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Y-K Delta Voters Buck Calista Political Endorsements In General Election

Katie Basile
/
KYUK

Unofficial election results show that Alaska is a little redder this year. Republican Mike Dunleavy will be the next Governor of Alaska, and Don Young, another Republican, will hold onto his seat at the U.S. House of Representatives, adding another two years to the more than four decades he's served. 

A controversial salmon habitat ballot initiative fell by a huge margin. Known as Ballot Measure 1, the initiative would have toughened the permitting process for large industrial projects; the mining, oil, and gas industries spent millions of dollars opposing it.

It’s no secret that rural Alaska tends to vote Democratic during election season. Areas with large Alaska Native populations especially vote blue, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta was no exception this year. This trend did contradict key political endorsements by the Calista Regional Native Corporation, however. Calista endorsed three Republicans this year, including Dunleavy and Young. For House District 38, which encompasses most of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Calista endorsed Republican Darren Deacon.

So what qualities made Calista's endorsements stand out? All three candidates supported the proposed Donlin gold mine and opposed the salmon habitat ballot initiative.

Statewide, the numbers were these: Dunleavy won 52 percent of the vote, defeating his biggest opponent, Mark Begich, who received 43 percent. Young grabbed 54 percent of the vote, defeating his Independent challenger Alyse Galvin, who received around 47 percent of the vote. More than 60 percent of Alaskans  voted "no" on the salmon habitat initiative.

But it's a different story in the 31 precincts that make up House District 38. The Alaska Divisions of Elections says that there are 11,800 registered voters in House District 38. Of those, 39 percent voted in the general election Tuesday night; more than 4,000 voters. And the majority of them voted blue: Begich received 3,146 votes, while Dunleavy received 1,130. Galvin received 2,695 to Young’s 1,901.

Begich and Galvin visited the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and supported key issues, like funding vital government services and tribal jurisdiction. Begich, a long-time supporter of the proposed Donlin min,e was skeptical about it during his visit to the YK Delta earlier this year, and did not oppose the salmon habitat ballot initiative. Galvin did not come down on either side of Ballot Measure 1 or the proposed Donlin gold mine, but told KYUK she would like to reinstate Alaska's Coastal Zone Management Program. According to Galvin, that would increase discussions between key stakeholders about large projects built on watersheds. 

Donlin Gold, the company developing the mine, donated $1.2 million to a group opposing the salmon habitat initiative, but voters in the Y-K Delta supported it. The initiative received 2,773 “yes” votes, to 1,715 “no” votes.

Credit Courtesy of Alaska Division of Elections
The breakout for the House District 38 votes on a controversial salmon habitat ballot initiative.

In the race for the region's seat in the state House, District 38 voters returned Democrat Tiffany Zulkosky to office. Zulkosky recieved 55 percent of the vote or 2,542 to Deacon's 44 percent or 2,011. 

Zulkosky told KYUK that she was skeptical of the proposed Donlin mine, and was one of the signers of a petition to get the salmon habitat initiative on the ballot. She did say, however, that she wasn’t sure how she would vote on it come Election Day.

The post has been updated to include the vote numbers for House District 38. The post has also been updated to include Begich's support of Donlin in past interviews.