AK-Gov: First Serious Opponent for Palin Signs On

The seemingly invulnerable Sarah Pipeline has her first challenger at the plate:

Democrat Bob Poe, the former Alaska State Commissioner of Administration and former CEO of Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, said Wednesday he will announce tomorrow that he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Alaska.

Poe is viewed as a serious, viable candidate by state Democrats, though there are some other candidates that could derail Poe's bid to unseat Palin. Poe lacks statewide name recognition unlike a candidate such as Ethan Berkowitz, the Democrat who came close to defeating Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) this past November.

It is expected, though, that Poe would run a centrist, pragmatic campaign as an alternative to Palin.

Democrats feel that Palin's vice presidential run brought to light more negative information about the governor than Alaskans had previously encountered, opening the door for a successful Democratic challenge. Still, they acknowledge that Palin's still-unknown political ambitions on a national level are a key variable in the race.

Berkowitz is more likely to try another House race (against a weaker candidate in scandal-plagued Don Young) than a race for Governor against Palin. All the polling for that race, from start to finish, showed Berkowitz beating Young, indicating how difficult a state Alaska is to poll.

Palin's favorables are still pretty high, last time we checked - 60% favorable, 38% unfavorable. So it'll be a tough race for Bob Poe, and as we saw in 2008, even popular Democrats, like Berkowitz and Mark Begich, have trouble in Alaska, even against crooked Republicans like Young and Ted Stevens.

It should be a fun one, though. The chances of beating Palin are very low, but it will be nice to have her in the media spotlight again in 2010. Even a victory for her in 2010 could damage her chances for 2012, if it's not "convincing" enough.

And it's very inspiring to see that even after a somewhat disappointing year in 2008 (the election of Mark Begich notwithstanding), Alaska Democrats are serious about taking on the state's most popular Republican. It'll be a nice service to the rest of the nation if they can sting Palin just a little bit.

By the way, if you've wondered what the Sarahcuda has been up to of late, check this out:

I'm excited that we'll still have Palin to kick around for years to come.