By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
ANCHORAGE -- In what might be the fullest realization of Barack Obama's pledge to run hard in parts of the country largely untouched by presidential campaigning, the Democrat's Alaska operation is making plans for organizers to hopscotch the state's vast and sparsely populated interior by bush plane, knocking on doors in remote outposts for their candidate.
"Go around, put up signs, shake some hands, see some of the important people in the village," said state representative and professional pilot Woodie Salmon (D), describing his own campaign tactics in a legislative district that includes 94 villages, 70 of which can be reached only by air. "Get things stirred up and leave again."
Conservative and quirky, Alaska last went for a Democratic presidential candidate 44 years ago. No nominee from either party has even visited since Richard Nixon's journey to glad-hand in Anchorage on the last weekend of the 1960 campaign, a stop that some argue cost him the razor-thin election.
Obama, who often boasts of having visited the other 49 states, has yet to commit to a stop here. But his vibrant campaign operation here is stoking expectations and mounting the most prodigious presidential effort Alaska has seen.
While the John McCain campaign has yet to open an office anywhere in the state, Obama has dispatched dozens of paid staffers here over the past month; the latest batch arrived over the weekend. It is assigning field coordinators in each of the state's 40 legislative districts and has been buying television ad time since June.
"The campaign is treating Alaska as a key battleground state," said Jeff Giertz, the campaign's communications director in Alaska, who arrived in Anchorage from Iowa, the scene of Obama's first victory of the Democratic nominating contest.
With only three electoral votes, Alaska may seem a low-stakes prize. But by pouring time and money into traditionally Republican Western states such as Montana and Colorado, the Obama campaign is trying to make good on its vow to redraw the electoral map and force the McCain campaign to watch its flanks -- all the while reinforcing Obama's overarching claim of nurturing a politics of inclusion.
"It's a tough state to move, but we're making a play," Giertz said. "If there's any year where a Democrat can win Alaska, this is the year."
Public surveys consistently have McCain ahead, but by single-digit margins that reflect the Republican's tepid support here.
"Obama's really holding his own," said Andrew Halcro, a former Republican state lawmaker and independent gubernatorial candidate who termed the Obama effort "amazing."
"I think they could come pretty close," said David Dittman, the state's leading pollster, who works primarily with Republicans. He added: "I don't think Obama would win."
In a state where Ross Perot drew 28 percent in 1992 and Ralph Nader banked every tenth vote eight years later, an array of circumstances offers encouragement to the underdog Democrat, starting with McCain's last-place finish in the Republican caucus in February behind Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.
The Arizona Republican faces a tough sell here. Though McCain's military credentials resonate with Alaska's veteran and active-duty residents, he is also known here for railing against the "earmark" appropriations that bring Alaskans more federal money per capita than any other state.
But McCain's most dubious distinction is as the first GOP candidate in memory to oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The position, which McCain reiterated even while reversing his opposition to off-shore drilling, puts him at odds with the overwhelming majority of Alaskans.
"There's a sense of betrayal with McCain in the fact that he doesn't support it," Dittman said. "There's the sense that he's not any better than a Democrat."
And this year, being a Democrat may not be such a bad thing. Every Republican on the November ballot can expect to suffer from the corruption scandal that has tarred Alaskan politics. Last week's indictment of Ted Stevens, the U.S. Senate's longest-serving Republican, follows the federal convictions of three state GOP lawmakers in cases that featured surveillance videos starring the oil executive who prosecutors say remodeled Stevens's modest Girdwood home.
Public revulsion at the continuing torrent of revelations fueled the upset election of Republican Sarah Palin as governor in 2006, on a platform of Alaskan pride and cleaning up government.
"I think Obama's message is similar to Sarah's two years ago," said Halcro, who lost his third-party bid to Palin. "People want to believe that these really complex public policy questions are going to be solved by what I call glittering generalities."
Alaskans may also appreciate being noticed.
"We've always voted up here. Just nobody's paid much attention," said Jim Schultz, 71.
Snowy-bearded and cheerful, the federal retiree worked the phones in Obama headquarters on a rare sunny evening during a cold and cloudy summer. Across the table sat a beaming Celine Gammond, 18.
"It gives us legitimacy," she said of the campaign's effort. "It's like we're a real state."
The youthful enthusiasm that powers the famous Obama ground operation first became apparent here on caucus night: The 8,800 who jammed into caucus sites represented more than ten times the turnout four years earlier, with 70 percent for the Illinois senator.
"I hope America doesn't disappoint these young people," Schultz said. But working the phones reminded him that in the great north, more than the weather can be harsh: "I think what surprises me is the animosity or the rudeness. If they're Republican they say, 'I'm not even going to talk to you.' Or they hang up."
Still, political professionals say the sheer force of effort is bound to produce dividends.
"They really appreciate that people would come to your town and talk to you. That's a big thing," said Salmon, who uses his two Cessnas for "campaigning, hunting, and odds and ends."
Fuel will be expensive, though, especially if the pilot refuels in the bush, where prices reflect the expense of delivering it there by barge or even air. "Arctic villages' last reported gas price was about $10 a gallon, and they live right next to ANWR," Salmon said.
McHugh Pierre, spokesman for the Alaska Republican Party, holds out hope that McCain will change his position on drilling in the refuge. He also batted aside japes from his Democratic rivals -- who issued a series of news releases suggesting vacant office space that McCain's campaign might rent -- by suggesting the influx of Obama staffers amounted to carpetbagging.
"Obama is trying to take advantage of our situation," Pierre said. "Obama has a lot of East Coast liberal staffers in Alaska" while McCain, he said, "has a real grass-roots effort, Alaskans talking to Alaskans.
"I don't think the views or opinions of Alaskans have changed, and the views of the Republican Party still represent the views of most people.
"Ronald Reagan didn't even have an office here," Pierre said. "This is the normal deal."
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