Alaska's Senate race has produced
a contender for stupidest political attack of the campaign cycle: Republicans are suggesting that Begich didn't really ride a snowmobile (or "snow machine," as Alaskans insist on calling them) in a campaign ad:
“I’m Cory Davis. As a four time X-Games medalist, I know something about snow machines,” Mr. Davis says in the ad. “That’s why I had a good laugh when I saw Mark Begich pretending to ride one.” [...]
It’s not the first time Republicans have launched accusations that Mr. Begich needed a stunt double for his TV ads. A super PAC backing Mr. Sullivan called Alaska’s Energy, America’s Values suggested it wasn’t Begich in the snowmobile ad in an April radio message. The super PAC’s ad said then that it was time to replace Mr. Begich, “or whoever plays him on TV.”
Begich's response is basically, "Ha ha ha,
tell it to my ear":
In an interview, Begich described the lengths to which he went to shoot the spot.
“One guy for example, wore an AR-15 around his shoulders because the area we were going to is where polar bears are, and he wanted to make sure we weren’t going to be attacked,” Begich said. “To say that I wasn’t on that snow machine riding it? I rode it for a long time out there and in weather that was very cold that day to the point where I frostbit part of my ear.”
You don't have to be a hardened cynic to suspect that maybe Republicans are coming up with these "Begich didn't really ride that very common-in-Alaska vehicle" attacks because the
majority of polls, including the most recent,
show Begich leading Sullivan.