Only In Alaska: Senate Campaigns Fight About Riding Snowmobiles

The Alaska Senate race is ostensibly all about which candidate — incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich or Republican challenger Dan Sullivan — is the truer Alaskan. Which might help explain why the campaigns spent most of the day on Wednesday arguing about snowmobiles.

First, Sullivan’s campaign released a TV ad in which a professional snowmobiler accused Begich of “pretending” to ride a snowmobile in one of his own ads. Then Begich called the Sullivan ad a lie, alleging that the shoot for his ad had a crew member with an AR-15 to protect against polar bears and was cold enough to induce frostbite in Begich himself.

Because nothing is truer Alaska than polar bears and frostbite.

And remember, according to the New York Times’s Upshot forecast, this could be the race that decides which party controls the Senate next year. Though nobody is actually sure what is happening in the campaign, because the polling is a mess.

Anyway, back to snowmobiles — or “snow machines,” as the Alaskans call them.

In April, Begich aired an ad that featured him trekking across Alaskan ice and touting his push for oil drilling. “I’m Mark Begich and I fought for five years to get the permits to drill under this ice,” he said after parking his snow machine and removing his helmet. It was one of the countless examples of the Alaska-centric, fighting-against-Washington message that has typified his campaign.

Sullivan, who had to fight against attacks that he was an Alaska outsider during his primary campaign, isn’t having it, though. His campaign put out a new TV ad on Wednesday that featured Cory Davis, who won gold medals at the X-Games while riding snowmobiles, ripping Begich for “pretending to ride one.”

It is all just further evidence that Begich isn’t “True Alaska” — as his campaign’s ads always boast — but “Pure Washington,” the ad text alleged. “Begich acts like Mr. Alaska when he wants our vote, but the truth is he votes with Obama and his D.C. friends — not Alaska,” Davis said. “I’m tired of phony politicians and Mark Begich’s laaaaame tricks.”

Begich, however, wasn’t going to stand for his Alaskan bonafides being so challenged. He went off on the Sullivan ad in a Wednesday interview with Politico, calling it a “lie” and describing the harrowing shoot behind his ad.

“One guy for example, wore an AR-15 around his shoulders because the area we were going to is where polar bears are, and he wanted to make sure we weren’t going to be attacked,” Begich said. “To say that I wasn’t on that snow machine riding it? I rode it for a long time out there and in weather that was very cold that day to the point where I frostbit part of my ear.”

“Yes. It was me on the snow machine,” he said. “Look at the picture of me when I take my helmet off. That’s what we call ‘helmet hair,’ that’s when you’re riding a snow machine.”

Such is the state of play in Alaska.