Tag: alaska

Mark Begich, carpetbagger.

Hey, I’m just following the same rules that Begich stalking horse Put America First PAC is trying to implement: “A Super PAC in support of Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska) is attacking his Republican opponent for having a home out of Alaska despite the fact that Begich himself owns a home in Washington, D.C.” Essentially, one of the Republican candidates (Dan Sullivan) bought a house in the DC area while Sullivan was in DC, serving his country in both a military and civilian capacity.  Which is exactly what Begich is currently doing, except of course that Mark Begich has never actually served in the military (not that that should matter).

I know, I know: it’s absurd to expect people to commute from Alaska to DC.  Which is not stopping from the Super PAC from making the smear; and, of course, candidates do not coordinate with Super PACs*. But there is nothing stopping Mark Begich from making the following statement:

It has come to my attention that there have been questions raised about one of my opponent’s places of residence.  Serving the public while being from Alaska provides unique challenges: we can’t just hop back to Juneau or Anchorage every weekend, much as we’d like to.  So Dan Sullivan did what I did: he bought a house while in active government service.  Anyone who wants to make an issue of this does not speak for me, and I will not have my good name associated with such tactics.

Continue reading Mark Begich, carpetbagger.

Mark Begich desperately wants you to know that he loathes @BarackObama now. #obamacare

I included that hash-tag to remind you that Mark Begich, of course, is a brazen hypocrite.

While most Democrats have been quietly avoiding answering whether they would publicly campaign with President Obama, Alaska’s Mark Begich is forcefully rejecting the idea. “I don’t need him campaigning for me — I need him to change some of his policies,” the Alaska senator told CNN following the State of the Union address.

Funny thing about that: if Mark Begich had shown some moral courage on Obamacare, we wouldn’t be watching cancer patients lose their doctors because of Obama’s – and Begich’s – signature legislation. I bring this up not to engender a sense of shame in Mark Begich, but to engender a milder one in those Alaskans who made the regrettable mistake of voting for the man in 2008.  Thankfully, some mistakes can be rectified.

Moe Lane

See, this is what I want from the #NRSC. And require. #obamacare #begich

Nothing about the primaries; nothing to tick off the grassroots or the Establishment – or your Aunt Sadie, for all I know. Just a nice, simple shackling of Democratic Senators to President Barack Obama and a cheery wave as the anchor chain starts unspooling into the deep water.

And lo! Easily embeddable, all across the Internet. This is an excellent use of the NRSC’s resources: when people yell at them in comments anyway, at least try to mention that so that they’ll understand to do more of the things that you like.

Moe Lane

PS: It is showing up on my Firefox just fine; but in case somebody is having issues, here’s the direct link.

Bear walks into bar, gets chastised, walks out of bar.

This apparently happens in Alaska.

A bear walks into a bar, is refused service and leaves.

It may sound like a bad joke, but incredibly it happened in Alaska. And there’s footage to prove it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu4p7PcqY8U

Kind of a shame that you can’t domesticate bears. I like bears.  I don’t trust them enough to hang around them – because, you know, they can’t be domesticated – but I like them.

Moe Lane

PPP: Oh, crud, Mark Begich is in trouble, isn’t he?

They bury the heck out of that lede by first throwing up a lot of ink about Sarah Palin, who I sincerely doubt will end up running for Senate next year.  After doing that, PPP gives its readership the bad (to them) news:

The best Republican hope for this seat is Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell and the good news for the GOP is that if Palin sits it out he, and not 2010 nominee Joe Miller, is the next choice of the party base. In a three way primary Treadwell gets 33% to 25% for Sullivan and 24% for Miller. And in a head to head with Miller, Treadwell leads 53/30. Even among Republican primary voters Miller has a dreadful 26/53 favorability rating.

Treadwell still trails Begich, but only by a 44/40 margin. That’s narrowed from 47/39 on our February poll. Treadwell has a +6 favorability rating at 35/29 and has room to grow with 36% of voters still not knowing enough about him to have formed an opinion.

Continue reading PPP: Oh, crud, Mark Begich is in trouble, isn’t he?

Alaska’s LT GOV Mead Treadwell to run for Senate in 2014.

