Wow:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Both former Attorney General Dan Sullivan and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, in interviews with MSNBC's Kasie Hunt, gave rather bumbling answers in response to questions about how they would vote on the Violence Against Women Act if they were in the Senate.
"You know I'll look at it, I know there were some provisions that had some controversy but I'm going to be very focused on those issues the way I was as attorney general here," Sullivan said.
"But you're not sure one way or the other that you would have voted for it and whether you'll vote to reauthorize it," Hunt quickly interjected.
"Well I need to look at the whole act," Sullivan said. "One of the things I've done in my career is actually read legislation before I vote for it unlike most of the Senate Democrats like [Sen. Mark Begich] who clearly voted for Obamacare without reading it. I was —before I sued on Obamacare I sat down with a small team of attorneys and we read it!"
Lt. Gov Mead Treadwell seemed even more reluctant to support the legislation. .
"I had some problems with the act itself and let me just tell you we have done what we can here to help bring more resources to bear. When Washington tries to impose solutions on a state without talking to people who live there, I think you've got a bit problem."
"And that problem was big enough that you might have voted against it?" Hunt said.
"Yes," Treadwell said. - TPM, 8/13/14
Just a reminder that the reauthorization of the VAWA that both Senators Mark Begich (D. AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R. AK) voted for include new provisions to protect Native American women. With Alaska Natives making up 19% of the Alaskan electorate, probably a good idea to state where you stand on this issue. Republicans are worried that this primary is going to cost them this race against Senator Mark Begich (D. AK) and there's a few good reasons why:
http://www.usnews.com/...
In some ways, the same schisms dividing the party establishment and tea party supporters in the Lower 48 are playing out on The Last Frontier.
Former state attorney general and natural resources commissioner Dan Sullivan has the backing of major Republican donors and Washington-based power brokers, including Karl Rove. The Marine reservist, who worked for the State Department in the George W. Bush administration, is the target of populist, socially conservative broadsides from tea party favorite Joe Miller, who pulled off a surprise upset of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in state's 2010 primary, only to see her win the general election in an historic write-in campaign.
Should Miller lose on Tuesday, Republicans are worried he could again mount a third-party bid and effectively hand the election to Begich. Miller has largely denied that's in his plans.
"I don't think it would be successful," he said.
In the middle is Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who has tried to paint Sullivan — born in Ohio, but with roots in the state that date to the 1990s — as an outsider. It's a potent charge in a state that considers itself a world apart from the rest of the country. He's also started to echo Miller's tea party rhetoric against Sullivan.
"Dollars don't vote here in Alaska, people do, and I ask you to remember that we can't be bought," Treadwell told the audience at a recent debate in a clear shot at Sullivan's money.
The establishment-tea party divide is magnified in the nation's geographically largest state, which may be its smallest politically, with fewer than 500,000 people registered to vote.
It's the sort of place where Miller might campaign by waving campaign signs at passing cars with a group of volunteers, as he did Monday, not far from where Sullivan's daughters and a clutch of Treadwell supporters had just done the same. - U.S. News, 8/12/14
Sullivan's trying to strike a balance between the establishment Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/...
Republican Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller challenged his fellow Republicans to support him in impeaching Obama in a debate Wednesday at the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce.
One of his opponents, former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, said he would take impeachment “very very seriously” if it came to the Senate and “would focus on it” if it reached the Senate.
“I think we all agree that Obama’s out of control,” Miller said, adding that Obama “acts like almost a dictator in some sense.”
Miller stated he publicly called on his opponents to join him in supporting impeaching Obama in recent weeks but received no response. So Miller asked Sullivan directly as part of the debate format what it would take to get him to support impeaching Obama. - BuzzFeed, 8/8/14
But here's something they all agree on:
http://www.sitnews.us/...
Breached mine tailings dams be damned! As millions of Fraser River sockeye salmon head for spawning beds polluted by a brew of metal toxins oozing from the Mount Polley gold/copper mine disaster in British Columbia, Republican candidates vying for US Senate want environmental regulators to butt out of Alaska’s mining development decisions.
The three men hoping to unseat Mark Begich faced off last week for a Rural Alaska Republican Candidates forum hosted by KYUK/Bethel.
