Just another difference in having a Democrat as mayor of Anchorage.

Our old mayor, Dan Sullivan, would have likely had one of his minions run around town trying to find a match for the key so he could steal it and sell it off for parts.

In case you didn't notice, not really a fan of Sullivan.

Andrew Halcro decides he cannot keep quiet any longer, endorses Ethan Berkowitz for Mayor of Anchorage.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

Former Anchorage mayoral candidate Andrew Halcro has offered a last-second endorsement of Ethan Berkowitz, one of the two candidates in Tuesday’s runoff election. 

Halcro, a centrist Republican who used to lead the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, placed third in the initial round of balloting last month, behind Berkowitz, a Democrat, and Republican Amy Demboski, the other candidate in Tuesday’s runoff. 

The top two finishers stand in the runoff if neither reached 45 percent of the vote in the first round. The election is officially non-partisan, but both Demboski and Berkowitz have received partisan backing. 

Halcro, who got 21.5 percent of the vote last month, initially said he would not endorse either Berkowitz or Demboski. But in a Facebook post late Sunday, Halcro encouraged his supporters to vote for Berkowitz, saying he was worried about Demboski’s honesty, integrity, and maturity, “and her decision to allow the most extreme elements of the Republican Party to lead her campaign.”

Halcro said that the catalyst for him was Demboski's ugly attacks against Berkowitz: 

“After the last week, it was like, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t bite my tongue any more,’” Halcro said. “To watch this campaign degrade over the last two weeks into this personal attack at Ethan was just way too much.” 

"At any point in time, Amy could have stopped this," Halcro added.

There are a lot of reasons to disagree with Halcro politically, but he is clearly a man of integrity.

Remember if you are a resident of Anchorage, it is imperative that you get out and vote tomorrow. 

Because trust me, Jerry Prevo is going to have his followers bussed to the polls in support of Demboski if need be.

Koch brother paid-for Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan endorses Koch brother paid-for mayoral candidate Amy Demboski.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan endorsed Anchorage mayoral candidate Amy Demboski in a statement released by her campaign Thursday, and a Republican state senator from Anchorage, Lesil McGuire, came out in favor of Ethan Berkowitz in a radio ad that began running the same day. 

Sullivan, a Republican, appeared at a fundraiser for Demboski earlier in April. He made his endorsement official Thursday.

This of course would probably count as the least surprising news of the day, since we know that Sullivan is a Koch brother lackey who readily jumps through Koch brother hoops.

What is somewhat more surprising is that fellow Republican Lesil McGuire came out in support of Ethan Berkowitz, the Democrat.

In the ad supporting Berkowitz, McGuire, who worked with Berkowitz in the Alaska Legislature, speaks directly to listeners. The ad was produced by Berkowitz for a Better Anchorage, a union-funded independent expenditure group. 

“As a Republican, I want a mayor that gets the basics done right,” McGuire says. “Good roads, great schools and strong public safety. In this election we can also have someone with vision and integrity and a proven record of bringing people together.” 

She describes Berkowitz as a “gifted public servant who will work with all sides” and a small business owner.

I have had some issues in the past with McGuire but she shows some backbone here is refusing to support the candidate supposedly on her side of the aisle and instead supporting the one that can actually do the job. 

Ethan is indeed a talented and ethical man, and as yesterday's post proves Amy Demboski is neither.

The secret marriage, and ugly dissolution of that marriage, that Anchorage mayoral candidate Amy Demboski really does not want you to know about.

So Amy Demboski is in a runoff election with Ethan Berkowitz to decide who will be the mayor of our fair city.

Demboski is a completely unqualified candidate who nonetheless has attracted the backing of the Koch brothers and of course our Baptist minister king maker Jerry Prevo.

Essentially Prevo is drawn to Demboski because she is a family values embracing homophobe who is pushing a conservative agenda.  You could say that hate and ideology binds them.

But what if there were something about Amy Demboski that was not quite so pro-family values? You know perhaps something like a brief marriage and an attempt to force your former husband into paying child support for a child that was not his.