Well, this should be interesting:

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) announced Tuesday that he will officially challenge Sen. Mark Begich (D) in 2014, transitioning from an exploratory committee to a full-fledged campaign.

“This intense exploratory effort has convinced me that I have the support necessary to build a winning campaign,” Treadwell said on his Web site. “Today I’m taking the next step by announcing that I will not seek re-election as Alaska’s lieutenant governor and have begun to file documents required as a candidate for the United States Senate in 2014.”

(More via Roll Call) Lt. Governor is a good get; Treadwell was elected in 2010 and Sean Parnell isn’t going anywhere, any time soon, so this is a good lateral move for the Lt. Governor.

Continue reading Alaska’s LT GOV Mead Treadwell to run for Senate in 2014.

Washington Post: Mark Begich (D) is terrified of the NRA.

The poltroon.

Well, that’s what the WaPo wanted to say:

Sen Mark Begich declared a “sea change” in the politics of gun control immediately after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., telling his local newspaper that he would not hesitate to buck the powerful National Rifle Association.

But in the months since, the gun rights group has made itself impossible for the Alaska Democrat, and many other lawmakers, to resist.

Begich has signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill, drafted in consultation with the NRA, that would change the way mental illness is reported in the background check system… [And it descends into agitprop at this point. – ML]

Continue reading Washington Post: Mark Begich (D) is terrified of the NRA.

#rsrh Eyerolling the AK-SEN Hype.

The question over at RCP is “Can McAdams Pull Off Alaska Shocker?”

The answer is ‘no,’ for three reasons:

  1. Despite the best spin of the McAdams campaign, he is not showing 35% support.  If you average out the RCP polls for the last month, you will find that the actual numbers have Joe Miller and Murk. tied at 34.2% each, and McAdams at 25.8%.  He has hit 30% once.
  2. Despite the best spin of the Murk. campaign, Joe Miller is not particularly fading.  One poll in the last month has showed him at 27%; otherwise, he’s hitting 36%.  Even with that one poll being taken into consideration, again, the Republican and the ‘Independent’ are tied and the Democrat is in a distant third.
  3. The Democrats are already getting a free gift in the Colorado gubernatorial race.  They don’t have the karma reserves to get one in the Alaskan Senate one.  You can ignore this one, if you like: the other two are plenty big enough on their own.

Sheesh.  Then again, they’re pretty smart over at RCP, so I figure that they know all of this already, but are just covering all the bases.

Moe Lane

New Alaska election write-in rules eliminate ‘Lisa M.’ gambit.

The above quote comes from a colleague, upon hearing the news that a fairly successful ‘get your name on the write-in list’ registration drive was formed in response to the Alaskan Supreme Court’s decision to suddenly make write-in candidate lists available for voters.  You see, if you look at the old list you’ll see that there’s already a “Lisa M.” on there (Lisa M. Lackey); and if you look at the original article you’ll see that anybody who requests the write-in list will have his or her ballot separated out, in order to facilitate any possible appeals.  That means that it’s going to be fairly easy to find all the flawed ballots where the voter was too unclear about which ‘Lisa M.’ was meant.

Hey.  Rules are rules.  What are we supposed to do, ignore the courts?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Joe Miller for Senate.

#rsrh QotD, Lefty Bloggers Behaving Badly Edition.

From Jim Treacher, of course:

To put it in terms my liberal friends might be able to understand: Tony Hopfinger didn’t use his words and had to go into timeout.

Indeed. Quick operational tips for Lefties trying to emulate us Merry Pranksters here on the Right:

  1. When you’re trying to provoke a candidate into an unreasonable response for your video camera, don’t follow him into the bathroom.  We call that ‘stalking.’  Also, ‘squicky.’
  2. When the nice security guards drop by to have a word about how it’s not really cool for you to follow a candidate into the bathroom, don’t shove one of them.  We call that ‘assault.’
  3. When you ignore #1 and publicly admit later that you were guilty of #2, don’t be aggrieved that the consequences of your actions involved handcuffs until the cops arrived.  We call that ‘being a petulant little man-child.’

Sheesh, but some of these people get downright unpleasant when they’re losing nationally.

Moe Lane

PS: Joe Miller for Senate.