Singin' Sam and his dog, Rowdy, hope to make sure you know all about him. They'll be touring Alaska in a silver 48-foot campaign coach that Little bought from a Nashville gospel group. He'll woo Alaska voters with his guitar, singing songs straight from his CD, "Truck Driver for Governor."
"All over Alaska from Kodiak to Nome,
Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, or if Ketchikan is your home
Jump on the bandwagon and join the winning team.
For a truck drivin gov'nor wearing boots and blue jeans."
What's he stand for? Hear him sing about bringing back the longevity bonus, the checks that all Alaska seniors used to get from the state.
"We need to get serious, build Alaska's gas line,
for all the elder-ly let's put longevity back on line
Protect the fishing industry and all of the Native lands.
The next governor's going to be just a truck driving man."
He also says the state needs to build a refinery to produce gasoline in-state. Little wants to rebuild the Delta farm project, growing seed potatoes for export.
Little has just started to become visible in the governor's race, attending his first candidate forum recently in Wasilla. "This is my first forum of my whole life," he told the Mat-Su Chamber of Commerce crowd. "Except for being in some honkey tonks singing with a bunch of drunks or whatever. So it's kind of different, I'll say that."
Little hasn't been included in any of the polls in the governor's race. Anchorage pollster and political consultant Dave Dittman said he'd never heard of him.
"I like country music, but Waylon and Willie and Merle," Dittman said. "I don't know Sam."
TRUCKING GROCERIES
Little does have money he can spend on his campaign. He owns his own trucking company, with three rigs going from Seattle to Alaska on the Alaska and Cassiar Highways, delivering produce to Fred Meyer stores throughout the state. Little reported to the state that his business made $903,479 pre-tax income in 2008.
Little figures to spend $100,000 on the campaign and hopes to get contributions to cover at least half.
"I'm not going to buy it. If you like what I'm doing, fine. If not, there's other candidates too," said Little, who is 68. "I have nothing bad to say about any of them; I'd say they're all good guys."
Little has a poll on his website where people can vote for whom they think should be governor. As of Sunday, he led with 10 votes; Samuels and Walker were tied for second with one.
Little's candidacy has attracted more notice out of state so far, including mentions in trucker magazines and an interview by radio host G. Gordon Liddy, who seemed to think Little was an "ice road trucker" like the television show. Little used to haul 80-foot sections of pipe to Prudhoe Bay, but corrected Liddy when asked about ice road trucking and said his outfit hauls groceries.
A columnist in the Billings Gazette wrote about Little, saying "the next governor of Alaska might be a Montanan. OK, Sam Little is a long shot, but so was the last person elected up there. You will recall that when Sarah Palin was elected, she was the mayor of Wasilla, population 10,000." (Palin actually wasn't mayor of Wasilla when she was elected, but you get the point.)
Little grew up in Montana and came to Alaska in 1974. He hauled pipe for the trans-Alaska pipeline construction and wrote a 1975 song, "Kamikaze Trail," that celebrated the Haul Road. It's by far his most well-known song; it was used on the television show "Ice Road Truckers" and has been on an episode of "60 Minutes," he said.
You know the haul is tough, the roads are rough
But the big rigs up and down her sail,
Oh just a big happy family of gear-jammers
a-trucking on the Kamikaze Trail
Little says his music is more for fun than profit, and he's played in fairs and rodeos. His home is Tok but he's lived and traveled all over the state. Little cut back on truck driving over the past year and now his main vehicle is the silver campaign bus, featuring an "Alaska Pride" sign in bright rainbow colors on the front and his logo on the side.
This is his first run for public office. According to state records he voted absentee in the 2008 general election but not in the primary or in the 2006 election, the last time that voters picked a governor.
Little said the idea of him running for governor first came up three years ago. He says a longtime friend, a gun dealer out of Fairbanks, said on his deathbed that he'd like Little to run for governor. Little said he didn't take it seriously at first, but started thinking as the job market worsened that "maybe a working man can do something about this."
"Rebuild all the Delta farms and dairies in the Mat-Su
IFTA for the truckers, there won't be no capital move
To all you Alaskans this is your great land
I'm askin' for your vote, I'm a truck drivin' man."
Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.
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