Because you know what? That is something that really happened.

Conservative Anchorage mayoral candidate Amy Demboski calls public park access plan "big government garbage." WTF?

Okay the project that crazy eyes was losing her shit about back in 2014 was a simple plan to secure access points to Chugach state park, which already exist but are unsecured.

Here is more from Alaska Dispatch:  

The overall goal is to secure and maintain access to the park for existing and future park users. The plan is a step toward this goal by identifying potential access points, basically locations where users can already access the park but where the access is not secured or formally designated. The identification of such sites is a requirement of the Municipal Land Use Ordinance (Title 21) specifically to guide future planning and zoning decisions.

And that is what Demboski so eloquently refers to as "big government garbage."

God I cannot believe this is one of the two candidates in the run off election that will choose the next mayor to lead my city.

Conservative mayoral candidate Amy Demboski inspires Facebook page. Against her.

Amy Demboski

Here is the page entitled "Young People Against Demboski." And they are more than just a little fired up.

They also posted that Demobski is now getting help from the same folks who helped Dan Sullivan get elected:  

Major conservative political groups are stepping into the Anchorage mayor’s race. The May runoff between Amy Demboski and Ethan Berkowitz is drawing increasing attention from state and national organizations hoping to influence local politics. 

Americans For Prosperity is a political group based in Virginia, backed by the Koch brothers, that advocates for conservative causes. They don’t endorse candidates, but will be seeking to inform Anchorage voters about their two choices for mayor. 

“We’ve identified Ethan’s record as one that’s troubling, and we think will be devastating to the residents of Anchorage,” said Jeremy Price, spokesman for the Alaska chapter of AFP.

These folks spent millions to get Sullivan elected, and if they want Demboski bad enough they can make this a very tough fight for Ethan Berkowtiz despite his impressive poll numbers. 

So yes as that graphic above says, WE need to make damn sure that we vote on may 5th.

Runoff for Anchorage mayor now between Ethan Berkowitz and Amy Demboski. Seriously?

Photo courtesy of the Alaska Commons.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

With more than 99 percent of the vote counted in the Anchorage municipal election early Wednesday morning, Ethan Berkowitz held a commanding lead with nearly 37 percent of the vote, but was shy of the 45 percent he would need to avoid a runoff. 

Amy Demboski held almost a 3-point lead for the second-place spot and the other runoff position over Andrew Halcro. She had more than 24 percent; he was close to 22 percent. Former two-term Anchorage Assemblyman Dan Coffey, initially the front-runner in the mayor's race, was in fourth place with 14 percent of the vote. 

“Feeling strong -- this is a great night,” Berkowitz said as he walked out of his campaign party downtown to Election Central at the Dena'ina Convention Center. “My campaign team has been terrific. The numbers suggest there will be a runoff. We’ll continue to talk about the goals we have for Anchorage, make sure this continues to be a safe, strong and secure community and make sure we’re ready for the opportunities that come our way.” 

Demboski was also upbeat in a brief interview at Election Central. She described herself as “cautiously optimistic” about the count. 

“No matter what happens, I know that we ran a great campaign,” Demboski said. “We did everything we could with what we had. And the message that’s really resonating is though you may not be the candidate with the most amount of money, if you have a strong message and that message resonates with voters, you absolutely can prevail.” Demboski raised the least amount of campaign money of the four leading candidates.

Okay color me surprised on this one.

I knew there would be a runoff but I really thought it would come down to Berkowitz and Halcro. 

Demboski is a fucking lunatic and might actually be worse for our city than even Dan Sullivan, who is to Anchorage politics what skidmarks are to a clean pair of underwear.

I have little doubt that Berkowitz will win, but I have to admit I find it troubling that Demboski received this much support.

Election day!

Well today is election day here in Anchorage, Alaska.

Perhaps the most important choice is for a new mayor to replace Dan Sullivan, possibly the worst mayor we have had in the last twenty years.

The choices for that position are as follows.

