Most area legislative races too close to call

SANDPOINT - With local results slow to come in on election night, only Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, who ran unopposed, ended the night certain she would be reelected.

With seven of Bonner County's 33 precincts counted and five of Boundary County's seven precincts counted, District 1, position A Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, led his Democratic challenger, Sandpoint's Steve Elgar, by 702 votes. Anderson recorded 2,832 votes to Elgar's 2,130 in early results.

In the District 1, position B race, incumbent Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, had collected 3,099 votes, with challenger Tom Hollingsworth of Bonners Ferry earning 1,812 votes.

Incumbent District 2 Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, enjoyed a healthy lead over her Democratic challenger Rand Lewis. Broadsword collected 2,806 votes to Lewis' 1,122.

In statewide elections, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch was outpacing his Democratic challenger Larry LaRocco for one of Idaho's two seats in the United States Senate. With 561 of the state's 956 precincts counted, Risch had 227,733 votes to LaRocco's 133,107. Rounding out the five-man race, Libertarian Kent Marmon tallied 5,847 votes, independent Rex Rammell earned 21,427 votes and independent Pro-Life had 5,091 votes.

In a much tighter race, Democrat Walt Minnick was in a statistical dead heat with incumbent Rep. Bill Sali in the race for Idaho's District 1 U.S. House of Representatives seat. Minnick had 96,156 votes to Sali's 96,820.

With little prospect of the race being decided before morning, several local candidates chose to go home to get some much needed sleep.