- Last night’s gubernatorial debate hosted by KTUU was captivating due to the high stakes from the Walker/Mallot campaign. While the footage from the debate isn’t up yet, you can read the interesting tweets about the event to get the gist of why many believe last night was Gov. Sean Parnell’s. The AP’s Becky Bohrer has a more objective account.
- YourAlaskaLink spotted U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan at an Eagle River Gun Show at the local VFW on Saturday. It appears that Mr. Sullivan has taken a page from Sen. Mark Begich’s “no gathering is too small” campaign playbook by working the crowds that could be the deciding factor in who wins on November 4. Just hanging around a gun show also helps support the Washington Examiner’s affectionate nickname for Sullivan as “Alaska’s Happy Warrior.”
- An outlier poll released Friday shows a surge in support for U.S. Senator Mark Begich against Dan Sullivan. Nathaniel Herz has the lowdown on who’s behind that poll. Another poll conducted by Senate Majority PAC shows the race in a dead heat at 44 to 44 percent. The same polling firm had Begich up 45 to 40 percent in early September.
- Politico reports that U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has plans to overhaul the GOP’s image and to begin garnering support for a strong 2016 presidential win.
- The Juneau Empire endorsed Democratic U.S. House candidate Forrest Dunbar over Rep. Don Young on Friday. This is how the editorial started: “It’s an unfortunate thing to watch when someone once considered great won’t accept when it’s time to move on.” Ouch.
- The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner went with the incumbent and endorsed Sen. Mark Begich over GOP candidate Dan Sullivan.
- Read about Kotzebue’s new mayor, Maija Lukin, in the Arctic Sounder.
- The Fairbanks News Miner has an overview of the mostly ignored state House Race 2 between Rep. Steve Thompson and Larry Murakami.
- The Hill has a piece encouraging Republicans to end their campaign on positive messages. History proves this is advice worth heeding.
- Ballot Measure 2, the legalization of marijuana initiative, hasn’t even been passed yet, and already both sides of the issue are squabbling over regulations. According to NewsRT, it all seems to be over hash oil.
- The Center for Public Integrity has an article regarding how Outside super PACS are increasingly outspending and shaping the tone and message of campaigns. Michael Beckel explains what the implications mean for politics and the common man.
- A surprise to no one, the AFN has endorsed U.S. Senator Mark Begich and the Unity Ticket while opposing Ballot Measure 2. The person the Fairbanks News Miner feels was the belle of the ball was the beloved Sen. Lisa Murkowski with her flitting from group to group and making standing ovation speeches. “I’m not running, thank goodness!” Murkowski said Saturday before urging the attendees to vote in the coming election. “I’m not going to talk about candidates, because that’ll get me in trouble.” However, she did hint strongly that good things could come if Republicans were in charge and she were Chair of Energy.
- 3-2-1, Let the Blame Game commence! The New York Times reports that despite midterm elections being a week away, Democrats are already pointing their fingers squarely at President Obama for the poor projections come November 4.
- Becky Bohrer has the lowdown on exactly what it takes to canvas Arctic Circle voters. It’s not for the faint of heart, but this story is heartfelt.
- Congratulations to Brian the Moose and the rest of The Mudflats gang on winning the Best Blog for 2014 from the Anchorage Press Picks.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Get ready to suck on some legitimate numbers in a week buckaroo
AD has some excellent writers – Jill Burke and Richard Mauer stack up well with the best they’ve ever had. They also have the laughable Craig Medred and the used to be capable Dermot Cole as well as a bunch of newbies and interns. As a result, their product is wildly inconsistent and is at times, unreadable. I find myself increasingly going to FNM for news.
Known the Walkers for years. Neither Bill nor Donna are the kind of folk that I’d want in public office. Both have made a living off Valdez and all the residents got was a bunch of crap, no results and lots of empty promises. More than $10 million worth in the last couple of years. He told folks there that he was getting them a pipeline and the Feds threw out his applicatiion as a joke.
He can fool me once but not twice. They simply aren’t good people.
Where’s Dan Sullivan today, eh?
You’d think he’d have a decent excuse to blow off the chamber debate… but NOPE.
Hide-and-go-campaigning at its worst. We’ll see who cares.
One has to agree it’s pretty pathetic but what do you expect? The owner is married to one of the richest liberals in the united states, David Mark Rubenstein who according to Forbes is worth 3.1 Billion.
The KTUU, Channel 2 debate was the best of the election cycle. The moderator did a great job, allowing the candidates to spar appropriately. Actually, I was disappointed in Bill Walker’s performance, particularly with his lack of understanding about government. For someone touted as an expert on gas pipelines, I think Parnell gave him a lesson. If Walker’s performance last evening was indicative of his grasp and understanding of the issues, I would suggest he think about running for local government to get ready.
The polling story by Nat Herz failed to cast any meaningful light on the elections. It was a bunch of unmeaningful copy. Long story short, Begich’s pollster previous poll showed him up 5. If it iis a deadheat, and I doubt that, it means Begich las lost 5 points. How can that be good news? The Hellenthal poll leaves a lot to be desired because of the sample size and length of time it took to conduct the survey. These two factors put the legitimacy of the numbers in peril.
Great Arctic Sounder article. Good read.
Thanks for the news wrap-up. I just want to take a moment and vent about how poorly the Anchorage Daily News, Dispatch or whatever iits called this week is run. It is boias, unfocused and misses the biggest most important stories. The paper definitely needs competent editorial leadership. The paper is gettiing so bad. I bet the Mauer’s and other older writers at the paper are sick to their stomachs to now be writing for such a piece of crap.