So Dan Sullivan (R. AK) has been trying to take down Senator Mark Begich (D. AK) by attaching him to President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. While some Democrats would try to distance themselves from the law, Begich is taking a differnet tactic:
http://www.alaskapublic.org/...
But Begich, in a new radio ad running statewide, is taking the politically risky tactic of embracing the unpopular law.
“Before the healthcare law was passed one third of Alaskans who tried to get individual policies were denied for preexisting conditions and other reasons.”
The ad says Begich is working to fix the law and make coverage more affordable. Obama is especially unpopular in Alaska. A national polling firm last month found 56 percent of Alaskans disapprove of the job the president’s doing, while a Dittman poll put the figure at 65 percent. The minute-long Begich ad never uses the words “Obama,” “ObamaCare” or the “Affordable Care Act.” - Alaska Public Media, 10/7/14
In fact, Begich even calls for fixing the law:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
In the spot, which debuted Tuesday, Begich acknowledges frustration with the law, but points to proposals -- like a bill that would allow insurance companies to offer a cheaper plan than currently allowed -- as evidence that he is working to improve it.
"To me this is a critical core issue for Alaskans. When I think about the health care law, frustrated, disappointed, you can put a lot of words towards it," Begich says in the minute-long ad. "But everyday I work to try to fix it because the way Alaskans operate, we come together to learn how to solve the problems and move forward." - TPM, 10/8/14
You can listen to the whole ad here:
http://www.alaskapublic.org/...
I'm happy Begich isn't running away from this issue but I doubt Obamacare is the big issue that's going to determine this race. At the end of the day, all politics are local:
http://dailysignal.com/...
A Senate race in Alaska—and control of the upper chamber of Congress—may be decided by issues that matter little to the rest of the country, like fishing rights and genetically modified salmon.
Republicans are banking on Alaska to be one of the six new seats the GOP needs to take control of the Senate, with their nominee, Dan Sullivan, attacking Sen. Mark Begich, the incumbent Democrat, as a loyalist to President Obama.
The state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968.
But Begich, boasting endorsements by the United Fishermen of Alaska and the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, is campaigning as the true Alaskan, traveling to far-flung villages to connect with people who have unique needs and normally wouldn’t vote.
Only about 250,000 of Alaska’s 500,000 registered voters are expected to vote this year.
In an interview with The Daily Signal, Geoffrey Skelley, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Alaska’s “unique political culture” makes it ripe for seemingly random local issues to sway the race.
“Alaska is a place where the default political allegiance is not quite as hardened, though it is pretty Republican,” Skelley said. “You also tend to see a little higher libertarian ethos. Alaskans think it’s important that they get investment from the federal government [for local issues] because they are so far away from the rest of the country.” - Daily Signal, 10/8/14
And Begich's support form the fishing community was made clear at a debate last week:
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Sullivan, who took flak for initially planning to skip the debate to campaign in rural Alaska, sought to show his command of fisheries issues, the focus of the only-in-Alaska debate that is a tradition among politicians in the Last Frontier. Sullivan mentioned his family's fish camp and the need to cut burdensome regulations. He also mentioned Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who recently endorsed him and campaigned with him in Kodiak.
Fishing is a multibillion-dollar industry in the state and a major employer.
It was a friendly audience for Begich, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on oceans, atmosphere, fisheries, and Coast Guard and entered the debate with the endorsement of fishing organizations such as the United Fishermen of Alaska and the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. At one point, Begich, wearing a gold salmon pin on his lapel, said he wouldn't mind answering some of the questions that were being directed solely to Sullivan.
"Well, Senator Begich, we've heard a lot from you, but we really haven't had an opportunity to question Mr. Sullivan," one of the questioners, fish industry writer Laine Welch, said before asking Sullivan another question.
During the debate, Sullivan was asked about his brother's fish business. He said his brother is a wholesaler who buys farm-raised fish as well as fish from Alaska. Sullivan said he is against genetically modified fish, known as "Frankenfish," a position Begich also holds.
Sullivan said he has never supported the Pebble Mine, a massive gold-and-copper prospect near the headwaters of a world-premier salmon fishery in southwest Alaska. But he said he supports having a process in place for projects like that to be vetted.
Sullivan has said the controversial project should be allowed to go through the permitting process. He and others, including Murkowski and state officials, worry the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will veto the project before it has gone to permitting.
Begich — to applause — called the project the wrong mine in the wrong place. - ABC News, 10/2/14
And Sullivan has been trying to keep a low profile:
http://www.adn.com/...
