Republicans Sweep State Commission Races

Riding a GOP wave, Republicans Twinkle Cavanaugh and Terry Dunn broke the Democratic stranglehold on the Alabama Public Service Commission. Their election would give Republicans a 2-to-1 majority. Democrat Lucy Baxley, the PSC president, is next up for election in 2012. Cavanaugh, on her third try for statewide office, denied Jan Cook a fifth term in PSC Place 1. Dunn ousted one-term member Susan Parker in PSC Place 2

In Arizona, the GOP dominance of statewide contests included two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Victories by Republicans Gary Pierce and Brenda Burns retain the five-member commission’s 3-2 Republican majority. They held comfortable leads over two Democrats, two Green Party candidates and a Libertarian. Democrat candidate Jorge Garcia won one of two nominations from his party, but died of heart failure Oct. 15. But Garcia’s death came too close to the election to have his name removed from the ballot. He received about 17 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning, according to Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.

North Dakota Public Service Commission’s incumbent Kevin Cramer, a Republican, won re-election, defeating Democrat Brad Crabtree. The three-member agency remain all-Republican. Cramer was elected to the PSC in 2004 and is its chairman. It’s the same story in Georgia, where Republican candidate Tim Echols won a six-year term on the all-Republican Public Service Commission. The rest of the GOP ticket in Georgia mirrored the success, putting Republicans in almost every statewide office.

In Montana, a pair of Republican political newcomers swept to victory in the two contested Public Service Commissioner races, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority on the board. Bill Gallagher, an attorney, ousted Democratic Commissioner Ken Toole in western Montana’s District 5 and Travis Kavulla, a magazine writer and editor, easily defeated former state Sen. Don Ryan in northern Montana’s District 1. The winner of the Kavulla-Ryan race succeeds Commissioner Greg Jergeson, D-Chinook, who couldn’t run because of term limits. Kavulla and Gallagher criticized their Democratic opponents for the latter’s support of renewable-energy mandates, saying the mandates would lead to higher prices for consumers.

In New Mexico, two Republicans and one Democrat took three open Public Regulation Commission seats that were up for election Tuesday. Republican Patrick Lyons, term-limited as New Mexico’s land commissioner, won a PRC seat after defeating Democrat Stephanie DuBois, a Tularosa businesswoman. Republican Ben Hall defeated Democrat Bill McCamley for District 5, to replace Sandy Jones. Becenti-Aguilar Montoya, the commission’s only Native American and woman, defeated Republican rival Gary Montoya. The five-member Commission has staggered terms. Only commissioners Jason Marks, D-Albuquerque, and Jerome Block, D-Santa Fe, didn’t face re-election this year. The new commission will face challenges including a call this year by the state’s Government Restructuring Task Force, a legislative group, to abolish the commission and reassign its regulatory bureaus and divisions to other executive-branch agencies.

Meanwhile, incumbent Republican Dustin Johnson will have another term on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, defeating challenger Doyle Karpen by a spread of 47 points. He currently chairs the three-member PUC. The commission’s priorities include expanding broadband in the state, implementation of the National Broadband Plan and the broadband stimulus projects, he said in an interview.

Nebraska Public Service Commission incumbents Gerald Vap and Rob Johnson took the seats. But in the governor’s race, current Democratic Commissioner Anne Boyle and her running mate Mike Meister were defeated by incumbent Governor Dave Heineman and Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy. Incumbent Oklahoma Republican Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy won a primary earlier in the year and had no general election opponent.