• Jacob Seth Kern 
• Dustin Darden 
• Amy Demboski - Anchorage Assembly member 
• Timothy Huit 
• Christopher Jamison 
• Samuel Joseph Speziale III 
• Ethan Berkowitz - Former Alaska House of Representatives Minority Leader 
• Andrew Halcro - Former Alaska House of Representatives member and 2006 Alaska gubernatorial candidate 
• Dan Coffey - Former Anchorage Assembly member 
• Paul Bauer - Former Anchorage Assembly member 
• Lance Ahern 
• Spencer Halgren

If you know any of the names on that list it is most likely that you will recognize Andrew Halcro, who ran against Sarah Palin and  Tony Knowles for Governor back in 2006, and then became a blogger for a time, and Ethan Berkowitz who ran against Don Young in 2008, and lost after an aggressively disputed tally of the votes.

Dan Coffey is the guy caught on tape talking about buying votes and Amy Demboski is the Anchorage Assembly member who introduced an ordinance in response to our new pot legalization law to forbid the sale of marijuana within city limits.  So you can imagine how popular she will be.

Currently it is suggested that the race is too close for one candidate to emerge victorious after today's vote, which means we can all look forward to a runoff election, one that will most likely have Berkowitz facing off against Halcro. 

Personally I think we desperately need a Democrat in the Mayoral office, after eight years of Dan Sullivan, and will vote accordingly.

There are also several bonds on the ballot, and several school board candidates to choose from.

Whatever your political affiliation and position on the issues please make sure to vote today. 

P.S. You can find more about the candidates and bod initiative here.

Current Governor, and Teabagger-lite, Sean Parnell flubs a question that most middle school children could answer with ease.

Isn't it frightening that an educated man has to act like an imbecile in an effort to convince the anti-science crowd to vote for him?

"Governor Parnell is Gravity real?"

"What does it say in the bible?"

"The bible does not mention gravity sir, but you do know that when you throw a ball into the air that it falls back down, right?"

"For all I know God might just be throwing it back for a game of catch."

"Oh Governor your lack of intelligence and complete denial of obvious scientific evidence has convinced me that you are the perfect person to be in charge of the welfare of people in our state.  I can just hardly wait to vote for you!  I just hope the ballot is not to difficult for me to understand."

People please vote for Ethan Berkowitz.  I mean really, is there any other choice for  those of us WITHOUT our heads shoved up our ass?

This is the kind of ad I want our Alaska Democrats to put out.

Alaskans respect confident aggressive candidates.

Remember Ted Stevens?

If Scott McAdams were to aggressively define himself and his outrage at the outside interests trying to steal our election he could make a serious impact.  And the same goes for Ethan and Diane.

Both of Sarah Palin's boobs exposed to the public in Wasilla.

Yep BOTH of her boobs were exposed to about 200 people at the Curtis Menard Center. 

From KTUU:

 

“I wish Sarah Palin had shown up. It would have been perfect for me,” said Miller supporter Lloyd Arms.

Oh she was there alright buddy.  And if these two idiots get elected her influence in Alaska will continue for many years to come. 

So come on Alaskans, vote Ethan Berkowitz and Scott McAdams!

Alaska has seen more than enough of Sarah Palin and her boobs, it is time to class the place up and use our votes to put her her political decolletage out of the public eye for all time.

Alaska, where the only thing wilder than our Grizzly Bears, is our politics.

While I have been distracted by a dabbler in witchcraft in Delaware, a Palin booty shaker in LA, and my favorite comedy duo's rally sized smack down of the Beckerheads, apparently there have been some earth shattering developments in our local politics. (And no I am NOT talking about that earthquake yesterday.)

Sarah Palin's "butt boy" gets Teabagged by farm subsidies.

So last week Alaska blogger extraordinaire AkMuckraker discovered that Joe "Federal dollars are destroying Alaska" Miller might just have taken a little taste from the federal teat himself in the form of farm subsidies. 

"What?"  You are undoubtedly saying. "A politician endorsed by Sarah Palin might be a hypocrite?  How can such a thing be possible?"  I know, right?

