LaFrance winning Anchorage mayor’s race as additional ballots counted Friday

Suzanne LaFrance is winning Anchorage’s race for mayor over incumbent Dave Bronson.

In the most recent count released Friday for the mayoral runoff, LaFrance had 53.5% of the vote, and was leading Bronson by 5,487 votes.

An additional 7,379 ballots had been counted by Friday, for a total of 78,476 ballots counted so far.

Election officials on Friday reported they had received 80,075 ballots, with more continuing to trickle in by mail.

LaFrance, who chaired the Anchorage Assembly during the first two years of Bronson’s term, has so far not declared victory. Bronson’s campaign declined to comment on the results Friday.

But with fewer than 2,000 ballots left to count at the election center, and with a more than 5,000-vote lead over Bronson, LaFrance’s win is solidified.

The past three years of Bronson’s term have seen frequent controversies and skirmishes between his administration and the Anchorage Assembly, over issues such as homelessness, appointees to lead city departments, the budget and more.

Though the Anchorage mayor’s seat and seats on the Assembly are technically nonpartisan positions, Bronson leaned into partisanship during the campaign, calling LaFrance “woke” and asserting her mayorship would amount to “single-party rule” because she would be more aligned with the Assembly supermajority. LaFrance, for her part, campaigned on a platform to “restore competency” to City Hall and called Bronson’s approach divisive.

Election officials will continue to tally ballots that arrive by mail over the next week, up until the public session of canvass, which is scheduled for May 29.

Runoff election results will not be official until certification by the Assembly, which is scheduled for May 31.