Unalaska, AK – Two years after winning a historic upset in the House District 37 Democratic primary, Rep. Bryce Edgmon is looking ahead to his first reelection campaign this fall.

Edgmon will once again face Republican Ron Bowers in the general election.

"I decided, after talking to a lot of folks for several months, to throw my hat in the ring," Bowers told radio station KDLG in Dillingham.

District 37 encompasses Bristol Bay, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutians. The state Division of Elections' filing deadline was yesterday, and neither candidate faces any challenge in their party primaries (Republican Randolph Zimin of South Naknek filed to run against Bowers, but later withdrew). That's a big change from the last time the two candidates from Dillingham ran against each other. In 2006, Bowers faced stiff competition in the Republican primary from Dillingham's Joe Faith, as well as Vince Tutiakoff, now of Unalaska.

But that race was nothing compared to the Democratic primary, which pitted Edgmon against his former boss, incumbent Rep. Carl Moses of Unalaska, who was then the most senior lawmaker in the state House. That election ended in a tie, which Edgmon won in a coin toss after a month of challenges and recounts. Moses went on to run a write-in campaign in the general election, where Edgmon beat both him and Bowers decisively.

In the last Democratic primary, Moses's supporters argued that as a freshman representative, Edgmon wouldn't be able to deliver state funding for big projects in his district's communities. Edgmon said his record on that front over the past two years speaks for itself.

"We had a record capital budget this year for House District 37, the one district statewide that didn't suffer any veto cuts," he said, referring to the Legislature's budget items that were cut by Gov. Sarah Palin. "If that's a measure of how well we did, how effective we were down in Juneau, I think people would certainly look at that."

The House primary election is on August 26. The general election is on November 4.