Every cycle I glom on to certain candidates and races as favorites. I end up gravitating those races because the candidates may be compelling, or the politics are fascinating, or there's a message to be sent. Last cycle, it was the Senate races in Connecticut, Montana, and Virginia, as well as House races such as Gary Trauner's in Wyoming.
There are some early favorites shaping up this year, and a couple are driven by the amazing political transformation we're seeing in Alaska this year. Driven by a GOP corrupt beyond imagination and a pair of stellar top-tier candidates, Democrats are showing surprising signs of life against two of the state's most entrenched political institutions -- and in the process, making Alaska competitive in the presidential.
Today, we're focused on Alaska's Senate race, were corrupt long-time Alaskan institution Ted "Tubes" Stevens is getting a run for his money by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
This is a race I've kept a close eye on since mid-last year, and it couldn't have developed better in these last 12 months. The race is essentially tied, with even Stevens' pollster admitting that his boss has serious problems.
What's more, the pressure Alaska Democrats like Begich are putting on their state's rotting GOP is likely playing a role in making the state competitive for Barack Obama -- reverse engineering the latest Senate poll numbers from Rasmussen puts the race at McCain 43, Obama 41. Without top-level pressure on the state's most entrenched Republicans, Alaska might be playing to its historical norms. In 2004, Bush beat Kerry by 25 points.
Begich is good on the issues, "straying" perhaps on just one major one -- drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (which is a must for every Alaska politician). He's otherwise solid on Iraq, on FISA, on choice, and so on.
But aside from that, there's an intangible something else -- a playfulness and willingness to have fun that I truly love in politicians. From clever "tease" ads for a local festival, to his willingness to give Colorado's Mark Udall a nice assist from afar:
In a statement just released, Begich campaign press secretary Julie Hasquet responds to Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Shaffer's new television ad, which repeatedly uses images of Alaska's Mount McKinley:
"While Alaskans can understand why Bob Schaffer would promote our beautiful mountain, I hope he doesn’t expect Alaska to cede North America’s highest peak to the State of Colorado."
Now there's a candidate who, like Jon Tester, understands the importance of party building and won't run away from his party.
But finally, let's not lose sight of who exactly we're trying to retire in this race -- Ted Stevens -- who, as chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, and member of the Science, Technology, and Innovation subcommittee, famously said while talking about net neutrality:
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially [...]
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
It's a series of tubes.
And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
We now have a chance to retire Stevens with your help. Use those tubes to drop $20 or more into Begich's kitty while rocking to the Stevens Techno Remix.
On the web:
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Mark Begich for Senate