Only congressional candidates Nick Begich, Republican, and Chris Bye, Libertarian, attended the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce congressional candidate forum on Monday. Sarah Palin, fresh off her rally on Sunday at the Dena’ina Center, was heading to New York City. Democrat Congresswoman Mary Peltola was celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Sitka, and found time to attend by video, while Palin sent a pre-recorded video.
Peltola, in her video remarks, said that she thinks it’s a bad idea for candidates to criticize the federal government, since there are so many federal employees in Alaska.
Begich commented that having such a high percentage of government employees in the state shows the need for the private sector to grow to balance the economy. He emphasized the importance of resource development and he is the best positioned to advance those interests, as someone who comes from the private sector.
In her pre-recorded remarks, Palin said that she has been traveling the world the past many years promoting Alaska and she has the connections to hit the ground running. She said she has 30 years of political experience, including being mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska. It was a short video, about two minutes.
There were as many people at the Chamber Make It Monday Forum as attended Palin’s get-out-the-vote rally on Sunday. She skipped the Kenai-Soldotna Chamber forum, and the Anchorage Republican Women’s forum, among others, and has told forum hosts that she will not attend unless she’s provided questions in advance. This forum did not provide questions in advance.
The Senate candidates went first, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Kelly Tshibaka, and Pat Chesbro on the panel for 30 minutes, with the two congressional candidates taking the microphones for the second part of the program.
The general election is Nov. 8, and has the congressional seat, Senate seat and gubernatorial seat on the ballot, in addition to all legislative seats except one.
