You smell that? I smell bull shit:
http://www.newsminer.com/...
In nearly the same breath Tuesday, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Dan Sullivan put forward a pledge to fight millions in Outside political spending in Alaska while supporting the Supreme Court case that made that spending possible.
Sullivan held a conference call to propose what he called the “Alaska Agreement” between him and Democratic Sen. Mark Begich that he said he hopes would discourage attack ads funded by wealthy Outside groups.
The plan, modeled after the People’s Pledge of the 2012 Massachusetts senate race, would require both candidates to voluntarily penalize themselves for every ad launched by an Outside group. For every Outside-funded ad, the candidates would donate 50 percent of the cost to charity of their opponent’s choice. - Fairbanks News-Miner, 6/11/14
Ok, I can't imagine Sullivan making this pledge with a straight face:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
It's a move reminiscent of the "People's Pledge" in 2012, a deal struck between Democrat Elizabeth Warren and then-Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, to limit outside influence on their Massachusetts Senate race. And it comes in a state that outside groups have made a top target in 2014—collectively, they've already reserved $20 million worth of TV ads there, an enormous sum for a state with a sparse population.
"This is nothing new; it has been done, it works," Sullivan said in a conference call with reporters. "All it takes now to work in Alaska is to have Mark Begich's signature on it.… This is one point on which we should see eye to eye."
The Democrat hasn't yet offered up a position on the pledge. But the Republican was less ready to answer whether such outside spending should be allowed in other states.
Asked by National Journal whether Sullivan supported the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which contributed to the rise of powerful outside groups such as American Crossroads and Senate Majority PAC, Sullivan demurred, saying he very much supports "strong free speech." The pledge, he said, was not a reference to Citizens United.
Sullivan failed to directly answer two follow-up questions about Citizens United from local media in Alaska, one of which asked whether all states shouldn't have the privilege of elections free from outside influence.
"This is not about Citizen United, this is not about legislation pending or looking to be introduced in Congress," Sullivan said. "This is about the way we think this race should be conducted in Alaska to give our citizens voice.…This is an unprecedented sum of third-party special-interest money."
In a follow-up call after the conversation, campaign spokesman Mike Anderson gave the first affirmative support for the decision. "At the end of the day, Dan does support Citizens United," Anderson said. - National Journal, 6/10/14
And of course Begich isn't falling for it:
http://thehill.com/...
Begich's campaign responded by calling Sullivan a hypocrite because of his support for the Supreme Court case that deregulated outside spending, a sign the plan is likely a non-starter.
"Sullivan again tried to tell Alaskans one thing, but then quickly revealed the truth today — he supports allowing corporations to engage in unlimited spending in our elections," said Begich campaign manager Susanne Fleek-Green in a statement. "If Dan Sullivan makes it out of his competitive primary, it will be a stark contrast between his put-corporations-first position and Senator Begich's support for real campaign finance reform including support of a constitutional amendment throwing out Citizens United."
Outside groups have been spending big in the state: Put Alaska First, a Begich-allied group, and conservative groups including American Crossroads, the Club for Growth and the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity have all been on the air to bolster their side.
Third-party spending has been relatively even in Alaska, unlike in many others where GOP groups have dominated. Both Sullivan's and Begich's campaigns have groused about the money pouring into the state.
Only outside groups with unlimited capacity would be banned under the terms of the agreement, not ones that face federal fundraising limits like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or National Republican Senatorial Committee. - The Hill, 6/10/14
And here's a little perspective for you:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Like just about everything in politics, the entire episode must be viewed through, well, a political lens. Why, politically, would Sullivan want to propose this pledge in an election cycle when conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity have been swarming Democrats with attack ads? After all, AFP alone has spent has spent at least $44 million on 2014 congressional races since last August, according to a person familiar with the total.
The answer is that Alaska is a unique case. Air time is relatively cheap in the sparsely populated state. As a result, both Democrats and Republican groups have rushed to flood the airwaves, spending now and reserving millions of dollars worth of air time for the fall, when many more voters will be tuned into the race.
Pro-Begich forces have spent or reserved about $7.7 million worth of of air time this year, according to public records. Pro-Sullivan groups have reserved or spent about $9.3 million.
In short, this is not a race Republican groups are going to be able to buy.
So, if the agreement were signed (and again, it doesn't look like that's going to happen), Sullivan would not be sacrificing the more one-sided air cover that, say, Thom Tillis in North Carolina or the Republican nominee in Georgia probably would be giving up against their Democratic opponents.
Sullivan may be making another political calculation: that such a move may help him shore up his Alaska bona fides. He's been taking heat from Democrats and his main Republican primary opponent over his residency history. Sullivan moved to Alaska in 1997 but spent much of the next decade living in Maryland while he worked in the Bush administration. In between, he was recalled to active military service. - Washington Post, 6/10/14
This is just a cocky move on Sullivan's behalf because he knows he's the frontrunner:
http://www.newsminer.com/...
There's still a healthy Republican Senate primary in August of who will get the honor of going up against Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. Right?
But that's not what you'd think listening into Republican U.S. Senate-hopeful Dan
Sullivan's announcement of his proposed "Alaska Agreement," a plan to nip unlimited Citizens United-enabled campaign spending in the run up to the general election.
