• A rather limited survey was released on Monday by The Liberty Foundation, a small organization whose plan is to work through the states to promote free markets and “competitive federalism.” The poll found that in a general election matchup, U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan beat Sen. Mark Begich by 5 points. The survey didn’t ask about the other GOP primary candidates Mead Treadwell and Joe Miller. President of Liberty Foundation, Matt Mayer, said that the other names were omitted because they only had a limited number of questions, and it assumed, given the amount of money raised, that Dan Sullivan was the leading candidate. That, however, is a big assumption. The only other public poll recently released was by Rasmussen Reports, which found in March that Mead Treadwell was the only candidate who beat Begich in the general. None of the candidates, including most tellingly Begich, have released poll numbers.
• If laughter and applause was any indication, independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker was the winner in the Anchorage Chamber’s forum on Monday, where all three major candidates answered questions about oil, the economy, and education. Although he’s not necessarily the smoothest talker, and he always has more to say than time allows, Walker’s passion and humor made up his faults. The best of the forum was when he was talking about the federal government’s decision to take into account the animals when it decided not to allow for a potentially life-saving road between King Cove and Cold Bay in rural Alaska. “I like animals,” he said. “My favorite is a caterpillar,” he said referring to the yellow tractors. He also said he liked deer, as in John Deere.
• The GOP’s state convention is this weekend, and the convention program has been released. It features a montage of Republican political pins on the front, including a Bill Walker for Governor pin. Oops! The program also lists every Alaska Republican Party chair since forever, except for the two very colorful and short-lived chairs between Randy Ruedrich and Peter Goldberg. You remember, the chairs who were drummed out of the party, one of whom locked the doors to the party headquarters behind her before skipping town.
• Sources say that the inimitable Judy Eledge will be putting her name in for party chair.
• Senate Bill 21: Sense and Nonsense — ISER’s Dr. Scott Goldsmith will present his recent findings on the controversial oil tax overhaul that will be on the primary ballot this Thursday at the Resource Development Council meeting held at the Dena’ina Center at 7:30 am.
• Two Super PACs have filed with APOC to get involved in the Alaska governor’s race by boosting the candidacy of Democratic candidate Byron Mallott (Mallott-One Alaska PAC) and independent candidate Bill Walker (Walker for Alaska’s Future). To date, no one has yet created one to support Gov. Parnell’s campaign.
• Democrat Clare Ross, who was running against Rep. Lindsey Holmes in West Anchorage, has decided to run for state Senate in that district leaving Matt Claman to take on Holmes. Ross will now be running against Rep. Mia Costello for the seat being vacated by Hollis French. I don’t have anything to go by but a gut, and mine tells me that running against Costello is going to be more difficult than running against Holmes. In 2012, the very flawed candidate Bob Bell nearly beat French. Costello is a much better candidate than Bell.
• For those keeping track of Rep. Lora Reinbold’s birthday trip, the weather in Dubrovnik has been a bit rainy and in the upper 50s to mid-60s.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

The original story said that there wasn’t a McCain-Palin pin on the GOP convention program. That’s wrong. Don’t you worry. She’s there.