Rasmussen (6/16, likely voters, 5/14 in parens):
Mark Begich (D): 44 (47)
Ted Stevens (R-inc): 46 (45)
(MoE: ±4%)
Ted Stevens is going to be a tough son of a bitch to beat (much tougher than Don Young), but he begins the Senate race in serious peril against Mark Begich.
Bonus finding: If you look at the crosstabs, Rasmussen also lists which Senate candidate the supporters of the presidential candidates also favor. Obama supporters go with Begich 75-17, while McCain supporters go with Stevens by an almost identical 75-18. Unsurprisingly, if you multiply these numbers out by the Senate candidates’ share of the vote (and also include “undecided” and “other”), McCain noses Obama by barely 43-41.
UPDATE: Hm, I guess our math was off a tiny bit. Rasmussen has released their Presidential crosstabs, and McCain leads Obama by 45-41 in Alaska. Still a phenomenal performance for a Democrat in this supposedly solid red state.
SSP currently rates this race as Leans Republican.
Does it say where they weigh in on Obama v McCain?
If Obama is only behind by around 2%, and with the AK being damaged goods. I think Obama should spend at least a few thousands on advertising. Possibly maybe even visit the state. Alaskan’s would probably freak that a presidential candidate visited their state.
Hopeful Young can win his primary, than all three Dem candidates could coordinate and such.
and that’s great news. is he running ads or anything? – it seemed that begich was winning in a close race thelast couple of polls.
and are there any decent alaska blogs? i’d love to know what kind of advertising or literature is running for the primaries there and whether any issues are heating up. and whether young has any chance to fend off the presumptuous mr parnell.
with news of ALL the senate contests; the e-mail pointed out that the obama campaign has made a FIRM committment to competing in AK; and the dscc also pointed out that they are committed to beating stevens with all their might(i think you will see alaska as another battleground on the ever-expanding electoral map for november)