World News Korner

Did Mark Begich just take the lead in Alaska's Senate race?

Okay hang on, don't get cocky.

Courtesy of TPM:

An Anchorage polling firm is giving Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) an unexpectedly huge lead in his re-election bid less than two weeks before Election Day and with early voting underway.

Hellenthal and Associates shows Begich up 10 points over Republican challenger Dan Sullivan, 49 percent to 39 percent. It is by far the biggest lead that Begich has seen and runs counter to most public polling, which has shown Sullivan with a consistent advantage since mid-September.

Another poll released Friday and sponsored by Democratic PAC's supporting Begich showed the race tied at 44 percent.

The Hellenthal and Associates poll, conducted Oct 15 to 21, surveyed 403 likely voters. Its margin of error is 4.9 points.

I am having a hard time trusting the polls right now. Partly because I have stopped participating in them, and I know I am not alone.

It is no exaggeration to say that I get between four and five phone calls a day asking that I participate in a poll, or giving me unsolicited information on the candidates or issues.

I have also had at least five visits from the unions asking me if I am going to support Begich. Which I point out they should already know as illustrated by the fact that I have a Mark Begich sign on my front lawn.

However I will tell you something that I firmy feel to be true and that is that the glut of anti-Begich ads that pop up EVERY SINGLE time that you try to watch a YouTube or Hulu video is turning people against Dan Sullivan in a big way.

The overkill is absolutely incredible, and there is no escaping it since trying to watch television or listen to the radio also exposes you to yet another series of never ending attacks on Mark Begich, many of them filled with completely false statements that many Alaskans know are bullshit.

What I keep telling everybody is that a vote against this guy is a vote against attempts to buy local elections by outside corporations. And that if we allow Sullivan to win we can expect all of this to escalate even more in the years to come.

And not just in Alaska. If this formula works here, these billionaires have no reason to think it will not work EVERYWHERE.

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