Senate elections 101: In remote Alaska, remotest places could be crucial
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Mark Sappenfield Staff writer
The Monitor's "Senate elections 101" series looks at the specific issues that will be driving voters in each of the 10 tossup races.
In June, the United States Environmental Protection Agency did something that Alaskans are still talking about. Without waiting for the state to make up its own mind, the EPA made it up for Alaskans: It moved to stop the Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit mine that would be one of the largest in the world.
To those who view the state鈥檚 wide-open spaces with a sense of manifest destiny, the EPA proposal was just another example of an overzealous EPA 鈥� Exhibit A of a job-killing Obama administration run amok.
To others, it was an unfortunate interference, but necessary. If the mine polluted Bristol Bay, it could devastate the state鈥檚 $5.8 billion fishing industry, not to mention an unspoiled ecosystem so beautiful that Alaskan Sarah Palin named her now-famous daughter after it. 聽
To be honest, the Alaska Senate race 鈥� like all the tossup Senate races across the US 鈥� is mostly about President Obama. Republican Dan Sullivan has Xeroxed those pages directly from the Republican playbook: A vote for Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich is a vote for Mr. Obama, he says.
But if Senator Begich is to survive Mr. Sullivan鈥檚 Obama barrage, it might just be over issues like the Pebble Mine.
It鈥檚 one reason that the Alaska Federation of Natives endorsed Begich. It endorses candidates only rarely, and its endorsements carry no small weight. Put that endorsement together with a massive Begich ground game that has made contact with 43 percent of registered voters, , and Begich鈥檚 own playbook becomes clear.
Make the election about local issues 鈥� not the president 鈥� and then try to turn out as many of the voters that care about those issues as possible.
It鈥檚 Begich鈥檚 attempt to win Alaska鈥檚 great unaffiliated middle. Generally speaking, Alaska鈥檚 electorate leans right. Some 60,000 registered voters are Democrat, and 134,000 are Republican. But 183,000 are unaffiliated, and with Republicans motivated to oust Begich, he鈥檒l have to bring undeclared voters by the bushel.
Is he succeeding? That depends on . Alaska is , and this year appears to be no different. One recent poll has Sullivan up by five points. Another has Begich up by six.
What seems certain is that, if Begich is going to win, it might take a while for the rest of America to find out. His campaign鈥檚 get-out-the-vote campaign has spread into Alaska鈥檚 remotest corners. Moreover, many of the voters most likely to be influenced by the Alaska Federation of Natives鈥� endorsement live in the hardest-to-reach places.
Counting of all those votes can take days. In a close race, they might matter.
Please read our other entries in this series:
- Iowa is split between two very different candidates
- Georgia might turn on David Perdue gaffe
- North Carolina wary of Tillis's tea party revolution
- Arkansas considers ending its blue-state legacy
- Alaska's remotest places could be crucial
- New Hampshire shapes up as carpetbagger vs. rubber stamp聽
- The big Kansas issue Pat Roberts isn't talking about
