Anchorage Daily News

The Barack Obama campaign office in Midtown Anchorage is a warren of energy and late nights, with pizza boxes, dishes overflowing the sink, and Obama packets being prepared for mailings to outposts like Hoonah, Unalaska and Naknek.

Many of the volunteers and staffers were just out of diapers the last time a major Democratic candidate made a real effort to win the state's presidential caucuses.

That was in 1984, when Gary Hart opened an Anchorage office and used it to win the Alaska caucuses. The stakes are bigger this year, Democrats say, with no incumbent president and Obama in a tight race with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

"It's the first time I can remember and certainly that I can think of that it's ever made a difference what Alaskans felt in a presidential caucus," said former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, who is working the phones to drum up support for Obama.

The Obama campaign in Alaska is a juggernaut compared to Clinton's effort. Her Alaska supporters said a month ago there were plans to open an office here. But the national campaign never made it happen.

Former Anchorage Assemblywoman Pat Abney, a volunteer for Clinton, said even she has doubts Clinton can overcome the highly organized Obama effort in the state. But she's trying.

"We've been calling our people, have called all around the state, and we are working hard to get people out to the caucuses," Abney said.

It's actually a three-way race, if you count long-shot candidate Mike Gravel, who represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate from 1969 through 1980. But even Gravel's friends don't expect him to make much of a dent.

The Obama campaign has its own Alaska connection. His chief of staff in the U.S. Senate, Pete Rouse, was chief of staff for Alaska Lt. Gov. Terry Miller in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has family connections here and has maintained friendships with other Alaska political types.

Rouse, in an interview last week, said winning Alaska would help the Obama campaign to send a message. Alaska is a far Western state where Democratic presidential candidates always struggle.

"It helps the argument we are trying to make that he's more electable than our opponent," Rouse said.

Alaska has 18 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and there will be nearly 1,700 Democratic delegates at stake nationwide on Tuesday. Chris Farrell, a veteran of the Iowa caucuses who the Obama campaign sent to Alaska to organize, said states like California and New York are likely to split their delegates between Clinton and Obama. Small states like Alaska could add up and make the difference, he said.

Obama has lined up endorsements from several Alaska Democratic political figures. Even former Republican Gov. Wally Hickel wrote a glowing column about Obama.

Clinton, who has her own Alaska connection as a worker on a Valdez fish cannery slime line in the late 1960s, hasn't been announcing Alaska endorsements. Elisa Holt, who is organizing for the Clinton campaign in Alaska, said it's not something she's focused on.

"I can call everyday people like myself who go and caucus and care about the issues," said Holt, who is trying to balance campaigning with school work at Charter College.

Holt is a single mom who said she lost her job because of her pregnancy and had to pay $12,000 in child birth costs. She said she likes Clinton's experience and focus on health care.

"I'm doing what I can to get her word across," she said.

ADVERTISEMENT