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Alaska voters approved a ballot measure aimed at adding a hurdle to the potential development of a major copper and gold mine. The measure requires the state’s legislature to approve any proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed. It targets the Pebble Mine, a planned copper and gold mine that would be the largest of its kind in the world. Environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some Alaska native tribes want to stop the mine due to its potential impact on wildlife in Bristol Bay and the watershed, including a massive salmon population. Sixty-five percent of voters approved...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — While the rest the nation examines how and why the Republicans took control of the Senate, the races in Alaska remain undeclared. At the time of writing, Republican Dan Sullivan was four points ahead of incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) — a lead that appears insurmountable given that nearly all the precincts have reported back. Assuming there are no surprises in whatever votes were still in play -- including absentee ballots -- Sullivan may be on track to be the last big win for the Republican Party. According to Alaska's Division of Elections, the independent gubernatorial candidate...

Alaska Senate Race Becomes Most Expensive Campaign In State's History By MARIA L. LA GANGA With $39 million in outside spending to sway half a million voters, Alaska Senate race is priciest per capita Both candidates in Alaska Senate contest condemn outside money, but it keeps rolling in The local official introducing the candidate eventually got around to the point — Sen. Mark Begich, standing up for Alaskans, get out the vote — but first he lit into the Koch brothers and what he described as money's power to warp politics. "They're literally spending hundreds of millions of dollars to...

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...

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is telling her Alaska colleague, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, that when it comes to using her likeness in his ads, “no means no.” Begich, who is up for reelection in a closely watched race against Republican Dan Sullivan, has used Murkowski’s picture in campaign ads to highlight his bipartisan bona fides and the fact both he and Murkowski are on the Appropriations Committee. Over the summer, representatives for the Republican sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Begich campaign, but he used a photo of the two of them at a joint press event as recently as...

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...

Mark Begich is the Democrat Senator from Alaska because the Democrats smeared the good name and reputation of Ted Stevens, the Republican who held the seat until 2008. Stevens was savaged by the Democrat controlled media and criminally charged with being corrupt. Although he was pretty much cleared before the election, the people of Alaska decided “better safe than sorry.” In Begich they got worse not better and plenty to be sorry about. Begich delivered not for Alaskans but for Barack Obama and Harry Reid when he joined in the sneaky Christmas Eve passage of a bill the Senate Democrats...

       This Candidate Has A History Of Taking On The Obama AdministrationHear what Dan Sullivan, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alaska, had to say In this week's "On the Campaign Trail" podcast, we are joined by Former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan. Dan discusses his campaign for U.S. Senate in Alaska where he hopes to be the Republican nominee to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich. Dan has dedicated his life to serving Alaska and America. He has served on active duty and in the reserves in the U.S. Marine Corps for 20 years as an infantry officer....

Power Players He once worked for Sarah Palin and has been dubbed a “protégé” of Condoleezza Rice. Now Dan Sullivan is fighting to become a high-profile conservative brand name of his own, trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska in one of the most closely watched political races of the year. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appointed Sullivan attorney general in 2009. Before that he worked within President George W. Bush’s inner circle as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Now, Sullivan has the task of convincing GOP primary voters that he is Alaskan enough,...

The conservative group Club for Growth has changed gears and is supporting establishment GOP candidates in primaries. Launched a decade before the tea party made life difficult for moderate Republicans, the club quickly rose to the political forefront while supporting challengers to incumbent Republicans who it felt were not conservative enough, according to the National Journal. In 2012, the fiscally conservative organization backed tea party candidate Richard Mourdock’s challenge to Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and vilified veteran Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch for his voting record. The group also targeted 10 moderate House Republicans. But the political action committee has suddenly...

Alaska is one of seven states which have a Democratic-held Senate seat up this year and which voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. Nate Silver of 538 and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post's The Fix rate the seat, held by former Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, as the least likely Republican turnover of the seven; 538 rates Begich's chances at 55 percent. Stuart Rothenberg rates it as toss-up/tilt Democrat, while Charlie Cook, slightly more bearish on Begich's chances, rates it as one of five pure toss-ups.Others may move in that direction given the latest polling from Rasmussen Reports. It shows...

Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R) has parted ways with his Senate campaign manager and top consultant following months of campaign struggles. ADVERTISEMENT Treadwell, once the front-runner for the GOP nomination to face Sen. Mark Begich (D), has posted weak fundraising totals quarter after quarter and has been eclipsed in the GOP race by former Alaska Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Sullivan (R). "I have had to make one of the toughest decision to this point in our campaign, I parted ways with Adam Jones, Campaign Manager. Rick Gorka, part of the communications team is also leaving," Treadwell said...

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

At least one candidate for the U.S. Senate wants to make it known that he stands with Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare. “I fully support any attempt to defund and repeal Obamacare,” Lieutenant Gov. Mead Treadwell of Alaska told The Daily Caller Wednesday as Texas Republican Cruz was winding down his 22-hour quasi-filibuster. “I applaud Senator Ted Cruz and the principled members of the Senate as they fight for the American people to get rid of Obamacare. When I am elected in November 2014 I will stand and work with Senators like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.” Treadwell...

There's a lingering sense in Alaska that the field of GOP Senate candidates isn't done growing yet. But we won't know for sure until after Labor Day at the very earliest, when the latest potential candidate returns from military deployment to Afghanistan. Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan, a Republican, will spend the next six weeks in Afghanistan on military duty, the Associated Press reported Monday night. Sullivan is in the Marine Reserves and deployed to Central Command twice in the last nine years, according to his office biography. Sullivan's most recent assignment means he will be out...

Gov. Sarah Palin announced that her second nominee to replace Talis Colberg as Alaska's attorney general is Daniel S. Sullivan, a former Anchorage attorney who served in the Bush White House and the State Department. Her first choice to succeed Colberg, Wayne Anthony Ross, failed to win the approval of the legislature. Though he must be confirmed by the Legislature, Sullivan will serve as attorney general until that body reconvenes in January. Sullivan's legal resume is impressive: Sullivan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with an undergraduate degree in economics. He earned a Juris Doctor/Master of Science dual degree in...

Dan Sullivan won the Anchorage mayor's office in a heated raced with Eric Croft. With 82 percent of the precincts counted, Sullivan had a commanding 17,188 votes to Croft's 14,832. That was a 56.4 to 43.6 percent split of this count. At the Millennium Alaskan Hotel, where Sullivan backers crowded in the Redington Ballroom tonight, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens is among those present. "I've known him since he was born. I don't have to worry about who he is. The Sullivan family has been dedicated to public service since I've known them," and that's quite a while, Stevens said....