At his State of the State address Tuesday night on the second day of the Alaska legislative session, Frank Murkowski, the nation's
second most unpopular governor (we all know who's below him),
hinted(subscription req'd) that he will be seeking a second term this coming fall:
His speech also fueled speculation about whether he will seek re-election.
"It sounds like he's running again," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.
House Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, also noticed that Murkowski referred a few times to a "first term" during the speech.
"That was a hint," Coghill said.
It's still too early to know anything for sure. If Murkowski runs, despite his low popularity, he still poses a threat to win the gubernatorial election. Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity for Democrats to retake the governor's seat, possibly by the same person who had it before, Tony Knowles. Recall Knowles narrowly lost to Lisa Murkowski in the 2004 elections. But it's still way too early to tell if Knowles might run, and we should not be holding out a great deal of hope at this point that he will.
The Dems have two other good candidates, but they lack Knowles' name recognition. Eric Croft and Ethan Berkowitz are both members of the Alaska House, with Berkowitz serving as the House Minority Leader. Both have been there since 1997, so they have the ability to win elections. In Berkowitz's case, 40% of Alaskans polled in a recent survey had no idea who he was.
A lot will depend on the current legislative session. The Juneau Empire predicted it would be a "bloodbath of politics and money," and with good reason. The North Slope gas pipeline contract and the "bridges to nowhere" debate (now moved into the Alaska legislature's lap after the earmarks, but not the money, were withdrawn) will draw a lot of blood. Other potentially heated issues will be oil and gas field tax legislation and eminent domain. If the legislature goes a different route than Murkowski on the contract or the bridges (he supports the bridges and has taken flack on the gas pipeline contract negotiations for trying to pander to the oil companies involved and firing his DNR commissioner when he raised legitimate questions about the progress of the contract), he could be embarrassed enough politically to decide not to run again, or decide that he would be hurting the Republicans if he ran again. Then again, we may know for sure if he'll run before all these issues play out in the legislature.