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JUNEAU, Alaska — Republican Dan Sullivan won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on Election Night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday, the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead.

<p>Republican candidate Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race Wednesday.</p> <p>The win gives the GOP eight Senate pickups in the midterm elections. The party is also seeking a ninth seat in Louisiana’s runoff in December.</p>

On Tuesday, more than 17,000 additional votes were expected to be counted. But late Tuesday afternoon, after the Elections Division released a new update, the counting was not yet finished in Anchorage and Fairbanks. More than 10,000 additional votes had been counted by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The update showed Dan Sullivan with 115,502 votes, and Begich with 106,718 votes, meaning Sullivan’s lead grew to 8,784 votes, or a 3.7 percent margin. After election night, Sullivan led Begich by 8,149 votes, or 3.6 percent. Begich is hoping for a come-from-behind victory similar to his cliffhanger win over Republican Ted Stevens in...

Sullivan, Parnell gain ground in latest round of Alaska vote counting Alex DeMarban November 11, 2014 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan slightly increased his lead over Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, and Gov. Sean Parnell made up a bit of ground on challenger Bill Walker in his bid for a second full term, as Alaska election officials Tuesday continued counting votes in what promises to be a long process. The update showed Dan Sullivan with 115,502 votes, and Begich with 106,718 votes, meaning Sullivan’s lead grew to 8,784 votes, or a 3.7 percent margin. After election night, Sullivan led Begich...

According to analyses conducted by Alaska-based media outlets, it is looking increasingly unlikely that Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) will retain his seat in the next Congress. At the end of the night on Tuesday, GOP candidate Dan Sullivan emerged with a more than an 8,000-vote lead over Begich, but it could not be projected whether Sullivan’s 3.6-point advantage over the incumbent would hold after al of Alaska’s 21,000 plus absentee ballots were counted. Increasingly, though, Alaskan media outlets are coming around to the view that Begich’s deficit is too great to make up in uncounted votes. Last week, an...

Alaska will begin counting nearly 50,000 absentee and questioned ballots on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the state's unsettled contests for the Senate and for governor. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trails Republican challenger Dan Sullivan by about 8,100 votes. ... The Alaska governor's race is also too close to call. Independent candidate Bill Walker leads incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell by about 3,000 votes.

Republican Dan Sullivan is expected to defeat Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in the final vote count in the Alaska Senate race, according to an analysis by a reporter for Alaska Public Radio Network. Reporter Alexandra Gutierrez’s analysis arrived at the same conclusion as an analysis conducted by Alaska News-Miner. Begich would reportedly need to win more than 56 percent of the uncounted votes to overtake Sullivan. Sullivan led Begich by 8,149 votes after Election Day last week, but Begich refused to concede. The Democrat is waiting on more than 21,000 uncounted absentee ballots, allegedly from rural areas where the mail...

Alaska Democratic Senator Mark Begich is counting on votes that are not yet counted in the Last Frontier’s Senate race. One hundred percent of the precincts are in and Begich’s GOP challenger Dan Sullivan is currently in the lead by 8,000 votes. But, the incumbent Democrat is insisting that more rural votes could change the outcome. ABC News has the specifics: According to Gail Fenumiai, the director of the Alaska Division of Elections, there are 23,271 early and absentee ballots deemed eligible for counting. These are already received and reviewed as eligible. They sent out another 12,541 absentee ballots and...

<p>Update (11-11-14): According to the Alaska Division of Elections Sullivan has picked up approximately 5,300 votes to 4,650 for the BigItch thus far.</p> <p>That’s 10,000 previously uncounted ballots, and the Sullivan gain has extended slightly. Dems were hoping for ridiculously lopsided BigItch votes for a comeback. So far so good. I thought you may want to refresh this thread in breaking since we have hard numbers to update.</p>

Neither the Alaska Senate race nor the Alaska gubernatorial race have been called -- and both may take a while. ...we may not have an answer to the questions of who is the new Senator and Governor from the Last Frontier for weeks because there are still votes to be counted and that won’t start until next week....there are 23,271 early and absentee ballots deemed eligible for counting. These are already received and reviewed as eligible. They sent out another 12,541 absentee ballots and if postmarked by November 4th, ballots can arrive legally 15 days after the election and still...

