A 10-minute push-poll was conducted over the past few days in Alaska. Those receiving the call were not able to identify the sponsor of the poll for Must Read Alaska, but provided some of the questions — they were all negative on congressional candidate Nick Begich and were favorable toward congressional candidate Nancy Dahlstrom. The poll also had negative messages about Rep. Mary Peltola.
The questions included things like: If you were aware that Nick Begich has no Alaska employees would you be more or less likely to vote for him? (Begich only has Alaska employees).
If you were aware that Nick Begich has millions of dollars in dark money, would you be more or less likely to vote for him? (He has the least amount of campaign cash of the three major candidates, with Peltola receiving $10 million in dark money).
If you were aware that Nancy Dahlstrom went to the border with Mexico, would you be more or less likely to vote for her? (Dahlstrom visited the Texas border last month, with several other congressional candidates from other states).
The poll may have been conducted by the Dahlstrom campaign or an independent group supporting her, or may have even been done by the campaign of Rep. Peltola, who would probably rather run against Dahlstrom, and take Begich out of contention in August. Begich, a Republican, has said repeatedly that he will drop from the race if he comes in third during the Aug. 20 primary.
Either way, it appears that Begich is the one to beat. In an analysis done by Decision Desk HQ, a Republican in the Alaska race currently has a 53% chance of winning with 53%, versus Democrat Peltola, who is polling at 47%.
Cook Political Report poll shows that, as of the latest polling, Alaska’s Republican congressional candidate will win by 8 points over Peltola, who has $2.5 million in cash at her disposal, compared with the mere hundreds of thousands of dollars that Begich and Dahlstrom have combined.
Begich is one of the toughest campaigners Alaska has seen in many years but has kept his focus on beating Peltola and returning Alaska’s congressional seat to a Republican.