To questions posed by moderator Ben Matheson, candidates Joe Miller, Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan all slammed the Environmental Protection Agency for its plans to impose strict water requirements aimed at blocking the proposed Pebble Mine. Each candidate also agreed with legislation recently introduced in the US Senate (by Murkowski and two other Senators) that says the EPA cannot use its authority under the Clean Water Act “pre-emptively or retroactively.”
“To have the EPA come in and take power away from the permitting process is not necessarily going to solve the Pebble problem, and it’s going to hurt mines all over the state,” said Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell. “When I say solve the Pebble problem, this is something that we just can’t say we’re not going to do the science, we can’t say we’re not going to look at a permit. This is a big piece of our state’s statehood bounty and we have to be able to make sure that we’ve got that capability.
“As we go through the Pebble process, looking for an easy yes or no answer can have huge effects on other mining, other resource development projects in the state and we have to be extremely careful. And I believe the EPA solidly over reached on this one,” Treadwell said, concluding with a barb at Sen. Begich, who opposes the Pebble Mine, for “not letting the state make its own decisions and sending the decisions back to Washington.” - Sit News, 8/12/14
And if Sullivan were to lose next Tuesday, it would be the most hilarious defeat ever:
http://online.wsj.com/...
Dan Sullivan is campaigning as a conservative Republican who wants to cut spending. He stands a good chance of winning high office this year in Alaska.
His problem: The same can be said of Dan Sullivan.
Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan both will be on the Republican primary ballot Aug. 19—a circumstance that has created campaign challenges for the two men and confusion for Alaska voters, many of whom don't seem to know that the leading GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate isn't the same as the presumptive nominee for lieutenant governor.
Polls as late as this month have shown that about a third of Alaska Republicans likely to vote in the Senate primary don't know one Dan Sullivan from the other. The state's TV stations have run stories mixing up photos of the two men, a surprising development given that one Dan Sullivan (the Senate candidate) is the state's former attorney general and the other is currently the mayor of Alaska's largest city, Anchorage.
Both men passed on the chance to use a middle initial—A. for the mayor, S. for the Senate candidate—or to appear on the ballot as "Daniel." - Wall Street Journal, 8/12/14
And Miller is running as the most awful human being in this race:
http://www.latinpost.com/...
Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell commented on their refusal to sign a pledge set forth by fellow candidate Joe Miller, who has garnered support from the tea party. The pledge by Miller would reaffirm opposition to any efforts to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants if any of the three GOP candidates were elected to the U.S. Senate.
Lt. Gov. Treadwell criticized Miller for distributing a mailer addressing the immigration crisis with "menacing" Hispanic gang members, according to The Associated Press.
"It's because it's the truth," Miller said, adding that the flier featuring Hispanic gang members is "real world stuff." He also countered that Sullivan's supporters favor amnesty for up to 11 million undocumented immigrants. - Latin Post, 8/11/14
And Begich's Super PAC has been hitting Treadwell and Sullivan:
http://www.ktoo.org/...
The ad is from Put Alaska First, an independent superPAC working to re-elect Democrat Mark Begich. It’s spent nearly $4 million running ads against Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. The new ad takes a small swipe at Sullivan but aims at Treadwell.
“Mead Treadwell created a company that helped the government spy on people and launched another company that pushed a national ID card,” the ad says, over imagery of surveillance cameras.
Treadwell says one of his companies created the technology behind Google Street View and vehicle-mounted cameras that helped the military map Iraq and Afghanistan. Treadwell says the company doesn’t spy on Americans.
“The only surveillance that I was ever aware of that any of our cameras did is some guy threw — actually two guys at different times — threw grenades or IEDs at the Humvees carrying our camera,” Treadwell says.
Another company he founded, called Digimarc, makes identification cards, digital files and currency harder to counterfeit. It has, according to Senate records, lobbied for Real ID, which critics charge is a national ID program. Treadwell says he served as an officer of Digimarc for a year and later consulted for the company. He still owns shares worth up to $250,000. But he says he doesn’t control what the company lobbies for. - KTOO, 8/13/14
Whoever the GOP nominates will have the big backing and Begich knows this. Lets help him get ready. Click here to donate and get involved with his campaign:
http://www.markbegich.com/