More Articles on Ethan Berkowitz Coming Soon

Progressive Alaska will be carrying more articles about Alaska At-Large U.S. House seat candidate Ethan Berkowitz, in the days ahead. And PA hopes to carry as much positive material about this race, and about Mark Begich's U.S. Senate race as possible, between now and November 4.

Since three days after the August 26th Alaska Primary, Progressive Alaska has been putting almost all efforts into getting the truth out about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. And that will probably have to remain the main mission of most progressive Alaska bloggers, right up to the election.

The bottom line on this, as PA noted on August 29th, is that Palin's nomination changed everything in what was already the most in-flux political environment in the USA. At the time, many Alaskans, myself included, had forgotten more of Palin's transgressions, self-promoting exaggerations, shortcomings and lies, than we'd remembered. We held her Alaska image in awe, yet cringed at the thought of her being placed upon the national stage.

What pride the majority of Alaskans had from the 29th of August up until late last week, has started to quickly evaporate, as the McCain invasion of Alaska's government begins to be noticed, and as the efforts of so many reporters and bloggers from around the state, country and world, begin to have an impact. Many of Alaska's Democratic Party candidates are now recovering from their shell shock, as they see Palin go from a plus 17 point positive-negative image to a minus 11 point image nationwide, in less than two weeks.

Nationally noted progressive fundraiser, Howie Klein, announced early this morning that he has started a new Blue America fund to benefit Ethan Berkowitz and some other Democratic Party candidates. As you may recall, Howie has been critical of Ethan in the past.

So have I. But I'll be helping Howie in his efforts, and helping David Shurtleff get more attention to the many positive aspects of Ethan's campaign that I have always felt made him a strong contender for the AK-AL seat.

Here's Deirdre Helfferich's post about her upcoming interview article with Ethan Berkowitz:

I had a thoroughly enjoyable discussion with Ethan Berkowitz yesterday evening. Of course, it only got rolling just before he had to leave. I'm going to be writing up an article for the next issue of the Republic, and plan to interview him via phone later to get some more details (and, of course, quotable quotes).

One of the things that struck me was how animated he became when we started talking about local agriculture and food sustainability—he lit up and started talking a mile a minute, all about Bernie Karl's plans for lettuce and Chena Hot Springs, the Jones Act (which I have to do some reading up on), and the estimate of a mere three days' food in the stores should our transportation links to Seattle be shut down. (And incidentally, the state's emergency food supplies are stored in Oregon, according to Kim Sollien of the Anchorage Daily News. Talk about stupid planning.)

Nice to see a candidate for national office getting so enthusiastic about something that's good for the long-range future of the state and the country, and in so many ways.