased, best to let them wallow in their creation.

  • DaveMaxwell says:

    Uncovering the corruption needs to occur then send this wickedness to hell where it belongs!

  • Matthew Mills says:

    If you want the conservatives to turn out for the runoff, then Dave Bronson should start appealing to the social conservatives, instead of the Chamber of Commerce and Rotarians. The conservatives are staying home because taxes and the budget aren’t their issues. Saagar Enjeti said it right in 2020:
    “The whole reason that the GOP has been able to even compete for so long is that despite their horrible economics, they do hold the cultural positions of so much of the American people. But they keep thinking they’re winning because of their economic policy and losing because of their cultural policy, when really it’s the opposite.

    • AK Pilot says:

      Do you have any specific suggestions? With a veto-proof leftist majority on the Assembly I’m not sure what you expect him to do.

  • Kenneth L. Wells says:

    It’s puzzling. The results of leftist ideology are clearly manifest in cities across America. It has been tried in multiple cities, on multiple different populations and multiple geographic areas yet the results are always the same. Ruin.

    We’ve been seeing the same results manifesting in Anchorage over the last 10 years or so. Yet the voting public continues to vote to stay on the path to ruin.

    It reminds me of the Mouse Utopia experiment back in the 50’s or so. A researcher constructed a habitat in which all the needs of mice were met, the habitat was designed to hold over 3,000 mice. Several pairs of healthy mice were introduced and the researcher sat back and watched.

    In less than two years, every mouse was dead. The researcher even tried to intervene but his efforts barely slowed the catastrophe somewhat. Once the utopian rot had set in, no recovery was possible.

    What happened? After around the third generation, male & female mice stopped mating. Dozens of mice would crowd into nests meant for a few while nesting boxes inches away would be empty. Females would attack and eat their own offspring. Males formed into roving gangs fighting other gangs, attacking and eating other mice though food was plentiful and full of variety. They stopped breeding altogether. A small minority of mice retreated to the upper levels of the enclosure where they spent all their waking time grooming themselves.
    The researcher attempted to intervene, thinking maybe there wasn’t enough for the mice to do but no amount of novelty reversed the trend… extinction.

    He suggested that the moment the social bonds between male & female mice broke, the colony was doomed.

    People are not, of course, mice. From a purely biological perspective, though, humanity has achieved Utopia-like status in places, places much like the mouse utopia, and perhaps we are reacting somewhat like those mice, choosing to destroy ourselves?