Incumbents hold wide leads in Anchorage School Board races

In the race for Anchorage School Board, two incumbents held wide leads in preliminary results.

Lone conservative board member Dave Donley, holding 57.1% of the vote, is fending off a challenge from Irene Boll, at 42.9%, in the race for Seat C out of the ballots counted so far. Meanwhile, Andy Holleman, who tends to vote with the board’s more liberal majority, is leading with 55.3% of the vote against challenger Mark Anthony Cox, who holds 44.7% of the vote, in the race for Seat D so far.

Election officials had tallied ballots from 33,309 voters by Wednesday evening, representing 14.1% of the city’s 235,546 registered voters.

The seven-member school board often votes with at least a six-member majority, which means that the results of Tuesday’s election won’t likely shift the direction of the board.

The incumbents’ wins against their challengers would place them in their final terms on the school board. If they were to run again, the two would need to take a three-year term off before mounting a reelection campaign.

On Wednesday afternoon, Donley said he didn’t want to take anything for granted until all votes were counted, and that he was “very, very pleased with the results so far.”

Donley’s opponent, Boll, said she was proud of the campaign she’d run, and that her message had resonated with voters.

“What I’ve really seen is despite raising significantly less money than previous well-known candidates, I managed to do just as well as they did against Donley so far,” she said Wednesday afternoon.

Holleman said Wednesday afternoon that he guessed his lead would hold, though the results may tighten as more ballots are counted.

Holleman’s opponent, Cox, said he was looking forward to additional vote tabulations, and waiting for those results.

Related stories:

Anchorage election results show strong leads for candidates aligned with current Assembly

Early returns show strong support for bonds and ballot measures in Anchorage election

View all preliminary results from the 2023 Anchorage municipal election