Stevens bids Senate farewell

Homer News Roundup, 11/20

Congratulations, Sen.-elect Begich

Congratulations to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, now U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Begich, for his victory over Ted Stevens. It was not an easy race, but Begich won in 25 of Alaska's 40 legislative districts, among them District 35, which includes Homer … (read more)

Gas soon may be flowing to Homer

Homer's long wait for a consistent supply of natural gas may finally be nearing an end as two gas companies -- Armstrong Cook Inlet LLC, a subsidiary of Denver-based Armstrong Oil and Gas, and Anchorage-based Enstar Natural Gas Co. -- have agreed in principle to build a pipeline to ship the commodity from wells in the North Fork area … (read more)

More questions than answers in Saturday's fire

The victim of a Saturday afternoon fire on Diamond Ridge still had not been identified as of Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters found the badly burned remains of a person inside the cabin, which burned to the ground, at 40495 Misty Ridge Road, a side street on Diamond Ridge Road near the Hickerson Memorial Cemetery … (read more)

Council prepares to move ahead with traffic signal

At its next regular meeting, scheduled for Monday, the Homer City Council will be faced with a choice -- whether or not to officially direct a $2 million state grant toward construction of a traffic signal at the corner of Main Street and the Sterling Highway … (read more)

Carey names top administrators

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey has named two long-time borough employees to department head positions in his administration. Their appointments were confirmed by the assembly Tuesday night. Carey tapped Jack Maryott as director of the borough's Solid Waste Department and David Tressler was named director of the borough's Maintenance Department … (read more)

Tibetan abbot returns to Homer this weekend

Floating Leaf Sangha, which means "community," brings Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche to Homer for two days of Buddhist spiritual teaching Saturday and Sunday. This is Rinpoche's sixth visit to Homer, said Ken Bergman, a Floating Leaf member who, along with Debbie Poore, coordinates teacher visits … (read more)

Begich lead over Stevens grows

Here's the latest from the ADN.

"Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich's lead over Sen. Ted Stevens is growing in today's ballot count in the race for U.S. Senate. The latest numbers, issued just before 1 p.m., show Begich up by 2,374 votes.

The Division of Elections expects to release more numbers between 4 and 5 p.m."

Begich leads by three votes (UPDATE: Make that 814 votes)

That's right, folks ... three votes.

That's with just over half of the absentee/early ballots counted today. The Divisions of Elections is saying they'll have the rest counted in the next week. By law, the have to be done by Nov. 19. After that, a recount is about certain.

Trivia question: what happens if it's a tie? (Hint: this actually happened in a legislative race in 2006)

UPDATE: Begich's lead is now up to 814 votes. Thanks to Liz Villareal for paying attention.

Will early voters decide important AK races?

Tomorrow is the day the state Division of Elections will count the majority of early and absentee votes. It's astonishing that so many Alaskans (more than 90,000) voted early or absentee this year. Homer shattered the record for early voting, as did most other communities statewide.  

The big question on most Alaskans' minds tomorrow will be whether or not Mark Begich ends up with a lead over Stevens when the counting is done. With a relatively slim lead of 3,353 votes, the Stevens camp is likely nervous right about now. Although it remains to be seen whether they will outperform the Republicans in turning out early voters, one thing is for sure - the state Democratic Party put on the full court press this year attempting to get their people to vote early. I am not, and have never been, a registered Democrat but I got at least a dozen snazzy, full-color (and expensive) mailers from the ADP throughout the campaign season, imploring me to vote early. We'll see if the effort payed off.  

One question floating around the newsroom today was this: is it even remotely possible for Ethan Berkowitz, who is down by a seemingly insurmountable 8-point margin to Don Young, to make up the difference with early/absentee votes?

Shannyn Moore has a good post on the subject here, describing the scene today of various campaign operatives fretting over the vote-counting. 

"It feels like 2000 Bush-Gore around here," she says.

More tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a link to the division's official count.