Alaska’s View from the Hill With Senator Mark Begich
Once again Matt Felling of KTVA sits down for a conversation with a member of Alaska’s congressional delegation. This time it’s Senator Mark Begich (D). He remarks about the surprisingly low turnout in Alaska’s election and the large number of Alaskans who remained undecided until the last moment. He’s calling the race for Murkowski. “I think she’ll have a small drop off, maybe 5 percent, maybe 10 percent — what you see is an end result of an election where she still wins.” He talked about how the money given to Murkowski by Native Corporations had impact, and has some…
Live Q&A at The Washington Post
I’ll be online today, Wednesday November 3, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, 11 a.m. Pacific, 10 a.m. Alaska time to take questions on the election results in Alaska, and how they will impact the state and the rest of the country. You can submit questions for the queue HERE. I look forward to discusssing what is perhaps the most interesting senate race in the country. It is certainly the most complicated. ***UPDATE*** I got some great questions from Washington Post readers today. I didn’t get the chance to answer them all, but you can read the Q&A by clicking HERE.
Signs of Things to Come – Alaska Election 2010
Nothing says political season in Alaska like signs. Sure, sign waving happens in all elections, but Alaskans love our signs more than most. And nowhere in Alaska can you witness the traditional Election Eve battle of the signs like you can in two locations – The New Seward Highway and Northern Lights Blvd., and down the road at Northern Lights and Minnesota, in Anchorage. It’s a combination of spectator sport, pissing contest, and ritual. So, I took a little drive to see what was to be seen at these two prime areas of sign real estate. I pulled up to a…
Voices from the Flats – New Poll Shows Alaskans Must Vote Their Values AND Their Fears!
By Elstun Lauesen In an alternate Universe, Lisa Murkowski listened to her wiser angels and did not run a write in. She then pursued a higher calling, along the lines of post-politician Fran Ulmer, and Lisa found a sinecure in an academic bunker and lived happily ever after. In that same alternate universe, Scott McAdams faced off with Joe Miller, conducted an effective persuasion and attack campaign and went on to win the U.S. Senate seat by roughly the combined anti-Miller vote of THIS universe, beating Miller 63% to 37%. McAdams goes on to become a great U.S. Senator and…
Lisa Murkowski: She’s changed, we haven’t.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) released their latest commercial for the benefit of Scott McAdams, describing Lisa Murkowski’s mischaracterization of her political stances: The video is great and the message is spot-on. This gives me the opportunity to talk about a piece of Senator Frank Murkowski’s history where we can see Lisa following in her dad’s footsteps. During the Rachel Maddow Show’s visit to Alaska, Lisa Murkowski discussed the time (back in the 80’s) that the Moral Majority took over the Republican Party (5:20 on the video): What she does NOT discuss is how her father, then Senator Frank…
McAdams Full-Page Ad: “I’m Twice the Man Joe Miller Is…”
As a large girl myself, I’m infuriated but not surprised by the ignorant Conservatives, (or DINOs, or folks with mental health issues) who can find nothing to use against Sitka Mayor and US Senate Candidate Scott McAdams except his size: –ADN “AK-Voices” right-winger, Brian Sweeney forgoes credibility in lieu of insulting size-references to Mayor McAdams in at least two of his “articles.” (I have no doubt his sneering commentary is a throwback to some kind of High School trauma involving a football player and his head in a swirling toilet.) –Facebook fans obsessed with Lisa or Joe have become desperate now that…
The Public Records Act and Joe Miller’s Delete Key
Recently, we all learned a good bit more about ol’ Moose Poaching, Divorce Lawyering, Journalist Arresting, Line in Sand Drawing, Computer Hacking, Farm Subsidy Taking Joe Miller (I could add more, but really….it’s a bit much as it is. He should stop being such a hypocritical jerk so I don’t have to type so much). It wasn’t particularly surprising to learn that while employed as a part-time lawyer at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Joe Miller had 60 — yes, SIXTY — pages in his personnel file, or that he admitted that he was a liar, or even that he…
APOC Complaint Against Rep. Bill Thomas Campaign (R-Haines)–The response(s).
Back on October 13th, I posted about the APOC Complaint I had filed against the re-election campaign of Representative Bill Thomas, Jr. (above, on the left, with Sen. Al Kookesh, who appears in several of the ads.) The complaint is in response to a newspaper advertising campaign consisting of 12 ads which ran in the Chilkat Valley News during the weeks leading up to the primary election: …Upon further research, it was impossible to determine exactly what category of legal contributions these ads were attempting to fit, if any: James Studley was the one who coordinated the entire ad buy….
Breaking: New Alaska Senate Poll Shows McAdams Surging Past Embattled Joe Miller
A new poll conducted by Hays Research confirms what we already intuitively know. Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s candidacy is in big trouble. The percentage of those who feel either “somewhat negative” or “very negative” about Miller has skyrocketed in recent weeks to an unbelievable 68%. Only 8% feel “somewhat negative” and the remainder, a jaw-dropping 60%, feel “very negative” about Miller as a candidate. A series of gaffes, inconsistencies, and controversial statements to the press, in addition to the arrest of a journalist by Miller security guards have come one on top of another, causing a trend that can only be…
Alaska Judge Says No Cheating! Republicans and Democrats Celebrate.
In a rare moment of political kumbaya, both the Alaska Democratic Party and the Alaska Republican Party have sued the state for what they consider to be electioneering that unfairly favors Lisa Murkowski, the Republican write-in candidate for Alaska’s senate seat. She seeks to retain her seat running against Joe Miller the Republican candidate, and Scott McAdams the Democratic candidate, both of whom are on the ballot. Superior Court Judge Frank Pfiffner ordered the Division of Elections to remove the handy dandy list of write-in candidates from polling places across the state. Up until this point, the Division of Elections…