Free Republic

It’s no secret that Jeb Bush is considering a presidential run in 2016 – despite a less than passionate embrace from the right wing of his party. Now he is trying to build bridges, raising cash for Republicans in tight Senate races. The former Florida governor, the brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush, is set to headline a high-dollar fundraiser this month for five Senate candidates. Sponsored by Floridians for a Senate Majority, the Sept. 23 fundraiser in Tampa will benefit Tom Cotton in Arkansas, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Cory Gardner...

The Veterans Affairs clinic in Wasilla is without doctors after the three physicians working under contract over the summer decided not to renew those. A nurse practitioner, who transferred from Anchorage last week, is now carrying the 1,000-patient caseload. The Mat-Su Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic is supposed to have two full-time doctors but has been down one since 2012. The last full-time doctor left in May, KTVA reported (http://bit.ly/1rxNG8o ). "There were three physicians at various times who had been selected to come work there and had dropped out for various reason or there were credentialing issues with...

In 1988, Republicans slammed Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis over Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who attacked a man and sexually assaulted a woman compliments of Massachusetts’ weekend furlough program. This was used to paint Dukakis as soft on crime. Willie Horton 1988 Attack AdIt was a particularly nasty ad (I mean that in a good way)–and Democrats seem to be trying to do the same thing to Republicans in some of the 2014 elections. Trying to spin legal decisions in a way that portrays them as incompetent, soft on crime, and, at times; engaging in a war on women....

ANCHORAGE—A controversial ad from the campaign to re-elect Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, which attacked his Republican rival Dan Sullivan’s record as Alaska’s attorney general, has been pulled from the airwaves. But an argument over the ad’s merits continued Tuesday. The ad started running early Friday and claimed that a list of sex offenders flashing across the screen had received inappropriately light sentences when Sullivan was attorney general. It made reference to one defendant in particular — though not by name — who is charged with murdering two elderly Anchorage residents and sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl. In the ad, a...

Candidates in Alaska Governor's Race Join Forces September 2 2014 RACHEL D'ORO The independent and Democratic candidates for Alaska governor say they are merging their campaigns to give them a better shot at unseating Republican incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell. Independent Bill Walker said Tuesday that he has dropped his membership in the Alaska Republican Party and reregistered as undeclared

There is a new chart-topper in Roll Call’s latest monthly ranking of the 10 most vulnerable senators. Montana’s appointed Sen. John Walsh was by far the most endangered incumbent in the chamber at the time of the previous installment in early August, but his decision last month to not seek a full term opened the top slot to a couple other worthy contenders. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is still in a perilous political position, but Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu has leapfrogged him on the list to become the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent. The Democrat is pushing hard to eclipse...

Call this the case of political backfire. Big time. Incumbent Alaskan Senator, Mark Begich, put up an ad over the weekend that was intended to make his Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan, appear soft on child rape. Or something. Instead, today, the Democrat Senator is under heavy fire from the victim’s family, who are demanding removal of the “shocking” ad and any future references, “either directly or indirectly.” The family’s lawyer also said that Begich was “tearing apart” the family and “playing pure politics at the expense” of his clients. But on Monday, the family’s attorney, Bryon Collins, issued a letter...

With the elections just two months away, Democratic incumbents overall have run strong-enough campaigns to ensure the fight for the Senate majority remains a tossup — despite a playing field tilted heavily in the GOP’s direction. Republicans, who need a net gain of six seats to take control of the chamber, are expected to get halfway there by picking up the open seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia. Its open-seat opportunities don’t stop there, but the GOP will likely need to defeat at least two sitting senators to win the majority.

The highly competitive Alaska Senate race turned vitriolic over the holiday weekend after Democratic incumbent Mark Begich's campaign released a brutal new TV ad that tied Republican challenger Dan Sullivan to circumstances surrounding a horrific Anchorage murder case. On Friday, the Begich campaign began airing the ad -- now pulled from the airwaves --which featured a retired Anchorage police officer recounting the circumstances of a 2013 crime. In that case, a man named Jerry Active stands accused of murdering an elderly couple and sexually assaulting their 2-year-old granddaughter and the girl’s 91-year-old great-grandmother. Active had been previously convicted of the...

