Micciche wins Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor’s race

With all votes in, Soldotna’s Peter Micciche has been declared winner of the special election for Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor.

Micciche, a former Soldotna mayor and Alaska State Senate President, won more than half of all votes, with 51.6% — meaning no March runoff election is necessary.

The certification was announced during the end of a more than five-hour Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday, and comes one week after election day. After in-person ballots were cast last Tuesday, the borough was waiting to receive and count absentee ballots and ballots from the borough’s by-mail precincts.

With those votes tallied, Micciche held a strong lead over his opponents. Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings came in second place, with almost 20% of the vote. Robert Wall, a write-in candidate, came in third, with 12.1%. David Carey brought in 11% and Zachary Hamilton had 4.6%.

Voter turnout borough wide was 13.1%, with more than 7,100 ballots cast.

Micciche will serve through the next regularly scheduled municipal election, in October.

He spoke with KDLL in Kenai Wednesday morning about his victory and vision as mayor. Listen here.