The Trail : A blog on the 2006 Alaska governor's race by Kyle Hopkins : TV party

The Trail : A blog on the 2006 Alaska governor's race by Kyle Hopkins

About the blog: The race to become Alaska's next governor is on and it's about to get muddy. Grab your boots and follow the Daily News along the winding campaign trail.

Contact: thetrail@adn.com

Blog : Alaska Politics

TV party

Posted by thetrail

Posted: August 16, 2006 - 7:18 pm

After watching some dinner-time TV and the slew of campaign ads, it's clear that Palin has replaced Murkowski as the punching bag of the Republican primary.

Dittman said his poll shows Palin's supporters are fairly passionate -- so will they be swayed?

Should be interesting to see if this stuff comes up at the Republican debate tomorrow on public TV. You'd think Palin would want to do some damage control. Plus, if the candidates believe she really did screw up, let's hear it now.

2 August 17, 2006 - 9:46am | christineofkodiak

slamming Palin

For Murkowski to criticize Palin's ethics is like Darth Vader
calling Princess Leia evil

flag this »

August 17, 2006 - 2:34pm | quixoticneophyte

LOTR too!

And it's like the Witch-King of Mordor calling Eowyn evil, too.

flag this »

1 August 16, 2006 - 6:41pm | quixoticneophyte

Ads

--Sarah's supporters do seem rather determined, so I don't see many people jumping ship. This could hurt the undecideds though.

--This could also help Palin. This might seem weird at first, but historically it does happen.

For the sake of argument, let's just assume that Frank is not going to win the primary. Let's assume Alaskans are sick of Frank and are going to dump him. (This isn't a big assumption, though.)

At this point, many Alaskans will listen to Frank and want whatever he doesn't want. Frank says I want a jet; we all say no jet. Frank wants a gas line; we say no to his plan. Frank says vote for me; we say no. Frank says "Sarah Palin is bad"; we say no.

It might sound counter-intuitive at first, but Frank might actually want to attack Binkley. It would portray Binkley as the anti-Frank candidate, which would be good for Binkley (it would help destroy his image as a friendly version of the Republican establishment) and it would help Murkowski (Binkley would spoil some of Palin's votes).

Just some strategy on three way primaries...

flag this »

August 16, 2006 - 6:56pm | julia_thorne

Complicated, but you might be right

So, it's kinda like JohnLocke's posts.

The more he tells us Murkowski is wonderful, the more he only strengthens our resolve that Murkowski is NOT wonderful.

It's a complicated idea, but I think that you might be right. I wonder if Murkowski will try to use that strategy in the debate, and attack Binkley more than Palin?

Where did you get all these strategy ideas? That's pretty clever! Probably too clever for Murkowski and his staff to ever use!

flag this »

August 17, 2006 - 9:03am | QueenBee

I have to agree

Campaigns are like a bad cold. You never really know if you are going to get the runny nose and the sore throat, or is it going to turn into bronchitis. 5 more days. It is interesting to see how much money Knowles has left from his fund raising and everyone else has so little left.

flag this »

August 17, 2006 - 9:57am | thetrail

good point

He's got a good stockpile of cash. Binkley said a few weeks (days? it's all running together) ago that the Republican winner will have to raise money quickly to counteract that.

It's also interesting that -- even though he is in the red -- Murkowski appeared to raise the most money of anyone in the past month or so.

-- Kyle

flag this »

To leave a comment use the form below