Anchorage Daily News - Last Ones Standing: Begich Looks Ahead
Interview
By Kyle Hopkins
Mayor Mark Begich clobbered this two opponents in Tuesday's Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate.
Up next: The main event against the 40-year incumbent, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, in the general election on Nov. 4.
After receiving a police union endorsement in Anchorage Wednesday, Begich talked to reporters about the race. Here's a sampling of what he said:
Q. Stevens' raw number of votes was a little bit better than yours at the end of the day ...
A. I expected that. That didn't surprise me. The majority of people always poll the Republican ballot in the primary. You'll see probably a doubling if not a little bit more of the total voter turnout in the general election. That's standard.
... The biggest number is -- how many people did not vote for the incumbent. Pretty significant. Out of 130,000, 140,000 votes, he garnered around 58,000, 59,000.
... Voters are saying they want something fresh, new independent. They want a new approach on how to deal with these challenges. They don't want the old ideas. They want something new.
Q. When you do the math and you look at the number of registered Republicans, registered non-partisans, undeclared voters -- that number is always bigger than the number of Democrats. How does a Democrat win a statewide seat in Alaska?
A. At the end of the day, voters are going to vote in an open general election for the person. ...You know, this argument you just laid out, they said I wasn't going to win the mayor's race either. But I did.
And I think that's because people vote for the person at the end of the day. They want to know what you're about, what you're going to do, what your new ideas are.
... There's a hard core support for (Stevens). That's clear. It comes out in a Republican, closed primary... but all you got to do is look at history. It's always usually the case that Republican closed primary pulls two-thirds of the ballots versus the open primary on the other side. But it all shakes differently at the end of the day because the turnout increases significantly. And people are looking at the people. They're not pulling a party ticket.
Q. The idea that you're running against an indicted opponent (Stevens faces seven counts of failing to report gifts and home repairs from the now defunct Veco Corp.) -- how much is that going to play into your campaign message?
A. My message is what I've been campaigning for the last three or four months. Talking about the issues. Talking about how I don't think Washington is working any longer for Alaska families. How important it is to have a new approach to our energy policy in this country and making sure that we deal with the issues of renewable resources as well as non-renewable resources ... I'm going to campaign to give voters in November something to vote for.
Q. If the National Democrats target Stevens, with attack ads, how will you respond to that?
A. It's a hypothetical ... If they talk about issues, that's one thing. If they're personal attacks, I'll ask them to take them down. I don't have any control over them.
Q. If Stevens is going to paint you as a liberal ... or a friend of enemies of Alaska, what will your message be?
A. I'll continue to talk about the issues. For example, I'm going to disagree with my national party when they're wrong. They're wrong on ANWR. They're wrong on the gun rights issues. And I'll continue to disagree with my national ... party on that, but at the end of the day, I'm going to look at every single issue, and I don't care if they're Democrats or Republicans, I'm going to be working with them.
Q.Are you still going to have time to be mayor?
A. I always have time to be mayor.
I have a great team working for me. I have over 3,000 employees. I just did a welcome to a group this morning as mayor. I am on the phone on a regular basis. I was on the phone matter of fact between the campaign activity last night getting some employees set up for some mediation work they have to do today. I have a great executive team.
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