Just When I Was About to Put the Ethan Berkowitz Bumper Sticker on the Outback....

Alaska Democratic Party primary gubernatorial candidate Ethan Berkowitz caused quite a stir with his July 6th op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News, titled, What’s Alaska’s Plan for “Beyond BP”? Yesterday, at a fundraiser for U.S. House AK-AL candidate Harry Crawford and U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams, a number of people related to me that they've changed their primary votes from Ethan to state Senator Hollis French. I was a bit surprised, and asked "Why?"

For the most part, people just didn't think Ethan gets how ridiculously easy the oil companies would manipulate the whole "revisiting ACES" process, from proposals to attempting to get legislation going, to finalizing it, to then dealing with a new, untried negotiating regime with companies known to do almost anything to subvert honest policy making in Alaska.

Some had read Sean Cockerham's excellent, long July 14th ADN article on the early stages of an uproar caused by Berkowitz' op-ed.

A few people at the fundraiser had either listened to Shannyn Moore's broadcast encounter with Ethan last Wednesday on KUDO, or had downloaded the podcasts. It made for some great radio. Moore was incredibly well prepared to discuss the subject, and even though Ethan hadn't announced ahead of time that he was calling in to Moore's show, she was more than ready. The encounter reminded me of my comparison of Shannyn to Ginger Rogers:

I've told Shannyn she reminds me in her sassy comebacks to some of Ginger Rodgers' lines in the great series Rodgers did with Fred Astaire, between 1933 and 1939. It has been hard for Moore to keep on coming back, looking for a chance to do what she loves - talk radio from a progressive viewpoint. She's had to struggle to prove herself capable of capturing a market dominated by guys far less adept, far less knowledgeable, and who couldn't spell "nuance," even if they knew what it meant.

It's like the line Faith Whittesley created, to describe how Rodgers dealt with Astaire. "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels."

Ethan was all but cornered. Shannyn was testy at times, but deservedly so. Here's a link to the show:

Hour Two (Ethan comes in in the 20th minute of the segment)

Hour Three

Late this morning, The Mudflats posted a long article on this subject. Usually articles there are signed. This one merely has been submitted by "The Editors." Hmmmm....

A crucial paragraph is this one:

And, even though Palin and Berkowitz passed each other in the revolving door of Juneau, as she was coming in and he was going out, it looks like he picked up at least one annoying trait from her – how to throw his friends under the bus. That’s what he did to every Democratic legislator this week. In trying to criticize the work of his opponent Senator Hollis French for finally getting Alaskans a fair share for our oil in 2007, he also dissed every other Democrat in the legislature. And we think that’s pretty sad.

All this, as Jon Blair, Ethan's campaign manager, sent me an email one minute ago:

A new poll shows Ethan Berkowitz maintaining a nearly 30-point lead in the Democratic primary for Governor. The data was collected by Ivan Moore Research from July 6-11, 2010 and had a margin of error of +/- 5.3% (336 respondents). Ivan Moore Research has previously worked in an official capacity for both Berkowitz and Hollis French.

If the primary election were held today, voters choosing the ballot containing Democratic candidates would be voting for:

Ethan Berkowitz 43.1%
Hollis French 14.6%
Other Non-Democratic Candidates 13.9%
Undecided 28.4%

This new data follows similar research independently released by Strategies 360 in mid-May. That poll showed Berkowitz at 49% and Hollis French at 17%.

Note the date on the poll - the week before the op-ed.

Time for a new poll. This one was DOA. Many of Ivan's are next to worthless, anyway.