To fend off his Republican challenger, Democratic Alaska Sen. Mark Begich is depending on rural voters and rural issues.
In June, the United States Environmental Protection Agency did something that Alaskans are still talking about. Without waiting for the state to make up its own mind, the EPA made it up for Alaskans: It moved to stop the Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit mine that would be one of the largest in the world.
To those who view the state’s wide-open spaces with a sense of manifest destiny, the EPA proposal was just another example of an overzealous EPA – Exhibit A of a job-killing Obama administration run amok.
To others, it was an unfortunate interference, but necessary. If the mine polluted Bristol Bay, it could devastate the state’s $5.8 billion fishing industry, not to mention an unspoiled ecosystem so beautiful that Alaskan Sarah Palin named her now-famous daughter after it.
To be honest, the Alaska Senate race – like all the tossup Senate races across the US – is mostly about President Obama. Republican Dan Sullivan has Xeroxed those pages directly from the Republican playbook: A vote for Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich is a vote for Mr. Obama, he says.
But if Senator Begich is to survive Mr. Sullivan’s Obama barrage, it might just be over issues like the Pebble Mine.
See Full Story at CSMonitor.com
image credit csmonitor.com
