Could This Be the Senate Race Where the Koch Brothers Meet Their Match?

[applegrove]

Could This Be the Senate Race Where the Koch Brothers Meet Their Match?

By Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/mark-begich-unions-alaska-senate-election?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article

"SNIP..................


Republicans' most likely path to retaking the Senate in November requires GOPers to pick up seats in six key states: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Of the six, Alaska—where Democratic Sen. Mark Begich is facing off against former Republican Attorney General Dan Sullivan—may be the closest race. That's why right-wing groups backed by the likes of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove are dumping millions into the state—and why Alaska unions are pulling out all the stops this year to make sure Begich, a fierce supporter of labor, carries the day.

"This is literally the most active we've ever been in an election cycle," says Vince Beltrami, the president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, which represents nearly all unions in the state.

Union members have been working the phones, pushing out mailings, and canvassing on behalf of Begich. Volunteers have even taken the unusual step of door-knocking in areas far outside of Alaska's urban centers, says Jerry McBeath, a professor of political science at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Because of the unprecedented level of campaign action this year, Beltrami says, the AFL-CIO had to rent out an extra 7,000-square-foot warehouse.

In addition to boots-on-the-ground support for Begich, unions are also throwing down for TV ads to help ensure the freshman senator gets a second term in office. The political action committee affiliated with the International Association of Fire Fighters, for example, recently spent $165,000 on TV ads against Sullivan. The National Education Association's super-PAC unveiled an ad in early September slamming Sullivan for a misleading claim he made about going after a Wall Street firm that gave the state bad financial advice and cost the public pension fund billions of dollars. Around the same time, four statewide unions—Alaska Professional Fire Fighters, Alaska Public Employees Association, Alaska State Employees Association, and National Education Association-Alaska—held a press conference in midtown Anchorage to respond to the same disingenuous ad.



....................SNIP"

[Cha]

1. Thanks apple.. and Mark Begich goes after Koch Bros in Ad "Into the Ground"..

Mark Begich has an excellent Ground Game!

[applegrove]

2. This is what we need. A real fighter. I love the tone of that ad. Thanks Cha.

[Cha]

5. You're Welcome, apple.. I found it inadvertantly when I was googling for

an article I read the other week about Begich's ground game to the outer posts of Alaska!

Found it this time..

Mark Begich’s Secret Weapon: Rural Ground Game

In Alaska’s remote villages, Begich quietly built an advantage on the ground

On the gravel lanes and mucky yards of Quinhagak, this fall’s urgent fight for control of the U.S. Senate feels a world away. Yet this is where you’ll find Cleveland, 35, stepping into one living room after another to register her neighbors to vote and make the case for Begich.

Cleveland is part of Begich’s secret weapon: an expensive, sophisticated political field operation that reaches into tiny villages along rivers and in mountain ranges throughout the vast Last Frontier. The Begich ground game — which the senator and his campaign detailed for the first time to The Washington Post — is on a scale far beyond anything that has been tried before here.

On a crisp evening last week, Cleveland showed up at the home of Louie Johnson, 42. She knew Johnson — she knows just about everybody in Quinhagak — and cut to the chase: “Do you want some information about Mark Begich?”

“The most important issue for me in rural Alaska is survival,” Johnson said. Cleveland explained Begich’s work to protect subsistence rights to hunt moose and caribou on federal and state lands. She handed him a glossy handout with the title: “Mark Begich, True Alaska.” Then she turned to Johnson’s nephew, Jonathan Hunter, 19, who had been on the couch watching television, and helped him fill out his voter registration form.

MOre..
http://www.markbegich.com/uncategorized/2014/mark-begichs-secret-weapon-rural-ground-game/

[calimary]

14. Hard-hitting! MORE please! All republi-CONS need a good dose of it.

Wanted to make sure you saw this one, too.

DEVASTATING! Really cuts straight into the bone marrow...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025660564

[sheshe2]

3. Boom! Great ad!

Not listening to the polls or the whine Cha.

I am feeling the beat of the feet on the ground. I felt it and listened to it for both 2008 and 2012!

