Incumbent state legislators come out on top in primary

Wrangell’s two state legislators both received more votes than their challengers in last week’s primary election.

With only two candidates in each race, the Aug. 16 primary was a preview of the Nov. 8 general election, when voters again will choose between the same two candidates for the House and Senate seats.

Under Alaska’s new elections system, the top vote-getters in the primary, regardless of political party, advance to the general election.

Republican Sen. Bert Stedman, of Sitka, in his 19th year in the Legislature, outpolled his Republican challenger Mike Sheldon, of Petersburg, for the state Senate seat that represents all of Southeast south of Juneau.

Stedman had 4,102 votes to Sheldon’s 2,000 as of Aug. 17, with questioned ballots and late absentee ballots still to count. The state plans to release final numbers Aug. 31.

In Wrangell, Stedman’s lead was about the same 2-to-1 margin, 305 to 153 for Sheldon.

In the District 1 House race, which covers Ketchikan, Saxman, Metlakatla, Prince of Wales Island communities and Wrangell, Rep. Dan Ortiz, an eight-year incumbent, held a narrow lead over first-time candidate Jeremy Bynum, of Ketchikan, 1,669 to 1,459.

Bynum, a Republican, serves on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly. Ortiz is registered as an independent.

In Wrangell, Ortiz earned 235 votes to Bynum’s 211.

Shevaun Meggitt, of Wrangell, who had filed to run for the House seat as a nonpartisan but later withdrew, though too late to keep her name off the ballot, collected 39 votes in Wrangell and 211 overall in the district. She has endorsed Bynum.