Alaska Politics Blog : Treadwell and Ramras sink big money into their own campaigns; might end up closest race in the primary

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Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

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Treadwell and Ramras sink big money into their own campaigns; might end up closest race in the primary

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: July 30, 2010 - 3:43 pm

From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage–

Jay Ramras and Mead Treadwell must want to be lieutenant governor pretty badly. Treadwell has sunk $289,000 of his own money into his campaign and Ramras has put in $120,000.

Eddie Burke, the other candidate in the Republican primary, isn’t flying so high. He’s put $1,000 of his own money into the race and collected just over $11,000 in campaign contributions.

(Treadwell has collected just over $60,000 in contributions and Ramras, who has been in the race the longest, has collected over $200,000 in donations. Treadwell is reporting more campaign cash left than Ramras, $77,398 compared to $31,916.)

The Republican primary for lieutenant governor could end up the closest race in the Aug. 24 election.

A July 22nd to July 25th Hellenthal poll indicated Ramas was leading with 29.3 percent of the support, followed by Treadwell with 22.6 percent and Burke with 11.5 percent. The rest didn't know. Republican pollster David Dittman said he just finished polling that found Treadwell within 3 percent of Ramras. “He’s actually ahead among supervoters right now,” Dittman said.

Dittman said that Treadwell commissioned the poll. “The only (race) turning out to be really close is Treadwell and Ramras, but that’s with a month to go,” Dittman said.

The Democratic primary for lieutenant governor also has a heavily self-financed candidate, Tudor Road Bingo owner Jack Powers, who put $200,000 of his own money into the race and hasn't really raised any other money. He's up against an opponent, Diane Benson, who has previously run for Congress and has more statewide name recognition. She's raised nearly $40,000 in contributions and has about $13,000 remaining.