The 1994 Alaska gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 1994 for the post of Governor of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 candidate Tony Knowles

Tony Knowles (politician)

Anthony Carroll Knowles is an American Democratic politician and businessman who served as the seventh Governor of Alaska from December 1994 to December 2002. Barred from seeking a third consecutive term as governor in 2002, he ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2004 and again for governor in...

 narrowly defeated Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 candidate Jim Campbell and Lieutenant Governor Jack Coghill

Jack Coghill

John Bruce "Jack" Coghill was the eighth lieutenant governor of Alaska, serving from 1990 to 1994 under Governor Walter Hickel. Both were members of the Alaskan Independence Party...

 of the Alaskan Independence Party

Alaskan Independence Party

The Alaskan Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Alaska that advocates an in-state referendum which includes the option of Alaska becoming an independent country...

. In the Republican Revolution

Republican Revolution

The Republican Revolution or Revolution of '94 is what the media dubbed Republican Party success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pickup of eight seats in the Senate...

 year of the 1994 elections

United States gubernatorial elections, 1994

The 1994 U.S. gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 1994 in 36 states. Many seats held by Democratic Party governors switched to the Republican Party during the time known as the Republican Revolution....

, Alaska's was the only governor's seat in the country to switch from Republican to Democratic.

Candidates

Incumbent

Incumbent

The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

 Governor Walter Joseph Hickel

Walter Joseph Hickel

Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel was an industrialist, focused mostly on construction and real estate development, and a politician of the Republican and Alaskan Independence parties from the U.S. state of Alaska. Hickel served as the second and eighth Governor of Alaska...

 had been elected as the candidate of the Alaskan Independence Party in the 1990 gubernatorial election

Alaska gubernatorial election, 1990

The 1990 Alaska gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1990 for the post of governor of Alaska. In a rare third-party win in American politics, former Republican Governor Walter Hickel, running on the ticket of the Alaskan Independence Party, defeated Democratic candidate Tony Knowles...

. In April 1994 he rejoined the Republican Party and announced in August that he would not stand for re-election.

In the Democratic primary

Primary election

A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....

, the Democratic candidate from 1990 and former mayor of Anchorage, Tony Knowles, won with 43% of the vote. He defeated former Lieutenant Governor Stephen McAlpine

Stephen McAlpine

Stephen Alan McAlpine was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Alaska from 1982 to 1990.Stephen McAlpine was born in Yakima, Washington, the fourth child of Robert E. and Myrtle B. McAlpine. He attended school in Yakima, but two years at Maryknoll Seminary in Mt. View, California...

 with 31% and former Speaker of the Alaskan House of Representatives

Alaska House of Representatives

The Alaska House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of about 15,673 people . Members serve two-year terms without term limits...

 Sam Cotten with 25%.

For the Republican nomination, businessman Jim Campbell narrowly defeated another former mayor of Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

, Tom Fink

Tom Fink

Thomas A. "Tom" Fink is a Republican politician in Alaska. He was Mayor of Anchorage from 1987-1994 and Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1973-1975. He is also a former member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board after being appointed by President George W...

. Lieutenant Governor Jack Coghill was easily selected as the candidate for the Alaskan Independence Party while Jim Sykes

Jim Sykes

James L. "Jim" Sykes is a radio journalist and producer, and Green Party politician, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The founder of the Green Party of Alaska, Sykes initiated a lawsuit, Sykes v. Alaska, relying heavily upon case law established in the earlier ballot access lawsuits of Joe Vogler...

 ran for the Green Party of Alaska

Green Party of Alaska

The Green Party of Alaska is the state party organization for Alaska of the Green Party of the United States. Alaska was the first state to gain Green Party ballot access, in 1990, when Jim Sykes ran for governor. Sykes had previously filed a ballot access lawsuit, citing an earlier case, Vogler v...

.

Campaign

Both main candidates in the election were regarded as moderates and favored oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States. It consists of in the Alaska North Slope region. It is the largest National Wildlife Refuge in the country, slightly larger than the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge...

 as well as cuts in the state budget. Poll

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

s near the election showed Knowles with a strong lead over Campbell.

During the election the Campbell campaign ran an advertisement comparing Knowle's hair with President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

's. The advert was criticised by supporters of Knowles who felt it implied that he was a womanizer.

Polling

Source	Date	Knowles (D)	Campbell (R)
Dittman Research	Nov. 3, 1994	44%	33%

Recount

As the results were counted state officials said that the contest between Knowles and Campbell was too close to call, with Knowles having a small lead. Knowles declared victory on the November 18 after the official count showed that he was ahead of 528 votes with only 217 votes remaining to be counted. He described the victory as the "largest margin I think I've ever won by" as his Anchorage mayoralty election wins had always been by very narrow margins.

Campbell contested the results and called for a recount, which was paid for by the state as the candidates were within half a percent of each other. Campbell also wanted to look into some voter incentives that had taken place including raffle

Raffle

A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...

s and free gasoline for voters. These were defended as attempts to increase turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 and had been authorised by election officials.

The initial count showed Knowles with 87,701 votes and Campbell with 87,118 votes. The results of the recount slightly narrowed the gap between them with Knowles ending on 87,693 and Campbell on 87,157. Knowles's victory margin was the smallest in any Alaska gubernatorial election.

Election results