But don't worry because Joe "the antler collector" Miller's people TOTALLY said "nuh-uh" and claimed that it was a smear by a liberal doody-head who runs a communist, socialist style blog that makes stuff up. Here is the exact quote:

"This is a manufactured story from a Democratic blog. Joe has owned land near Delta Junction since 1999, but the land is not under production, and he's received no federal farm subsidies for it." (Obviously as you can see the "doody head" part was IMPLIED.)

But wait! Butt boy did not receive "federal farm subsidies for IT." Does "IT" mean there might be other parcels of land for which he MIGHT have received some of that sweet, sweet federal money? 

Alaska Dispatch wondered that too.

After Alaska Dispatch received Miller's farm subsidy records under the Freedom of Information Act and told the Miller campaign about them on Monday, Miller's staff confirmed he received federal payments for 140 acres of cropland he owned in Kansas between 1990 and 1998.

"Like the vast majority of farmers in that region, Joe received payment from the USDA in exchange for managing his crops according to government standards," said campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto in an e-mail Monday night.

Aha! Well that just about destroys my faith in anti-government wingnuts who want to give back federal dollars and tax Alaska residents into the poor house to make up for their loss to our economy. (That really IS the only way this works you know.)  The only thing that could disappoint me more about the Teabaggers was if they campaigned for Miller while traveling around Alaska in a luxury yacht.

Seriously?  I supposed next you will tell me that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren't real either!

Shit!  Okay what's next?

Lisa Murkwski's Write-In campaign may spell disaster for the candidate. 

As you probably know Lisa Murkowski's entire hope of winning this three way Senate race hangs on the ability of Alaskan's (many from rural villages with a less than stellar success rate for educating their inhabitants) to spell her name correctly. 

But Lisa is confident that people have seen her name around long enough that they should be able to spell it with no trouble.

Sadly the same cannot be said for her own campaign staff. 

Personally I do not believe all is lost.  All that Lisa has to do is change her name to "None of the above" before November and she should be a shoo in.

Tanks, but NO tanks.

Yesterday there was a gubernatorial debate between Ethan "I am going to keep running for something until I win" Berkowitz, Sean "Sarah Palin quit and all I got was this stupid job" Parnell, and some other guy whose name I don't even care enough about to type out.

(I was totally going to watch this debate, but then I got distracted by watching some paint drying on my living room wall.)

However the joke is on me because apparently Berkowitz did what until now nobody thought was possible.  He got Sean "listening to my speeches even puts ME to sleep" Parnell to show an emotion. No really!  An actual, human like emotion.  Here read it for yourself.

Now it was Berkowitz' turn to ask Parnell a question. He pulled a white propane tank from behind his chair, barbecue grill size, with an "Ethan Berkowitz for Governor" campaign sticker plastered on the front, and hefted it onto the speakers' table. "This is the only natural gas that's been brought down from the North Slope, and we had to do it ourselves," he said (watch for the new TV spot coming tomorrow), calling the governor out on what little has been done to to bring Alaska gas to market.


A somewhat red-faced Parnell angrily stood up and lugged the tank off the table, dumping it on the floor behind him before touting his efforts toward a gas line and helping encourage more Cook Inlet natural gas production.

Did you read that? "A somewhat red faced Parnell."  That could be actual anger.  Or embarrassment. Or I guess that tank might have been really heavy.  But anyhow it completely dispels the rumor that Parnell is in actuality a barely animated clothing store mannequin.

However I must caution Ethan on attempting any more antics designed to get under Parnell's skin.  After all Alaska IS still a predominantly red state, and if voters begin to believe that Parnell actually has a pulse he might just win this thing.

WAKE UP ALASKA! IT'S ELECTION DAY!

Alright my fellow Alaskans it is time to wipe the sleep dust out of your eyes, slam back a pot of coffee or two, and exercise your constitutional right to help choose your next Republican/Democratic candidate for Senator/Governor/Lt. Governor today!  Can't you just FEEL the disappointing lack of excitement!

