Anybody know of any possible U.S. Senate candidates this year?

[Ken Burch]

My own preference would be Les Gara...but I haven't heard anything from him or anyone else.

There's no good reason Senator Princess should get a second term by acclimation.

[Steerpike]

1. Hey Ken

No one appears to be challenging Senator Murkowski. The Madman Frank Vondessar is running as a Democrat against Senator Begich.

[Ken Burch]

2. Getting kind of an early start, ins't he?

Begich's seat isn't up 'til 2014.

[Steerpike]

5. So...follow the link my son!

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/cand10p.php

It will give you enlightenment. It does seem early for Mad Frank to be filing...but his name is there as a Democrat. So in my confusion I did not say he is running to replace Lisa. And that lisa has no Republican Challenger...I better go take an asperin...

[northofdenali]

25. Frank has about as much of a chance of getting on the ballot

as I do.

Even so, crazy as he is, he'd be better than any repuke out there.

[2Lib4Dem]

3. Senate Candidates???

I like the work that Gara has done.  However, I don’t think
that this system of two parties, both of whom are bought and
put into office by the same “people.”  (Read that
“corporations.”)  With electronic voting machines and
corporate controlled messaging, we have lost our voice. 
Instead of playing into the myth of electoral choice by
supporting one party over another, let’s look for real
solutions.

[Ken Burch]

4. It's always time to look for real solutions

So...what've you got?

[2Lib4Dem]

7. Real Solutions

Instead of investing all the money and time into sycophanticly (is this a word?) supporting either the Dems or the Repubs, let's begin by putting twice as many resources into initiatives that would make a difference. Primarily, support clean, publicly funded elections. Pols know who they work for. Secondarily, put our resources into passage of initiatives supporting hand-counted paper ballots in all municipal and state elections. Private corporate interests have no business in our elections.

[2Lib4Dem]

22. Another "Real Solution"???!!!

Alaska Voters Will Get to Vote on Parental Notification Before Abortion Measure
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 3, 2010

Is this yet another wedge issue for our state? Guns, Gays, and God?? Could this be be the flame that gets the Tea Party moths fluttering to the polls to support their ideology? The progressives need a flame too. Maybe an initiative that would... say... place a sin tax on drive-through coffee? A limit on blog submissions and readings? or,... A ban on the production and sale of locally grown organic food?

[Steerpike]

6. Les Gara

Is about as liberal and honest a fellow as you can find. I'll vote for hime if given the opportunity. I agree that there a ton of "Corporatist" Democrats out there...but I really don't see Gara as one of them.

[Ken Burch]

12. He certainly isn't.

Gara also has a statewide profile for his role in the investigations of the Palin Administration.

Time is running out. I suspect our party has pretty much decided to give up on the U.S. House race(Harry Crawford is the candidate our leaders are trying to impose, but he's going nowhere.) They may also decide to abandon the Senate race. The worst possible scenario would be if they decided to go back, once again, to the suicidal "all that matters is winning the governor's race" mindset that nearly destroyed the Alaska Dems in the Nineties(reducing us to a pathetic five seats in the state Senate and 12 in the House).

[Blue_In_AK]

13. It would be good if one of the three gubernatorial candidates

which switch over to run for Senate. Bob Poe maybe?

[2Lib4Dem]

16. A Different Kind of Candidate

Would a prominent Dem be more willing to enter the race if there were a "Tea Party" candidate to give Sen. Murkowski a distracting run for her money?

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Isn't that tea party guy, Joe Miller,

that Todd Palin is supporting running against Lease-A?

I really do wish the Dems would field a good candidate. Lisa gets away with too much.

[2Lib4Dem]

20. Go Tea Party!!!

Sarah Palin Snubs Lisa Murkowski, Endorses Tea Party Challenger For Alaska Senate Seat

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/02/sarah-palin-lisa-murkowsk_n_597800.html

McAdam's prospects just got better!

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Check out my post here from The Mudflats

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8475096


This race could turn out to be very interesting indeed. :evilgrin:

[madinmaryland]

8. Ted Stevens? I don't think he can wait to run again in 2014.

Do he and the Murkowski enterprise get along?

[Blue_In_AK]

9. 2014? Ted should be dead by then.

And as far as I know, Stevens and Murkowski got along fine.