The Alaska Democratic Party broke with long tradition Monday when its central committee voted 89-2 to not field a gubernatorial ticket and instead put its weight behind the independent campaign of Bill Walker and Byron Mallott. The vote to support the fusion ticket was contingent on Walker dropping his Republican Party affiliation. Mallott will quit as the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, as will his running mate, state Sen. Hollis French. But Mallott will remain a Democrat, executive director Kay Brown said after the vote at party headquarters in a Spenard bungalow.

With the public hearing in Soldotna last night, the public comment period on the proposal to close the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 Brown Bear hunting season on the Kenai Peninsula comes to an end. In a release yesterday, the Governor’s office said, “Federal land managers have again proposed limiting Alaskans’ access to a state resource, the proposed closure is not justified by either resource protection concerns or federal policy. I strongly urge the Service to reconsider this action and allow state-authorized hunting to continue on the refuge.” ... The decision to temporarily close the Brown Bear season on the...

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Aug 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had to strengthen its position, economically and militarily, in the resource rich Arctic region, where other countries are vying for influence.

Alaska is critical to Republican hopes of taking control of the Senate, and, coming off last week’s state GOP primary, the Alaska Senate race is a near tie. A new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Alaska Voters shows Republican Dan Sullivan with a 47% to 45% lead over incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate in the race, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin has lost the magic. The defeat of her choice Tuesday in a Republican Senate primary in her home state of Alaska capped a primary season in which her favored candidates have stumbled across the nation. A referendum to restore Palin’s signature achievement from her time as Alaska governor, a state tax on oil companies, was also headed toward defeat following Tuesday’s voting, dealing a double whammy loss to Palin in her home state and highlighting her declining influence. Only four of the 15 congressional candidates endorsed by Palin nationwide this year have won their primaries, a...

A referendum to roll back an oil production tax change made in 2013 was defeated by voters in the state’s primary election held Aug. 19. Ballot Measure 1, which would have reinstated the state’s previous tax known as ACES that was repealed in 2013, was voted down 52 percent to 48 percent, or a margin of about 6,800 votes, the Division of Elections reported in late results with 98.6 percent of the votes counted. Earlier in the evening of Aug. 19 the “yes” votes had a thin majority of a few hundred for repeal with about 25 percent of the...

Last night in Alaska, the choice of both establishment Republican Karl Rove and the free-market Club for Growth won over a tea-party-backed candidate — but not by much. With that result comes some lessons for the future about Democratic interference in GOP primaries. The race against Democratic senator Mark Begich this fall will be close and very hard fought — and could determine overall control of the Senate. Miller’s grassroots support gave him a late surge against Sullivan. But one of the biggest drags on the frontrunner was a series of brutal TV ad attacks against him by Put Alaska...

Republican establishment favorite Dan Sullivan will take on vulnerable Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in the fall after winning his party’s hotly contested Senate primary on Tuesday. Sullivan, his state’s former attorney general and natural resources commissioner, beat two Republican rivals for the nomination. He faced Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and Tea Party favorite and 2010 GOP primary winner Joe Miller. The Associated Press called the race with 80 percent of the precincts reporting. Sullivan had 40 percent of the vote, while Miller had garnered 32 percent and Treadwell placed third with 25 percent. Sullivan led Miller by over 7,000...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich wants Alaskans to know he is one of them and an independent voice against President Barack Obama. So he's opening campaign offices in far-flung places like a coin-operated laundry in Dillingham...

FAIRBANKS - Alaskans flocked to the polls Tuesday, drawn by a contentious ballot issue over the state's oil tax policy and a hotly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the winner of which likely will face Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in November. With a fifth of precincts reporting, only 552 votes separated the yes and no votes on the ballot measure, with yes on top. As early returns rolled in for the Senate race, Dan Sullivan had 40 percent of the vote, followed by Joe Miller with 33 percent, Mead Treadwell with 23.8 and John Jaramillo with 3 percent. Begich...