Okay so let's run down the list of the major and minor players in today's election day political dramedy.

In the running for Lt. Governor on the Republicans side are Mead Treadwell (Whose first name sounds like a frothy alcoholic beverage, so Alaskans should LOVE that!), Jay Ramras (Who got an early election day gift from APOC when they decided NOT to investigate his obvious violation of state election law until after the election), and rabid Palin-bot Eddie "Rascist" Burke who is running a distant, distant third.(Interestingly enough after being Sarah's major attack dog in Alaska for years Burke has received not one iota of support, or even acknowledgement, from his idol. Welcome to the undercarriage of the Palin bus Eddie!)

On the Democratic side we have the wonderful, and extremely qualified Diane Benson and....well who cares who else is running? Diane Benson in the only viable candidate in my mind. Go get'em Diane!

Next up is the Governor's race.  On the Republican side we have Bill Walker, Ralph Samuels, and Palin political bookmark Sean "The Phantom" Parnell. (Who was SO busy doing his very demanding job that he missed several recent debates, as well as a visit by President Obama last November, and the funeral of Senator Ted Stevens just last week.)

(Whoops! I stand corrected. Sean Parnell WAS at Ted Steven's funeral.  I apologize for that, I was relying on information sent to me by somebody who attended and did not double check.  I apologize to Governor Parnell for making that error.)

The Democrats have an embarrassment of riches as represented by Ethan Berkowitz and Hollis French.  In my humble opinion both of these gentlemen offer substantially better leadership than anything the Republicans have to offer, which makes the choice more about who can beat the Republican candidate in the general rather than who would do the best job as the Governor of our state.

I find both of them to be very intelligent and capable men, so you really cannot go wrong.  Berkowitz has better name recognition, while Hollis might be the more cerebral choice.

This brings us to the race that is getting the most national coverage.  Lisa "Daddy's girl" Murkowski VS Joe "Look, another antler!"  Miller.

Miller has been getting teabagged with hundreds of thousands of dollars from The Tea Party Express for months now, and Sarah "Ram" Palin has taken to Facebook to beg for money on his behalf as well, which means this guy is doomed!   Alaskans HATE for outside people to try and influence our elections, and LOVE to tell them to kiss our ass!  So today they will send a message to Joe Miller, Sarah "I quit, I quit, I quit!" Palin, and the outside agitators to KISS OUR ASS!

Lisa Murkowski is a far from perfect Senator, and I don't agree with hardly any of her choices, but dammit she is one of us!  And that still counts for something up here in the Last Frontier.

So get up, and get showered Alaskans!  We have a democracy to participate in today!

P.S. Don't forget to vote no on Ballot Measure 2 also. (And remember it is on the BACK of the ballot, so you have to flip it over.)

Moore up North from Saturday November 28. Great Show!

Part One



Part Two



Part Three



Part Four



Part Five



Part Six

Moore up North will be on in one hour. Got your popcorn and adult beverage?

Ethan Berkowitz, Steve Heimel, and Rick Steiner. Now THAT is a panel!

There is also going to be an appearance by somebody else whose name escapes me right now.

Jeep, nah. Battleship, nah. Howitzer, nope that's not it. Oh well it will come to me.

Anyhow tune in at 4:00, on KYES channel 5.

I will embed the videos when they become available.

The recount in Minnesota, Al Franken, and why I am completely over Ethan Berkowitz.

With the recount in Minnesota complete. (Finally!) Al Franken now leads Norm Coleman by 225 votes. This up from the 49 votes that Franken had led by previously, and way up from back when he was actually trailing Coleman right after the election.

Now this is by no means finished, but at this point I have to believe that when the dust finally settles Al Franken will stand victorious as the new Democratic Senator from the great stated of Minnesota. And the victory will be even more sweet because he fought so damn hard for it.

So I sit here tonight completely jealous of Minnesota. The man they will soon have representing them is a fighter. He is tough, he is confident, and he is a winner. In other words he is everything I would want in an Alaskan Democrat.

