Alaska gubernatorial election, 2006

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2006 Alaska gubernatorial election
Flag of Alaska.svg
  2002 November 7, 2006 2010  
  Sarah Palin Germany 3 Cropped Lightened.JPG GovTonyKnowles.jpg No image.svg
Nominee Sarah Palin Tony Knowles Andrew Halcro
Party Republican Democratic Independent
Running mate Sean Parnell Ethan Berkowitz Fay Von Gemmingen
Popular vote114,69797,23822,443
Percentage48.3%41.0%9.5%

AKGubCounties06.png
Election results by boroughs

Governor before election

Frank Murkowski
Republican

Elected Governor

Sarah Palin
Republican

The 2006 Alaska gubernatorial general election took place on November 7, 2006. The former mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin, was elected governor.

Sarah Palin 9th Governor of Alaska

Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality, who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 election alongside presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major political party and the first Republican woman selected as a vice presidential candidate. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies.

Contents

Republican primary

Incumbent Frank Murkowski (R), first elected governor in 2002, ran for reelection but was defeated in a landslide in the Republican primary by former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin on August 22, 2006. Murkowski's approval rating at the time of the election was 19%. Murkowski also faced opposition from former state lawmaker and Fairbanks businessman John Binkley.

Frank Murkowski Republican governor of and U.S. Senator from Alaska

Frank Hughes Murkowski is an American retired politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. He lost re-election to Sarah Palin and John Binkley by finishing in third place.

Republican Party (United States) Major political party in the United States

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

Wasilla, Alaska City in Alaska, United States

Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the sixth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city's population was 7,831 at the 2010 census, up from 5,469 in 2000. Estimates in 2018 put the population at roughly 10,529. Wasilla is the largest city in the borough and a part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 399,148 in 2018.

2006 Republican primary for Alaska governor [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Sarah Palin 51,44350.59
Republican John Binkley 30,34929.84
Republican Frank Murkowski (incumbent)19,41219.09
Republican Gerald Heikes 2800.28
Republican Merica Hlatcu2110.21
Total votes101,695100.00

Democratic primary

Former two-term Governor Tony Knowles and state lawmaker Eric Croft competed for the Democratic ticket for governor. Knowles had a substantial lead over Croft, both at the polls and with fund raising.[ citation needed ]

Tony Knowles (politician) American politician and restaurateur

Anthony Carroll Knowles is an American politician and businessman who served as the seventh governor of Alaska from December 1994 to December 2002. Barred from seeking a third consecutive term as governor in 2002, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and again for governor in 2006. In September 2008, Knowles became president of the National Energy Policy Institute, a non-profit energy policy organization funded by billionaire George Kaiser's family foundation, and located at the University of Tulsa.

Eric Chancy Croft is an American lawyer and current member of the Anchorage Assembly, representing Anchorage's West district. From 1997 to 2006, Croft served five terms as the Alaska State Representative for District 15, representing Spenard, Anchorage. He was also a candidate in the August 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary election in Alaska. He received 23.1% of the vote, losing to 68.6% achieved by former governor Tony Knowles (D). Croft served as Anchorage's school board president from 2013 to 2016. In April 2016 he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly, replacing Ernie Hall, who decided not to run for reelection.

Democratic Party (United States) Major political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its rival, the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

2006 Democratic primary for Alaska governor [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Tony Knowles 37,31674.63
Democratic Eric Croft 11,95223.90
Democratic Bruce Lemke 7321.46
Total votes50,000100.00

Alaskan Independence Party

Green Party

Libertarian Party

Independent

Andrew Halcro is an American politician from Anchorage, Alaska. Formerly a Republican member of the Alaska House of Representatives, he ran for Governor of Alaska as an independent candidate in the 2006 election, placing third with 9.46 percent of the vote.

General election

Campaign

Republican candidate Sarah Palin, Democratic candidate Tony Knowles, and independent candidate Andrew Halcro faced each other in the general election. Anchorage businessman Andrew Halcro ran as an Independent in the race for governor. Halcro has served in the Alaska State legislature in the past, and is known as a fiscal hawk. Halcro collected about 4,000 signatures to be placed on the general election ballot without party affiliation. Despite Knowles' experience, Palin's charisma and conservatism was able to win.

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, organic society, hierarchy, authority, and property rights. Conservatives seek to preserve a range of institutions such as religion, parliamentary government, and property rights, with the aim of emphasizing social stability and continuity. The more traditional elements—reactionaries—oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were".

Polling

Poll sourceDate(s) administeredSarah
Palin (R)
Tony
Knowles (D)
Rasmussen November 3, 200645%44%
Rasmussen October 9, 200647%40%
Field Research Corporation October 5, 200649%37%
Rasmussen September 8, 200652%38%
Rasmussen August 3, 200651%38%
Ivan Moore Research June 7, 200639%43%

Results

2006 Gubernatorial Election, Alaska
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Republican Sarah Palin / Sean Parnell 114,697 48.33% -7.6%
Democratic Tony Knowles / Ethan Berkowitz 97,23840.97%+0.3%
Independent Andrew Halcro / Fay Von Gemmingen22,4439.46%n/a
Alaskan Independence Don Wright / Douglas L. Welton1,2850.54%-0.4%
Libertarian Billy Toien / Robert D. Mirabal6820.29%-0.2%
Green David Massie5930.25%-1.0%
Write-in candidateWrite-in votes3840.16%+0.1%
Plurality17,4597.36%
Turnout 238,30751.1%
Republican hold Swing -7.6%

See also

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Ethan Avram Berkowitz is an American attorney, businessman, politician and former radio co-host who is the current mayor of Anchorage, Alaska. From 1997 to 2007 he was the Alaska State Representative for District 26, serving as the Democratic Party Minority Leader from 1999 to 2007. He was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2006, for Alaska's at-large congressional district in 2008 and for governor in 2010. He was elected mayor of Anchorage in 2015 and reelected in 2018.

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Sean Randall Parnell is an American attorney and politician. He succeeded Sarah Palin in July 2009 to become the tenth governor of Alaska and served until 2014. Parnell was elected governor in his own right in 2010 with 59.06% of the vote, as the largest percentage margin of any Alaska governor since statehood. In 2014, he narrowly lost his bid for re-election and has since returned to work in the private sector. He is a member of the Republican Party.

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Robin L. Taylor is a lawyer from the U.S. state of Alaska. He has also served as a judge, government administrator and Republican Party politician. It is in this latter capacity that he is best known. Taylor served in the Alaska Legislature from 1985 to 2003. Running for governor of Alaska in 1998 in a blanket primary, Taylor was outpolled by John Lindauer for the Republican nomination. When questions arose over the source of Lindauer's campaign monies, Taylor reemerged as a write-in candidate for the office backed by the Republican Party of Alaska, who had disowned Lindauer. While Taylor outpolled Lindauer in the general election, both candidacies fell far behind that of incumbent Tony Knowles, who was elected to a second term.

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References

  1. "STATE OF ALASKA - 2006 PRIMARY ELECTION AUGUST 22, 2006 OFFICIAL RESULTS". Archived from the original on March 4, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  2. "PRIMARY ELECTION August 22, 2006 Primary Election Results". Archived from the original on November 27, 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2009.