Winning more than 62 percent of the votes cast in Summit County, Democratic incumbent Christine Scanlan was elected to a second full term in state House District 56.

In the district, which includes Summit, Lake and Eagle counties, Scanlan outpaced Republican challenger Debra Irvine with 12,195 votes – or 58 percent – compared to 8,981 votes – or 42 percent – for Irvine.

“I think state house races are very personal, they’re very local, and it’s about people that know me and think that I’m doing the right job down in Denver,” Scanlan said Tuesday night.

Originally appointed in 2007 to the remainder of then Rep. Dan Gibbs’ term, Scanlan defeated Republican challenger Ali Hasan in 2008.

During her time in office, Scanlan has focused on education, the bark beetle epidemic and Interstate 70 development, issues she says she’ll continue to focus on during the upcoming legislative session.

The former Summit School Board president said one of her first priorities will be to find a replacement for the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP).

“I hope to do that in the next year, year-and-a-half at the most so that we can get a better assessment to measure our kids against,” she said.

Scanlan noted that her other priorities will be determining the local prioritization of federal bark beetle funds and developing a long-term plan for the I-70 corridor.

Irvine said that while she was disappointed in her defeat, she plans to run again.

“It was the first time that I’ve ever run and it’s been wonderful,” she said. “Meeting the people has been the best part.”

“I did want to serve my district and I do want to serve my community and I just felt like somebody needed to step up,” she said. “To go from relatively unknown, I think that we made a point. I wanted to be a voice for the taxpayer and small business, and I think that I was.”

The first-time candidate said she is going to work hard to hold Scanlan accountable during her term in office.

“I’m going to watch her voting record because we’re going to still look to see if she’s voting in favor of the taxpayer and in favor of small business. That was one of the things that we wanted to point out was that her voting record didn’t show that,” Irvine said.