And I have one, just one, in our new Senator Mark Begich. But I wanted two.

I wanted two new Democrats from Alaska to go to Washington. One of them made me proud, the other let me down.

Yeah Ethan Berkowitz I am talking to you!

Today Politico referred to your loss to Don Young as one of the "Top Ten Political Upsets of 2008". (H/T to Phil Munger.)

In the contest for Alaska’s lone House seat, most analysts had left incumbent Republican Don Young for dead. Though Young has served in the House since 1973, bringing in piles of federal money for Alaskan projects, a federal corruption investigation was supposed to spell ballot box doom for the cranky appropriator.

After barely surviving a primary challenge from Sarah Palin’s lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, Young faced a strong Democratic opponent in former state House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz. But Young ended up winning by a five-point margin – confounding polls that showed him trailing consistently.

When election night ended on November 4th, I was not satisfied. I was ecstatic that Obama had won, but I was upset that Begich was trailing Stevens. This did not feel right, and so I blogged about it, and so did Shannyn Moore. And with the media paying close attention Begich emerged the victor!

But I was not yet done. I still felt that Ethan should have won! So I talked to every political rabble rouser I could think of here in town, and I called experts on stealing elections all over the country. We had them ready to fly up here and delve into the mystery of Alaska's voter turnout, the strange inconsistencies in the returns, and the question of how the vote could have split to elect one ethically challenged politician while rebuffing the other.

I had friends ready to make placards, political bloggers warming up their typing hands, and citizens volunteering to provide money. We were, if I may, "fired up and ready to go".

And then Ethan just gave up.

He conceded.

I wrote to his campaign asking them to reconsider. No answer.

I would have fought for Ethan Berkowitz. I would still be fighting for Ethan Berkowitz if he had decided to contest the election results. There is simply no "quit" in me. But with no candidate, there is no fight.

And do you know what? We would have won. I just know it. I can't prove it. But I just know it.

So now I am over Ethan Berkowitz. He let me down.

I will NEVER support him again. Not even for dogcatcher.

Because we need tough Democrats up here in Alaska. We need Al Franken Democrats up here in Alaska.

People will say I am not being fair to Ethan. That perhaps I don't understand the complexities of politics in Alaska.

Maybe. But I know how to fight. And I know how to win. And I know that nobody gets to win if the bell rings and they cannot, or will not, come out of their corner with their gloves up ready to do battle. And the proof of that is in Minnesota.

Now we learn that Alaska's voter turnout may have set a record. Exactly how long does this roller coaster ride last?

Alaska voter turnout for this year's election appears now on track to be the highest ever.

That's contrary to hand-wringing about why Alaskans didn't show up for this historic election, and even some speculation that ballots weren't being counted.

"I think people were premature to jump to conclusions that voter turnout was very low. It's apparent that a large number of people in this state chose to vote absentee versus in person on Election Day," said Gail Fenumiai, state elections division director.

The state will count the final absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday -- about 24,000 of them. Even if a third of the questioned ballots are disqualified, that will put the turnout above 320,000, the most Alaskans who have ever voted.

What's unusual this year is that nearly a third of the ballots weren't counted until after Election Day. That's because of the record number of Alaskans who chose to vote early and absentee.

I am going to admit that I am one confused Alaskan voter.

I stood and watched the election results board in the Egan Center on November 4. That was the first time that I felt there was something not quite right. It was the fact that the percentages never changed that stuck out for me. In other words every time the results were updated the percentage of the votes for each candidate remained unchanged, or changed only slightly.

Since then there have been a number of red flags that have made me, and others, question if the outcome of our election can be trusted.

The three points that most concerned me were that 7 time convicted Ted Stevens was ahead of Mark Begich, that the voter turnout was lower then in any other general election, and that the much disliked Don Young could trounce the supremely intelligent Ethan Bekowitz in an election year of change.

However now the "absentee ballot magic balm" is being applied to soothe each of our inflamed concerns.

