The national and international media has been busy writing about Alaska politics, and mostly about Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor and would-be congresswoman. The New Yorker Magazine has a story coming out on Monday that runs 13,000 words, much of them about Palin’s celebrity run. Clearly Palin still sells newspapers, and reporters have been sent from around the globe to cover her race against Nick Begich III, the Republican Party candidate, and Mary Peltola, the Democrat.
Here are some of the stories from the past few days:
The Guardian: a British newspaper, was in Alaska reporting on the congressional race.
“Alaska election tests weight of Sarah Palin’s celebrity – and Trump’s sway,” the reporter writes at this link.
“More than a decade ago, she ascended to international fame as a vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 election, with her self-described ‘rightwinging, bitter-clinging’ persona. Since then, she has starred in several reality TV specials and in The Masked Singer, dressed as a fuzzy pink bear,” the writer said.
“But on Tuesday she is seeking elected office again, running for an open congressional seat with dozens of candidates. Voters across the 49th state will have to rank her against the tech millionaire Nick Begich III, a Republican, and the former state legislator Mary Peltola, a Democrat. The world’s best-known Alaskan politician faces an uncertain political future.
“’Palin gets people excited … She’s charismatic,’ said Zelda Marie Gober, 67. ‘Do I want her in my politics? Not really.’
“The election will not only test the weight of Palin’s celebrity, but also that of Donald Trump – in a remote state that fiercely values independent thought.”
The Telegraph, another British news outlet that sent in a parachute journalist, wrote:
“The 58-year-old has revived her famed slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill”, along with her populist appeal, as she champions energy independence with a late bid to represent her native Alaska in Congress.
“But in her hometown of Wasilla, where locals still simply refer to her as “Sarah”, many have soured on Ms Palin’s political ambitions.
“De Koranda, 62, said she was an early backer of Ms Palin, but, like many Alaskans, felt betrayed when she unexpectedly quit as the state’s governor 16 months early.”
“Coming soon after she and John McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008, the move saw her popularity nosedive amid speculation she was ditching Alaska for commercial gain.
“’That was the point of no return,’ said Ms Koranda, who described the ‘polarising’ effect Ms Palin still has in Wasilla.
Koranda said, “People here either love her or they wouldn’t touch her with a 10ft pole.”
The Telegraph story is at this MSN link (Telegraph itself is behind a paywall).
NPR reports on what Trump’s endorsement means for Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin this week.
“But under Alaska’s system, Palin must face a second round of voting that includes the top four finishers from the first round. One of the top four in the June vote has dropped out, but Palin is still battling two second-round rivals on Tuesday, including another Republican. He is Nick Begich III, the grandson of the last person to hold this seat before Young. His grandfather was a Democrat who was lost in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness in 1972; his uncle Mark, also a Democrat, was a one-term U.S. senator.
“The third candidate this Tuesday is Mary Peltola, a former state legislator who is a daughter of a Yup’ik Eskimo. A Democrat who has emerged as a factor in her own right, she could even win a plurality of first-place votes on Tuesday. But that would not be the end of the story, because a first-place plurality is not enough.” The story is at this link.
USA Today writes: “In Alaska primary, Murkowski and Palin show the deepening fissures in the Republican Party. The two candidates for two different offices – Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former Gov. Sarah Palin – represent a growing divide in the GOP.” The story is at this link.
NewsMax writes: “Just 48 hours before Alaskans hold a special election, no Republican who spoke to Newsmax was willing to predict whether Sarah Palin would emerge triumphant in the race for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat — the first contest to be held under the state’s new “ranked choice voting” law.
“It’s anybody’s call,” a former GOP statewide official told us on Saturday.
The writer goes on to say Palin won the primary with 30% of the vote. It was actually 27%, still an impressive finish in a field of 48 candidates that included Santa Claus and some sitting legislators.
