JUNEAU, Alaska -- The race for Alaska's U.S. House seat is taking shape, with Republican Sarah Palin seeking a return to elected office 13 years after she resigned as governor and two of her rivals, Republican Nick Begich and Independent Al Gross, trying to paint her run as unserious and self-serving.
The fourth candidate running, Democrat Mary Peltola, said negative campaigning and "tearing each other down" is the "most unsavory" part of American politics. She said she hopes the next stage of the race, an August special election featuring ranked choice voting, will help discourage that.
Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, referred to Begich and Gross as "silly boys" taking "potshots."
Palin, Begich, Gross and Peltola -- in that order -- were the top vote-getters among 48 candidates in the special primary earlier this month. The election was the first under a system approved by voters that ends party primaries and institutes ranked choice voting in general elections.
The four advance to the special election. The winner of that contest will serve the rest of the late Republican Rep. Don Young's term, which ends in January. Young, who died in March, held the seat for 49 years.
Palin attributed her decision to resign in 2009 to an onslaught of records requests and ethics complaints that she said were frivolous and had become time-consuming distractions. She said she "did the right thing."
Palin largely stayed out of Alaska politics after resigning. But she has written books, appeared on reality television and conservative media programs and promoted her work on Cameo, a site where people can buy personalized video messages from celebrities. She was endorsed in this race by former President Donald Trump.
She notes her experience in state and local government. She also said she considered Young a friend and didn't run against him.
LOS ANGELES RACE
States away, Rep. Karen Bass has widened her lead to more than 6 percentage points over developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayor's race, according to results released Friday by the county Registrar-Recorder's office.
Bass has 42.9% to Caruso's 36.3%, with a vote margin of more than 40,000, the results show.
Caruso initially led Bass by 5 percentage points after the June 7 election. But that order flipped as hundreds of thousands of vote-by-mail ballots were processed by county workers in subsequent days.
Friday's updated results also boosted several progressive candidates, including one who appears to be on the path to beating a two-term Los Angeles city councilman.
Most of the remaining ballots will be counted by Tuesday, when the next update will occur, said Registrar-Recorder spokesman Michael Sanchez. County officials estimated that 74,100 ballots countywide remain to be processed, a fraction of the 1.57 million votes counted so far.
Regardless of the final tally, Bass and Caruso are assured spots in the Nov. 8 runoff because they are the top two finishers and neither will top 50% plus one of the votes cast.
Friday's results in the Los Angeles mayoral race were in line with the results of a University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times that showed Bass leading Caruso by 6 percentage points. The poll was conducted in late May.
Information for this article was contributed by Becky Bohrer of The Associated Press and Dakota Smith of The Los Angeles Times (TNS).