DOE: "Shhh, don't worry. Mark Begich is now going to emerge victorious over Ted Stevens. Shh, calm down and let the balm ease your tension. Shhh."

But what about the number? How can the voter turnout be so low?

DOE: "Shhh, don't worry. The election numbers are now setting a state record. Shhh, let us massage those wrinkles from your brow, there is nothing wrong here. Everything is just fine. Shhh."

But what about Ethan? How could he lose against Don Young? If we were going to vote Uncle Ted out then why leave the soon to be indicted Don Young in place to further embarrass Alaska?

DOE "Shhh, don't let that one little detail rile you up. Just let it go. If the other two turned out to be nothing, then surely this is nothing as well. Shhh. Breathe out your tension and breathe in the calm. Shhh."

So now those who believed that there was never anything wrong, and that many of us just jumped the gun by claiming there might be, can feel smug. And those of us who felt there was something fishy, will feel isolated. And the world just keeps right on turning.

But there are still a few things that I don't understand. Why were so many early votes saved to be counted after the election? Was there something about the date, or the voter precinct, or the names on the ballot that meant they needed to be checked more thoroughly then the ones that had been counted on November 4th?

And how is it that Don Young could win an election when the Republican brand is poison, and he represents the very worst that the GOP has to offer?

Just where did all of those thousands of last minute absentee ballots come from? Will we ever know?

And finally, how did Randy Ruedrich know just how important the absentee ballots would turn out to be way back in September, when I heard him stress them at the Sarah Palin rally?

But at the end of the day we can be sure that Mark Begich will not want a recount, the Republican party will not allow Ted Stevens to request a recount, there will probably be very little pressure from outside of Alaska asking for a recount, and Ethan Berkowitz will look like a sore loser if he asks for a recount all on his own. All wrapped up with a tidy little bow.

So the 2008 election stumbles to a close. There are still some questions, but not enough to elicit outrage or overwhelming suspicion.

DOE "Shhhh. you can find peace if you simply let the "absentee ballot magic balm" do its work. Don't fight it, just let it ease your mind and unfurrow your brow. As far as you can prove, everything is just fine. There is absolutely nothing to see here. Shhh."

Mark Begich now leads Ted Stevens by 1022 votes. Now we're talking!

Okay so now after many days of blogging about whether this election may be in the process of being stolen, and having the national media asking the same, we have Mayor Begich enjoying a comfortable lead.

Essentially it looks like it is in the bag for Begich. You can check the numbers here.

Very good! I am almost ready to put my tinfoil hat into storage and call it a day.

Almost.

Except that the race which has confused me the most is the Don Young/Ethan Berkowitz Congressional race. Currently the vote tally shows Don Young comfortably ahead with 16,288 more votes then Ethan. WTF?

I have heard all of the arguments. "Nobody really knows Berkowitz", "What has Ethan really DONE for Alaska?", "The Republicans came out in force in response to those negative ads run by the national Democrats up here."

Yeah I have heard them all. But they simply don't make much sense to me.

You see I can understand Alaskans voting for Uncle Ted, conviction and all. Simply put, there is a lot of affection for the guy.

But NOBODY feels all soft and cuddly toward Don Young. I don't even think his own kids like him! He is a bully who constantly belittles his opponents and angers his peers.

I firmly believe that back in July, before Ted Stevens was indicted, if you had asked most Alaskans which one was more likely to get thrown in jail, Ted Stevens or Don Young, it would have gone overwhelmingly for Don Young to be the first one wearing prison stripes.

And even today if somebody were to ask most Alaskans if Ted Stevens was more of a crook then Don Young, they would say no way.

So because of this I cannot imagine why Ted Stevens is watching Mark Begich slowly moving toward victory while Don Young sits in the cat bird seat with a cushion of over 16,000 votes.

If Alaskans were going to "throw the bums out" then why keep the biggest bum of all?

And if they were going to circle the wagons and protect their own, then why kick the very popular Ted Stevens loose while hanging onto the petulant Don Young?

