Posted on 10/31/2014 6:14:46 PM PDT by Din Maker
There's a time-honored cliche that political pundits tend to trot out whenever they're asked, usually on cable TV, to prognosticate about a race they aren't particularly familiar with: "It's going to come down to the ground game."
Most of the time, this isn't really true. Fundamentals such as party registration numbers and the state of the economy usually play a larger part in election outcomes than the campaigns' respective efforts to ensure that their voters actually vote.
But suddenly there's reason to believe that the ground game is going to matter more in this year's Alaska Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Mark Begich and Republican challenger Dan Sullivan than it has mattered in pretty much any other major race in recent memory.
In fact, what's happening on the ground in Alaska — the nitty-gritty work of identifying friendly voters in the farthest-flung corners of the Last Frontier, then turning them out on Election Day — may ultimately force the rest of us to wait well into November before we find out whether Republicans or Democrats will control the U.S. Senate in 2015.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
‘Rats in 2016.
My opinion of this poll: bull.
Dems are really working hard to get every Indian to have a ballot cast in their name; no joke. How it works up here.
I just watched a re-run of Thursday’s Alaska Senatorial Debate on C-Span. OMG, I hate to say this, but Dan Sullivan was horrible. His answers were very scripted and very “vanilla”. It was pitiful. I hope he wins just to help get the demon-possessed Harry Reid out as SML, but Sullvan dude needs to get some fire in his belly.
Iy won’t be very close, Sullivan will win.
The popular Mitch McC, “R” of KY, has already said nothing will change if he become majority leader.
Alaskans see Mark as a big dummy, but that he ain't; actually good liar/talker. Sullivan, he's the Party Guy and the good ole boy Repub network will always rule up here, in cahoots with oil industry.
I've never seen this big of a push by the dems over the last 20 years, but I still believe the Repubs will pull it out. Obama has grated Alaskans to no end and everybody knows Mark & B.O. are twins when it comes to D.C. politics, no joke.
I figured it was over for Mark back in late 90's when he got kicked out of politics over Photo Radar in Anch. I'll never forget seeing everybody shooting the cameras out at 7:30 at red lights on their way to work. JUst a couple days and we'll all know for sure.
F the democrats and F their already begun propaganda war about how they’ll retake the Senate in 2016.
And F Begich Jr. and F Marxist Gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker.
The natives are the blacks up here. They vote rat.
Most Indians don't even get too excited about politics, but the dems got the Native corporations involved in the elections and they have each village doing their own voting at the village which means one person fills out all the ballots and every last one is now going for the dems.
100,000 Natives in Ak, total population of state is around 700-800 thousand people. The Indians have always been democrats, but now the dems are seeing to it that every last Native is voting. Never been that way in any previous elections. Up here, 10,000 votes win elections. The REpubs should pull it out, but it's closer than people think due to the dem corruption in our elections.
There will be no runoff in Georgia (for Senate).
There will be no runoff in Georgia (for Senate).
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OK.... I hope you’re picking Perdue to win it.
Yes, Perdue wins without a runoff. Nathan Deal does not. I also think that Republicans win in Alaska, Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire. And if the Republicans had actually put forth an effort, they would have won in Minnesota, Virginia, and New Mexico as well.
Nick Begich, Sr. was a Congressman, not a Senator, and not for very long, not even a full 2-year term before he disappeared in that plane crash with Hale Boggs (for which 42 years later, have never found the remains of).
I'm not kidding about the Indians & dems turnout this year. I use to be able to get several Indian friends to fill out absentee ballots; always a good feelin to get dems to vote for Repubs. They wouldn't do it this year. Reason was their village leaders were voting for entire village. They seem to think they will get more $$$$$ flowing to the village from FEDs and from what I see they get more from dems than when Repubs are in office.
The Begich thing wasn’t much of a dynasty. Nick, Sr. lucked out when the House seat opened up in 1970 when GOP Congressman Howard Pollock decided to run for Governor (but lost the primary). He was locked in a very tough battle for reelection in 1972 (one reason Majority Leader Boggs flew up to help him personally). His ‘72 opponent was Don Young. Since Begich vanished before the election, the sympathy vote carried him to a posthumous second term (but Don Young won the special election in the Spring of ‘73, and has been there for what will be nearly 42 years).
Just as a curious bit of trivia, Begich’s 1970 GOP opponent for the House seat ? None other than Frank Murkowski. It would be a decade before Frank went to DC, but as a Senator. That came about when the eccentric Mike Gravel, whom had beaten the legendary Ernest Gruening in the 1968 Dem primary, faced Gruening’s grandson Clark, who wanted to avenge his grandfather’s loss. Clark beat Gravel in the primary, but with Reagan & the anti-Dem mood of the electorate up that year (1980), Murkowski won the general.
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