[Cha]

6. Mark Begich has Great Ground Game, she! That is where it's happening.. :)

In Alaska’s remote villages, Begich quietly built an advantage on the ground

On the gravel lanes and mucky yards of Quinhagak, this fall’s urgent fight for control of the U.S. Senate feels a world away. Yet this is where you’ll find Cleveland, 35, stepping into one living room after another to register her neighbors to vote and make the case for Begich.

Cleveland is part of Begich’s secret weapon: an expensive, sophisticated political field operation that reaches into tiny villages along rivers and in mountain ranges throughout the vast Last Frontier. The Begich ground game — which the senator and his campaign detailed for the first time to The Washington Post — is on a scale far beyond anything that has been tried before here.

On a crisp evening last week, Cleveland showed up at the home of Louie Johnson, 42. She knew Johnson — she knows just about everybody in Quinhagak — and cut to the chase: “Do you want some information about Mark Begich?”

“The most important issue for me in rural Alaska is survival,” Johnson said. Cleveland explained Begich’s work to protect subsistence rights to hunt moose and caribou on federal and state lands. She handed him a glossy handout with the title: “Mark Begich, True Alaska.” Then she turned to Johnson’s nephew, Jonathan Hunter, 19, who had been on the couch watching television, and helped him fill out his voter registration form.

MOre..
http://www.markbegich.com/uncategorized/2014/mark-begichs-secret-weapon-rural-ground-game/

[sheshe2]

8. Cha.

I have listened to this before with Obama. I told you this, I heard it. It's quite, yet it is happening. It's damn well happening again!

Hush, what's that sound. Feet are quietly on the ground. The troops. The secret weapons they are fighting when everyone else stands around with their hair on fire!


You~

In Alaska’s remote villages, Begich quietly built an advantage on the ground

On the gravel lanes and mucky yards of Quinhagak, this fall’s urgent fight for control of the U.S. Senate feels a world away. Yet this is where you’ll find Cleveland, 35, stepping into one living room after another to register her neighbors to vote and make the case for Begich.

Cleveland is part of Begich’s secret weapon: an expensive, sophisticated political field operation that reaches into tiny villages along rivers and in mountain ranges throughout the vast Last Frontier. The Begich ground game — which the senator and his campaign detailed for the first time to The Washington Post — is on a scale far beyond anything that has been tried before here.

Yes Cha, it's about the ground game and guess what Obama was the master of that game and he won! Twice.

I do believe his team passed it on...I do believe we will be making far more headway in 2014 than the almighty Koch with all their obscene money.

[Cha]

9. On the gravel lanes and mucky yards of Quinhagak, this fall’s urgent fight for control of the U.S.

Senate feels a world away. Yet this is where you’ll find Cleveland, 35, stepping into one living room after another to register her neighbors to vote and make the case for Begich"

Exciting stuff! On the ground!

Happy Anniversary, she~

[sheshe2]

10. OMG!

I forgot! Thanks Cha.

[Cha]

11. LOL!

You're Welcome!

[sheshe2]

13. Ya~

way to much on my mind these days.

Cha

[sheshe2]

4. KnR apple!

It damn well could be!

GOTV2014!

[saidsimplesimon]

7. The Kochs are funding issues in AZ.

It is the low life candidates who take their dirty money, imho.

[ChazInAz]

12. Just saw a great ad.

The McSally person has been flooding TV with attack ads against Ron Barber, grossly dishonest things, paid for with Koch Kash. In the middle of a long string of her back-to-back spots was an ad from our side, detailing her Koch addiction and lies. We need more of this style of smash-mouth politics!

[davidpdx]

15. I think you could beat the Cock Brothers over the head with a rolling pin

and they still wouldn't learn. Stupidity and greed runs in their DNA.

[AverageJoe90]

16. Good luck, Mark Begich. You'll definitely need it.

I'd like to hope for a win in Alaska, too, but as of today, Kentucky's the only real shot we got right now. All I can say is, keep the GOTV on, and hope for the best.....

[longship]

17. Land, in MI, is being hammered.

She's toast. The adverts I am seeing are painting her as a Koch lackey. These ads are all over local media. Gary Peters is going to win this US Senate seat.