During their campaign for U.S. Senate, incumbent Democrat Mark Begich and Republican challenger Dan Sullivan were all over the state. But since the last votes were counted early Wednesday morning--and with tens of thousands of absentee and other outstanding votes set to be counted next week--both campaigns have gone quiet.

On election night in a hotel ballroom in Anchorage, Alaska, Sen. Lisa Murkowski picked up a chair and waved it over her head. "I am the chairmaaaaaaaaaaan!" she shouted. The Republican takeover Tuesday night puts Murkowski in charge of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. That's great news for Alaska, which is always eager for the feds to allow more oil drilling up here. But what does her chairmanship mean for the other side of that coin — global warming? At that same election-night party, Murkowski said she takes climate change seriously. "I come from a state where...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An explosive storm surpassing the intensity of 2012's Superstorm Sandy is expected to reach Alaska's western Aleutian Islands over the weekend and bring unseasonably frigid temperatures to much of the U.S. next week, weather forecasters said Thursday. ...[snip]... The storm potentially could be one of the most intensive to ever hit the North Pacific, weather service forecaster Brian Hurley said. The Coast Guard and Alaska state emergency responders were keeping a close eye on its strength. The system is expected to push cold air into much of the lower 48 states next week, forecaster Bob Oravec said....

Leftovers: A roundup of uncalled races By: Kevin Robillard November 6, 2014 02:28 PM EST More than 36 hours after the last polls closed, two statewide races in Alaska, the Virginia Senate race and a slew of West Coast House races have yet to be called.Here’s how things stand:THE HOUSEAZ-2: Highly touted Republican recruit Martha McSally leads Democratic Rep. Ron Barber by just under 1,300 votes. The Arizona Republic reports that only a few thousand votes remain uncounted in Cochise County, while 47,000 votes still need to be counted in Democrat-friendly Pima County.CA-7: Former GOP Rep. Doug Ose has...

Republicans picked up another Senate seat Wednesday.Dan Sullivan led Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, by more than 8,000 votes with 100 percent reporting, according to Associated Press data.The outcome obliterated any last hope among Democrats for a silver lining to Tuesday's Republican wave, and capped a banner Election Day for the GOP.

Oregon and Alaska approved recreational pot use – following Washington State and Colorado, which did the same in 2012 – and the District of Columbia approved legal marijuana possession but not sales, though the move could still be halted by the new US Congress. Though medical marijuana was rejected in Florida, the steps by Oregon, Alaska, and the District add momentum to a movement that is eyeing California next. Recommended: How much do you know about marijuana? Take the quiz ... Yet marijuana remains prohibited by the federal government, and the issue could come to a head in the District...

Alaska voters approved a ballot measure aimed at adding a hurdle to the potential development of a major copper and gold mine. The measure requires the state’s legislature to approve any proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed. It targets the Pebble Mine, a planned copper and gold mine that would be the largest of its kind in the world. Environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some Alaska native tribes want to stop the mine due to its potential impact on wildlife in Bristol Bay and the watershed, including a massive salmon population. Sixty-five percent of voters approved...

Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich wasn't conceding anything Wednesday in his race against Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. Sullivan held a 3.6 percentage point lead over Begich with all precincts reporting. Thousands of absentee ballots won't be counted until Nov. 11. In a statement Wednesday, Begich campaign manager Susanne Fleek-Green said the campaign wants a final vote count. Republicans said they believe the margin is insurmountable.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — While the rest the nation examines how and why the Republicans took control of the Senate, the races in Alaska remain undeclared. At the time of writing, Republican Dan Sullivan was four points ahead of incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) — a lead that appears insurmountable given that nearly all the precincts have reported back. Assuming there are no surprises in whatever votes were still in play -- including absentee ballots -- Sullivan may be on track to be the last big win for the Republican Party. According to Alaska's Division of Elections, the independent gubernatorial candidate...

Alaska Becomes Fourth State To Legalize Recreational Marijuana In yet another major pushback against the war on drugs, Alaska legalized recreational marijuana joining Oregon and Washington, D.C. -- both of which legalized cannabis only hours before on election day. Alaska becomes the fourth state in the U.S. to legalize retail marijuana, along with Oregon, Colorado and Washington state. Voters approved Measure 2, which legalizes the possession, use and sale of recreational marijuana. Adults, age 21 and older, may possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants (with no more than three being mature) for personal...