Despite having a primary fight against Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (who's in spitting distance of Sullivan in recent polling) and wild card Joe Miller, it was clear Sullivan wants to define this as a race between himself and his Democratic opponent.
Here's what he had to say about it when I asked him during a Q&A session that Sullivan mostly spent dancing around any firm position on the court ruling that enabled unlimited corporate and union spending on elections.
"I'm 110 percent focused on winning the primary, there's no doubt about it," he said. "But this is a big issue, and right now Mark Begich and I are the only two candidates that have been the targets of millions of dollars in third-party special-interest-group ads. ... To address this issue right now there are only two candidates that can put a stop to it and that is Mark Begich and myself." - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 6/10/14
I don't know how much Sullivan has to worry about this guy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The general election returned Murkowski to Washington, D.C., and Miller now finds himself in his second run, this time attempting to overcome yet another slate of primary challengers currently polling above him.
But if Miller is sweating the support deficit, it's not showing. And in a typical showing from the tea party candidate, a forum in Anchorage last week featured Miller sticking to his script. Applause lines were commonplace, as he called for abolishing the IRS, repealing Obamacare, nullifying federal laws, and saving the country from the tyrannical rule of President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. All of which is standard fare within Republican primary politics, as candidates push the measuring stick further to the right to rally their base and separate themselves from their opponents.
A distinction needs to be made, however, between aspirational campaign speak used to solicit support, and outright false information that misleads voters and promulgates false information. When asked last week to share his vision of America that he would like to leave to the next generation, Miller fell on the latter side of the fence last week. Speaking to the crowd of a couple of hundred in Anchorage, he answered:
The number one priority is to end the horror of abortion in this country. We've slaughtered 56 million children in this country, and it's even worse than that. Part of our technology has been involved with 1 billion plus that have been slaughtered worldwide. It is something that we will reap, in fact we are reaping right now, the consequences of. We have a country right now that we can't keep up on the Social Security demands. Why? Because we've slaughtered generations. Literally.
Miller promoted Senator Rand Paul's (R-Kentucky) "Life at Conception Act," which would fully outlaw abortion in the United States by declaring that human life begins at conception and guaranteeing 14th Amendment rights to fertilized eggs.
The call to criminalize abortion drew applause and a few shouts of approval, and Miller moved on to other topics.
The claim that Social Security represents an immediate crisis, though not wholly inaccurate, suffers from a heavy dose of editorializing. The latest trustees report from the Social Security Administration found that there is enough current funding to pay full benefits through 2033, and 75 percent of benefits through 2087. The outlook for the Social Security Disability Insurance program is a bit more worrisome in the short term. If Congress takes no action, benefits could start seeing cuts in 2016. - Huffington Post, 6/5/14
But maybe Sullivan should be worried about this guy:
http://www.adn.com/...
A Dittman poll of 500 likely GOP primary voters in 50 communities during the last days of May -- and it was not paid for by either Treadwell or Sullivan -- showed the two running neck-and-neck, or well within the poll's margin of error of 4.4 percent. Respondents were asked: "In the Republican Primary election for U.S. Senate, who would you most likely vote for if the election were held today...?"
Sullivan netted 37 percent, Treadwell 35 percent, and Joe Miller, who has a Bronze Star, 12 percent -- and 15 percent were undecided.
Even more intriguing were the poll's favorable-unfavorable responses. Respondents were asked: "Please tell me whether you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of...?"
Treadwell garnered 74 percent favorable, 8 percent unfavorable, 12 percent unsure; Sullivan, 62 percent favorable, 18 percent unfavorable, 17 percent unsure; and, Miller, 35 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable, 7 percent unsure. - Anchorage Daily News, 6/7/14
By the way, Treadwell's latest attempt to disenfranchise Alaska Natives at the polls was shot down:
http://www.newsminer.com/...
The constitutional right to vote requires the state of Alaska to translate all election materials into Native languages for voters lacking English proficiency, a federal judge said.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason still plans to conduct a trial at the end of the month in a voting rights lawsuit brought by several Native villages and elders with limited English skills, the Anchorage Daily News reported (http://is.gd/... ). But she ruled Wednesday that as a matter of law, the state is obligated to match all English materials - including pamphlets, instructions, registration materials and ballots - with Yup'ik, Cup'ik and Gwich'in translations.
The lawsuit alleges the state is violating language provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act by not providing election materials in the Native languages. The lawsuit was filed through the Native Americans Rights Fund last year against Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and three other Alaska elections officials. Treadwell is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
The state defends its Native languages program as robust, involving bilingual poll workers, outreach to villages and translated ballots.
Both sides had asked the judge to rule on whether 1975 language amendments in voting rights law required translations into historically unwritten languages. They also asked Gleason to rule on whether the 15th Amendment, which declares states cannot use race or creed to restrict the right to vote, applied to the case.
Gleason ruled that both were relevant. - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 6/5/14
Alaska Republicans, the Koch Brothers, the Club for Growth are doing everything and anything they can to get rid of Begich and we won't let them. Not sure who will win the August primary at this point but we need to be ready for anything. Click here to donate and get involved with Begich's campaign:
http://www.markbegich.com/