[madinmaryland]

10. I don't know how determined Ted is to get back to the Senate.

I doubt whether he would run against Murkowski.

Well, he could probably run in 2014, even if he is dead, against Begich, and still come close to winning!

[Ken Burch]

11. I meant DEMOCRATIC Senate candidates.

And no, I don't think Ted wants in. He'd never be able to stand being lower in seniority than Begich.

[madinmaryland]

15. Heh! A 90 year old "junior" senator! Classic.

:rofl:

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Shannyn Moore!

The suggestion of Phil Munger here: http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2010/05/draft-shannyn-moore-for-us-senate-now.html

Friday night I got to observe Shannyn Moore as she engaged a number of fairly conservative people at an after-concert party in Anchorage. I had a lot of people to see and talk to myself, so wasn't able to hear much of their talks with her. But I could see engagement and humor in all the conversations. One conservative friend came up to me after talking to her, saying, "Right after she asked me a question, I realized Shannyn really DID want to know what I thought. She's on a quest."

She is. And she does want to know and understand what other people think.

Since back around the time of Moore's Gilliard Award at Netroots Nation last summer, friends have asked me scores of times if I knew whether Shannyn might or might not be thinking of running against Sen. Lisa Murkowski this year. I've watched people ask Shannyn the same question. She has not said "yes." Instead, she has engaged people who asked her that, wanting to know what they think about the race.

Moore, who took the flak for what other bloggers had written or said last summer, over the 4th of July weekend, knows how to deal with opponents who want to marginalize or threaten her. She welcomes dialog with staunch conservatives like Rep. Bob Lynn, a retiring legislator who has come to genuinely respect her. Lynn, after a session on Moore Up North told me that Shannyn is one of the most remarkable journalists he has met.

<snip>

Moore is unique, in that she is the first Alaska liberal or progressive who has gained a nationwide progressive audience. In 2008, that nationwide progressive audience delivered Mark Begich over $200,000 in campaign contributions. One source alone, Blue America, was Begich's biggest single cash cow. And Blue America, which is very progressive, didn't consider Mark to be particularly liberal when it came to assessing how he might have an impact on the Senate. They just knew he was viable and that he might defeat Sen. Ted Stevens.

Moore 2010 could easily raise four or five times as much off the web as Begich 2008. What Murkowski did last week to protect BP could work against the senator in Alaska just as well as it might Outside, by a well-run, focused campaign. If people here and in the lower 48 thought Moore were viable, she might raise up to $2,000,000 or more on the web.

Moore, with her powerful life story, Alaska roots, understanding of how to perceive both sides of issues, and ability to intensely focus, when compared to Murkowski's increasing parallels to the MO of her failed father, might be far more viable than most think.

Should we draft Shannyn Moore for the U.S. Senate Alaska Democratic Party primary in 2010?

[2Lib4Dem]

18. Scott McAdams?

Who is Scott McAdams? Will he be able to wage a campaign that is strong enough to overcome Murkowski's mega corporate dollars and win? It does not bode well that right out of the shoot Dave Metheny, the state organizer for the Alaska Democratic Party said, "He's taking on a part of the dynasty, but I have a real good feeling that even if McAdams doesn't win this one, he'll win the next one," Sounds like the Dems are conceding this one before they get started.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. He's the mayor of Sitka, I believe.

Or was that a rhetorical question? I really wish the Democratic Party would occasionally really get behind their candidates instead of seemingly letting them tough it out on their own. I still think that if the Party apparatus had gotten behind Diane Benson in 2006, she would be our representative today instead of Yon Dung.

[Ken Burch]

23. They didn't WANT Diane to win, because they wanted to keep the seat open

for a "real"(I.E., white male insider) candidate.

They're tolerating Diane's Lt. Governor candidacy because they don't think it's an office that matters.

[Blue_In_AK]

24. You're probably right about that.

I don't know if the Democrats can win this election, but I think Parnell really hurt himself with the budget cuts, especially the Denali Kid Care and renewables. He's an idiot.

[Ken Burch]

26. A Democrat could win on that

But that Democrat(are you listening, Ethan?)was actually willing to DEFEND the idea that the government should be involved in providing social welfare to the people. For thirty years, this party's strategy was to try to hold off right-wing attack by partly conceding to it. For thirty years, this has failed. We could win the governorship this year if the ADP leadership finally GOT that.

[Name removed]

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