Final vote count puts four new Fairbanks lawmakers in office as incumbent Reps. Grier Hopkins, Bart LeBon defeated

Incumbent House Republicans Mike Prax, of North Pole, and Mike Cronk, of Tok, also won reelection, which was projected.

Final results additionally show that three Senate incumbents, Democrat Scott Kawasaki and Republicans Click Bishop and Rob Myers, representing Fairbanks or North Pole, are all entering a new term.

Kawasaki was first elected to represent Fairbanks in the Legislature in 2006 and is now the most senior Fairbanks lawmaker of the Interior delegation, which will have six Republicans and three Democrats.

A left-leaning bipartisan leadership organization appears to be coming together in the 20-member Senate, though conservative Republicans are courting moderates with hopes to develop a right-leaning leadership structure.

A bipartisan coalition is also expected to emerge in the House, which is also fairly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, but it’s not yet clear what that will look like and organizing is likely to take awhile, according to multiple lawmakers.

“People are certainly having conversations but nothing is concrete,” Stapp said.

“You know, the reality is in order to form a majority on either side, people will most likely have to set contentious issues aside and we will see who is willing to do that and who is not willing to do that,” he said.

The 33rd Alaska Legislature is scheduled to convene on Jan. 17, 2023.

House District 31

Republican incumbent Bart LeBon lost by 515 votes in the House District that covers downtown Fairbanks, a chunk of the south side and the Aurora Subdivision.

Dibert held the lead since Election Day. The third-grade teacher finished her first political race with 2,589 votes to LeBon’s 2,074 votes after votes were redistributed that were held by Kelly Nash, a Republican.

Of Nash’s votes, 111 went to Dibert, 582 went to LaBon and 399 were exhausted, according to final tabulations by the Alaska Division of Elections.

LeBon was reached by text but said he had no remarks this time.

House District 34

Democratic incumbent Grier Hopkins was defeated by 809 votes in the House District that includes Salcha, Eielson Air Force Base, Two Rivers and neighborhoods off the Steese Highway and Farmers Loop Road.

Hopkins had closed some of the gap as absentee ballots arrived in the mail following election day but received only 25 second-choice votes once final tabulations were made.

In the end, Hopkins drew 3,193 votes to Tomaszewski’s 4,002 votes.

Of Republican Nate DeMars’ votes, 423 were redistributed, with 398 votes going to Tomaszewski, a small business owner and former Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblyman.

Of DeMars 574 supporters, 161 did not rank the rest of the candidates.

Senate District P

Election results last week showed that former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly, a Republican, was too far behind to close the gap to defeat Kawasaki, who won reelection to downtown Fairbanks’ Senate District P.

Matherly conceded on Wednesday after the last absentee ballots were counted, showing Kawasaki with 51.14% of first-choice votes. The race did not require ranked choice voting tabulations because state candidates can win outright with 50% plus one vote. Matherly wished Kawasaki well and said he plans to run for public office in the future.

“I’m happy I ran a clean race and thank all of those who supported me,” he texted. “I will run again for something. Not sure what. I’ll take a look at next year’s seats and where I think I could help lead.”

Organizing of the state House

Now that pending legislative races are decided, lawmakers reached on Wednesday say they predict a flurry of phone calls and meetings in the coming days as the House tries to form a leadership structure.

“We have had a bipartisan majority in the House for the last three legislatures,” said Carrick, newly elected to House District 35 covering Ester, Chena Ridge and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “I would like to see that continue.”

She was headed to Anchorage on Wednesday to celebrate Thanksgiving.

“We want to organize in a way that is as beneficial as possible for Fairbanks,” she said.

Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, observed that Alaska lawmakers “are kind of back to where we were two years ago.”

That’s when the House took weeks to organize with Kodiak Republican Louise Stutes finally emerging as Speaker of the House.

“There will be a coalition,” Stapp said. “It will either lean left or lean right and who knows at this moment.”