Incumbents hold early leads in legislative races

SANDPOINT — Legislative incumbents held onto their seats in Tuesday's primary races, with three of the four seats contested.

State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint defeated District 1 challenger Donald T. Heckel of Laclede. Keough had 3,795 votes, or 74 percent of the vote, while Heckel had 1,334 votes, or 26 percent. The race between Keough and Heckel has been contentious, with Heckel often publicly denouncing his opponent’s true conservatism.

In a much more civil race, incumbent Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, also enjoyed a substantial lead — with 71 percent of the vote — against his Republican challenger for the District 1 seat, Laclede’s Daniel Lawrence, who had earned 29 percent of the vote.

Anderson had 3,225 votes to Lawrence’s 1,325.

Democrats Steve Elgar and write-in candidate Lew Langness ran unopposed for the District 1 state senator and representative seats, respectively. Elgar had 1,406 votes, while Langness had 85.

In the District 2 race, incumbent Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Cocolalla, held off two challengers to claim the Republican side of the ballot over DeSmet’s James Stivers and Cocolalla’s Bill Largen. Broadsword had 55 percent of the primary votes cast, to Largen’s 22 percent and Stivers’ 23 percent. Broadsword had 1,278 votes to Largen’s 507 and Stivers’ 527 votes.

In statewide elections, Democrat Larry LaRocco was holding a healthy lead over his nearest rival, David Archuleta, for a seat in the U.S. Senate with 872 of 941 precincts reported statewide. LaRocco has 26,098 votes to Archuleta’s 10,130. Write-in candidate Kevin Volkmann had 50 votes.

As expected, Republican Lt. Gov. Jim Risch was leading comfortably over his seven primary contenders for the U.S. Senate seat with 872 or 941 precincts reporting. Risch had 73,100 votes, or 65 percent, while his two closest rivals Scott A. Syme had 15,026, or 13 percent, and Richard Phenneger had 5,922, or 5 percent, respectively.

Incumbent Bill Sali, R-Idaho, was holding a sizable lead over his challenger for the District 1 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Matthew Salisbury. Sali had 35,991 votes, while Salisbury had 23,667 votes.

Walt Minnick ran unopposed for the same seat on the Democratic ticket.