- Team Begich has knocked on 50k doors last week alone (about 1/6 of expected turnout), but that didn’t stop Dan Sullivan from telling a Washington Post reporter, “Who knows? Maybe their big game on their ground game is really impressive or maybe it’s kind of like his record of getting bills passed,” Sullivan said in an interview. “I dunno, we’ll see on November 4.”
- Election predictions are a time honored tradition and fun to read and relive the incorrect forecasts. I did pretty well for the primary and maybe I’ll do as well in my general election predictions. Or maybe I won’t. (The governor’s race gave me particular heartburn.) Either way, the AlaskaCommons has information regarding Alaska Election Day facts and the Dispatch has a refresher on all the items that will be on every Alaskan’s ballot.
- Speaking of which, there are lots of places to find a viewer’s guide to election night. ABC News, Politico and The Hill have their own versions of what to expect on a national overview. The Hill also has a downloadable Senate Scorecard.
- Alexandra Gutierrez with APRN has the results of her interview with a top Gov. Sean Parnell aide regarding the Alaska National Guard scandal and response timeline.
- WalletHub has a list of the most powerful voters by state. With an overall picture, Alaska ranks #3 behind #1 Wyoming and Vermont #2. When broken down to Senate and presidential elections we’re still at #3, but slide to #21 for congressional races. Not bad Alaska! (In case you’re interested, the Washington Post has an explanation of the numbers WalletHub crunched.)
- Baby, it might be cold outside, but that didn’t stop either Dan Sullivan or U.S. Senator Mark Begich from making the most of their last day on the campaign trail. The Fairbanks News Miner has the details.
- More exciting than all of the elections in the world is that House Minority Leader Chris Tuck and talk show host Bernadette Wilson are expecting. Wilson dropped the news on her talk show yesterday. Many, many congrats to both!
- The 2014 midterm election via money ball is available for perusal by The Center for Public Integrity. According to them, KTUU aired 12,300 Senate-focused TV ads this cycle. No other station aired more.
- Lots of commercials in Iowa, too. Word is my four nieces and nephews know all the words to all the commercials, and it’s really cute when 6 -year-old Paddy wakes up and the first thing he says is, “Joni Ernst is just too extreme for Iowa.”
- With Election Day upon us and many political analyses’ predicting a Republican controlled House and Senate, CNN begins the second-guessing game. First misstep: the “Avoiding Obama strategy.” Party leadership might need to pause before grumbling about should ‘a, would ‘as because Politico is envisioning a runoff in Louisiana and Atlanta that might not officially determine the future of the Senate until 2015.
- Vic Fisher has a compass piece in support of U.S. Senator Mark Begich in today’s Dispatch.
- The unexpected support Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate race, Mark Fish, has been getting from a certain political party that uses a donkey as their mascot has caught the National Review’s attention. While many acknowledge this as a simple ploy to pry needed votes away from Dan Sullivan’s vote column, Mark Fish has not only made peace with the free publicity, but is trying to utilize his time in the spotlight to bring Libertarianism mainstream.
- AlJazeera America aired an updated segment on Pebble Mine last night.
- Fairbanks City Council has unanimously rejected the contract between the Public Safety Employees Association (police & 911 operators) and the City of Fairbanks (park maintenance, etc.). The future is uncertain, but the Fairbanks News Miner has the details on the rejected pre-negotiated contract.
- Not all of the attention is being given to the Senate races. The Hill rightly points out that 36 governor’s seats are up for grabs and a progressive leaning gubernatorial majority could give President Obama a new avenue to see his agenda continue, all-be-it on the state-by-state level. Yes, Alaska is mentioned.
- Ever wondered what the White House lawn would look like if its residents treated it as their true front lawn? The Onion is here to help.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
I think the Onion would be right most years but in this particular election cycle, Democratic campaign operatives would have been sneaking over the fence all night to get those signs out of there……
Nobody from Begich’s campaign has come to my door.
Begich’s boys missed my door somehow. I’m actually disappointed I’m pretty sure everyone else found it. Heck last week in one day I had three separate ‘Pollsters’ knock on my door in one afternoon.
And then the next day, I had three Harry Reid’s two Obama’s a Nancy Pelosi and one Al Sharpton show up before I realized it was Halloween….
No Begich though.