Is Hell freezing over in Alaska?Posted by jmapes June 19, 2008 09:14AMYes, let’s stipulate that the Republicans are having some extraordinary troubles in what we in the Greater Northwest call our Back 40 (otherwise known as Alaska). The state’s senior senator, Republican Ted Stevens, is caught up in a corruption investigation and for the first time in this geologic age faces the real prospect of losing re-election. Now The Fix passes on word that a poll from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee shows that Republican John McCain only has a two-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama. This is hard to believe. Alaska has gone Democratic in one presidential election since statehood - the Lyndon Johnson landslide in 1964. In 2004, President Bush beat Democrat John Kerry, 62-35. Only eight states were more Republican. It’s easy to dismiss the DSCC poll, given its partisan provenance. But Rasmussen Reports, an independent pollster, found McCain with only a four-point lead a week ago. In May, two polls put the McCain lead at between 5 and 7 points. Obama has indicated that he intends to expand the number of states in play. And he almost certainly will have the money he needs to gamble in places the Democrats usually avoid, now that he’s opted out of the public financing system. The Republicans may have to play defense in a state they can usually just mark as safely R. Categories: presidential race
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PaddyMac says…
As an ex-Alaskan, I see the McCain candidacy particularly problematic there. The Alaska Congressional delegation has made a career on delivering pork–from the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ to thousands of other projects most of us will never hear of.
McCain has made a name for himself as an outspoken opponent of pork and has clashed with Stevens repeatedly over the aged Alaskan’s earmarks. Given that the unofficial motto of Alaska is ‘leave me alone but mail me a check,’ the prospect of a McCain presidency (combined with the possible loss of the seniority of Stevens as he is embroiled in controversy) has a lot of Alaskans wondering whether those federal freebies will continue to flow north.