Few people on the U.S. Senate campaign trail in Alaska would dispute that the incumbent Democrat in the race, Mark Begich, will talk to just about anyone -- even to conservative talk radio hosts, whose shows Begich is known to call on a whim.
As for Begich’s opponent, Republican nominee Dan Sullivan? That depends on who you ask.
Sullivan’s campaign cites the eight debates in which he’s scheduled to appear before Election Day. And it argues Sullivan has been open and transparent with the press from “day one” -- though he refused to take questions from media at his campaign kickoff a year ago.
“Dan has been very accessible to the media throughout the entire campaign,” his campaign manager, Ben Sparks, said in an interview.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue that Sullivan, a first-time candidate who previously served as Alaska’s attorney general and natural resources commissioner, dodges questions from Alaska media, and from the public.
They cite as evidence a primary night episode in which Sullivan’s campaign barred reporters from his victory party, and another after a debate in Kodiak on Wednesday, when Sullivan’s spokesman quickly ushered him away from reporters after a few minutes of questioning.
Begich brought up the issue himself in a phone interview Saturday morning on a separate topic. A request by Alaska Dispatch News to interview Sullivan on the same topic has gone unanswered so far.
“It’s frustrating because, I mean, Alaskans are not getting a good conversation about the issues, as well as where we differ, other than these 30-second ads and through his spokesman,” Begich said. “I’m starting to hear from people that there’s a contrast occurring here.” - Alaska Dispatch News, 10/4/14
But the main reason I am confident that Begich will win is because he has a better ground game:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
In the Republican-leaning state of Alaska, in a Republican-leaning midterm election year, it would be easy to conclude that Begich is doomed. GOP nominee Dan Sullivan and his allies have been attacking Begich as a loyal foot soldier to President Obama whose voting record does not match Alaska’s more conservative values. In an interview, Sullivan said Begich “went to Washington and forgot who he represented.”
But Begich believes his ground game can help him withstand the unfavorable political climate. He is not alone: In competitive Senate races nationwide, Democratic candidates have invested heavily in surgical turnout operations to drive people who traditionally vote only in presidential elections to the polls in November.
The Democrats’ showcase is Alaska, where neither party previously had much grass-roots infrastructure because of its Republican tilt and the logistical obstacles of traveling between rural villages.
A system to mobilize voters is particularly important this year because Alaska is dramatically expanding opportunities for early voting, which begins Oct. 20.
In 2012, Alaska had 82 early voting locations, mostly in urban and suburban areas. But after Alaska Native leaders demanded better access in rural villages, the state is opening 208 early voting locations this month — 161 of them in rural Alaska. This means that the campaigns have a full two weeks to marshal voters to the polls.
Sullivan has five field offices in the state’s most-populated areas, just as Begich did during his 2008 campaign. But this year, Begich opened 16 offices, many in far-flung communities.
Whereas Sullivan and the Republican Party have 14 field staffers on the payroll, Begich and the Democratic Party have 90. Nearly half of them are based in rural Alaska and are responsible for on-the-ground organizing in the state’s 198 Native villages such as Quinhagak.
“We have knocked on every single door in rural Alaska,” Begich said in an interview. “This is unbelievable. No one’s ever done it like this — ever.”
Only about 250,000 of Alaska’s 500,000 registered voters are expected to vote this year, meaning the hotly contested Senate race could be decided by a couple thousand votes. Polling is notoriously unreliable here, but Sullivan has led in recent public surveys, and nonpartisan forecasting models give the Republican an edge.
Still, Begich said, “I don’t care if we’re up or down. We’re winning on the ground because we will turn out more voters.”
Most of Alaska’s 735,000 residents live in the Railbelt, which extends from the interior city of Fairbanks south to Anchorage and the coastal cities beyond. Voter participation historically has been the lowest among the roughly 20 percent of the population scattered elsewhere, many of them Alaska Natives.
Begich sees an opportunity: “We know in a village, if we make contact with all the folks, the odds if we show them what we’re doing and what our opponent is doing, we will win that vote.”
Alaska Natives are considered part of Begich’s base, but historically they are loyal to neither party. In 2008, they backed Begich over longtime Sen. Ted Stevens (R), who had been revered in the villages as “Uncle Ted” for steering federal money here until he got into legal trouble. In 2010, Alaska Natives helped propel Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s reelection as a write-in candidate. - Washington Post, 10/4/14
Begich and the DSCC has been working hard to reach out to Alaska Natives and they will be key to helping Begich win a second term. Click here to donate and get involved with Begich's campaign:
http://www.markbegich.com/