senate races

The Senate race in Alaska is still alive. Even with Ted Stevens on trial starting this week, he only trails Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3.7% according to the latest RCP average.

Essentially, the race comes down to the outcome of the trial: Stevens acquitted = win, Stevens convicted = loss. In a future post, I will talk about why I, as a conservative and an Alaskan, still support Ted Stevens. I know there are many here who aren't fans of him, but I do intend on making the case for why he's much better than the alternative this November. So let me spend some time on his opponent: Mark Begich.

The story on Begich is simple: he'll say anything to get elected. (I've posted before on how he stretches his record as mayor, but the NRSC and the Alaska Republican Party have set that record straight.) Begich says he supports drilling in ANWR and expanding refining capacity in the following ad ...

But Begich not only keeps on taking money from Hollywood and New York liberals that oppose any sort of drilling. He's taken money from potential Senate colleagues that think the same, including PAC dollars from Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin, John Kerry, and Barbara Boxer. But it doesn't stop there. Alaska Conversation Voters (ACV), a very powerful anti-drilling-in-ANWR extremist environmentalist grassroots organization, has started running ads against Ted Stevens ...

Begich has not called for these ads to be pulled, and didn't call on the DSCC to pull their presumptuous ads about Stevens' trial, even though Alaska broadcast stations removed them because of their innacuracy. One thing to note about Alaska Conservation Voters is the amount of incredible amount power they have with Democratic candidates in Alaska. It seems like an oxymoron that a rabidly anti-drilling-in-ANWR group would have so much influence in Alaska, but they essentially run the ground operation for Democratic candidates, most of whom are on the record in support of more exploration and production in Alaska. Whose side is Begich really on?

One of the things I would have liked to see vulnerable House Republican incumbents do during the #dontGo movement last month is to pressure their Democratic opponents to push Pelosi for an energy vote. If I were a vulnerable GOP incumbent from Alaska, I would sent out a press release inviting my pro-drilling Democratic opponent to work in my office to convince Democrats this session for a vote, since energy is one of the top issues this election.

With an issue like energy production, we have to expose hypocritical Democrats like Mark Begich, and tell them to either stop taking extremist environmental money or admit that they will just cave into the anti-energy production lobby if they get elected.

Hello fellow Next Righters!

I'm hoping, as June rolls in, to document the major New Hampshire races coming up - specifically the governor race where incumbent John Lynch and his merry band of budget breakers are facing semi-grassroots opponent Joe Kenney, the extra-important Jean Shaheen/John Sununu Senate race, and the easily-doable Jeb Bradley/Carol Shea-Porter race in Manchester's House district.

For more about me (short answer: Massachusetts ex-pat, libertarian atheist conservative who focuses more on economic issues and is trying to convince himself to vote for McCain and failing), you can visit my website. I'm currently a registered independent, supported Ron Paul in the primary and kind of regret it, and I'm tired of being 27 and lacking like-minded folks my age who want to stand up, be heard, act, etc.

Back on topic, one of the interesting issues I've faced thus far is how difficult it has been to get involved, however. GraniteGrok has touched on this a bit regarding Sununu's campaign - the campaigns have been scary silent up to this point, and continue to be difficult - multiple e-mails to Sununu's campaign headquarters have gone unanswered for me, and my one attempt at visiting the campaign office during what would be considered "business hours" ten minutes from my home bore no fruit. At least Jeb Bradley has a Facebook presence, and even then, that's not going to win against an incumbent in an urban area. You'd think these candidates would want our help!

A lot of virtual ink has been spilled about the lack of good, bottom-up movement on the web and elsewhere, and I can't speak for any other campaigns, but the right is in big, big trouble if the early reads on the campaigns up here are similar nationwide. My hope is to document life on the ground here - if they ever let me on the ground - and other aspects of the New Hampshire greater landscape. Expect more posts from me as June rolls around.