I have spent the better part of the day rolling this around in my head, and I just cannot get my mind wrapped around it.

So for the time being my tinfoil hat will sit firmly on my head.

Because I believe, in the words of Ray Bradbury, "Something wicked this way comes."

Final Alaska election post of the night.

Well after a long day of wringing my hands together and waiting for the results to filter out from the Division of Election here are the last numbers as of November 12, 2008.

Mark Begich has 132196 votes to Ted Stevens 131382 votes.

Putting him ahead by 814 votes. I am pretty confident that as the rest of the votes are counted Begich will only increase his lead.

So it looks like Mark Begich will be Alaska's next Senator! And that is wonderful news!

In the not such great news category, here are the numbers in the Congressional race.

Don Young has 140269 votes to Ethan Berkowitz's 125184 votes.

Which means that Young is still in the lead with 15,985.

There are still thousands of votes left to be counted, but we will not have those results until Monday. I will keep a good thought until then.

And no matter what happens it is very clear that it is time for Alaska to take a serious look at how it conducts its elections. I do believe that there will be changes in the near future.

The Washington Post also thinks that there is something wrong with the Alaska turnout. Gee ya think?

Elections officials, party leaders and voters are wondering what happened this Tuesday in the Last Frontier, where turnout was surprisingly low and two lawmakers who have been the focus of FBI corruption investigations appear to have been reelected despite polling suggesting they would be ousted.

The final voter turnout numbers won't be available until absentee ballots are counted, which could take at least another week. But this year's total is not expected to eclipse Alaska's 66 percent turnout in 2004 or its 60 percent clip in 2000. (This is especially odd given that Alaska's Board of Elections saw a 12.4 percent hike in turnout for the August primaries, before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee.)

Alaska returns (without the uncounted absentee and contested ballots) show the McCain-Palin ticket garnering 136,348 votes. In 2004, President Bush got 190,889 votes, a "significant disparity", the Anchorage Press reported. "These numbers only add to the oddity of this election in Alaska; in the run-up to Tuesday, Alaskan voters seemed energized to vote for a ticket with our governor on it, despite the barrage of criticism Palin faced."

Couple the dip in support for McCain-Palin with surprising victories for longtime Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was found guilty Oct. 27 on seven felony charges, and Rep. Don Young, who is under investigation by the FBI, and a lot of pollsters and voters were left stumped.

"Stumped" does not even begin to adequately define my feelings on this. I am outraged.

This was the most important election of our generation and we are supposed to believe that the turnout was less then in 2004? But the number show that when Bill Clinton ran in 1994 our turnout was 82.9%. Really? Clinton outdrew Obama ? In what universe is that possible?

The amazingly accurate website fivethirtyeight also recognizes that things are not adding up in my home state. They start their analysis with this statement:

There are three plausible explanations I can think of to explain this discrepancy.

The they go on to make two fairly intelligent, and almost plausible explanations for why the numbers seem low. But this is Alaska and I know better, so let us skip to number three which reflects my own paranoid take on this topic:

The third possibility is that a lot of those "questionable" ballots are Democratic ones, and that there have been irregularities in the voting tally. Although this is the least likely possibility, Alaska is a provincial state with some history of corruption, and Democrats ought to be making sure that too many of their ballots haven't been disqualified.

BINGO!!

So the approach I am going to take is to assume that there is some hanky panky being perpetrated by the Republicans and to act accordingly. I base this on past elections, and by the number of Republican politicians currently sitting behind bars. (Soon to possibly include Ted Stevens who is currently leading in his race for the Senate. Seem plausible?)

So today I started making phone calls.

I called the Alaska Democratic Party.

I called the Mark Begich campaign.

I called the Ethan Berkowitz campaign.

And I called the Obama campaign.

I talked to all of them off the record so I will not yet divulge exactly what I learned, but I will say that I am not the only one wearing my tinfoil hat today.

But as for myself, even though the election is over it does not mean I am not "fired up and ready to go"! And I bet I can find a few other people who feel exactly the same.