At a party launching Gov. Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign Friday night, political consultant and pollster David Dittman stood on top of a desk, tie in hand.
Dozens of people -- Murkowski supporters, his family and staff -- listened as Dittman talked about the elephant in the room: Does the governor have a chance?
"I'm really confident. People later are going to say 'Wow, how'd they pull that off, what an upset,' " Dittman said. A veteran Murkowski ally, he'll serve as a campaign strategist and offered a preview of what voters may hear from, and about, the governor in coming weeks.
Murkowski held the party as his new Midtown campaign office, in a former hair salon that was more recently headquarters for mayoral candidate Jack Frost. Inside, people sipped root beer floats and ate M&Ms.
Across busy Northern Lights Boulevard, a lone Murkowski foe held a homemade sign that read: "Let's Yank Frank."
Murkowski's numbers look bad. Polls released by other campaigns are consistently showing him trailing in the Republican primary behind candidates Sarah Palin and John Binkley.
Pollster Marc Hellenthal, who has been working for the Binkley campaign, said recently that Murkowski can't win.
"He's in the category of being a bad joke," Hellenthal said.
But Dittman told the faithful Friday that things aren't as grim as they seem. He said a lot of good things happened over the past four years in Alaska, but people don't associate them with the governor yet.
Eventually, maybe begrudgingly at first, they will, he said.
Murkowski has been easy to find lately, signing bills across the state and talking about courage and leadership -- words now inscribed on his red campaign signs.
When he took the floor Friday, he spoke firmly and punctuated his points with his hands. He returned to what should be a key theme in his re-election effort: The pursuit of a natural gas line.
"We're going to finish it."
Oscar Guarderas, a 75-year-old Anchorage resident born and raised in Peru, said he's known Murkowski for more than 30 years and supported him in his first U.S. Senate race. Murkowski's in for a battle, but people will vote for him again, Guarderas predicted: "The gas line is right on the door."
Murkowski struck a deal with three giant oil companies that could lead to a gas pipeline, but the project still has a long way to go. The Legislature would need to change a key oil tax, then amend the state's natural gas development law in order to make the proposed contract legitimate.
Lawmakers did neither in a special session that ended earlier this month, and critics of Murkowski's deal call it unfair to the state.
Murkowski announced on May 26 he was running for re-election, saying he had only recently made the decision with his wife, Nancy. Now he has to raise money fast.
For the Republican primary race, "He's going to need at least $300,000 or $400,000," said Curtis Thayer, a Republican fundraiser who is working on the Binkley campaign and helped Murkowski's daughter, Lisa, in her successful 2004 U.S. Senate race.
Nancy Murkowski encouraged the crowd Friday to sign up and endorse the governor. One well-wisher, United Fishermen of Alaska president Bob Thorstenson, expected his trade group to do just that following a vote Saturday.
DEMOCRATIC HQ
There's no soda machine yet. And they're probably weeks away from hauling in the sleeping bags and cots, but Alaska Democrats are busy building a headquarters for their House and Senate races in a 5,000-square-foot building on West 25th Avenue.
The office space will be home to more than a dozen candidates as Democrats try to put a dent in Republican control over both state houses.
Democrats plan to hold a grand opening at the Midtown office on Friday, said the party's Anchorage co-chairwoman, Patti Higgins.
Among the candidates expected to set up shop at the new headquarters are -- deep breath -- Macon Roberts, Lindsey Holmes, Mike Doogan, Harry Crawford, Berta Gardner, Bill Wielechowski, Max Gruenberg, Pat Abney, Ray Utter, Bud Dubay, Darrell Behymer, Valerie Baffone, Johnny Ellis, Chris Tuck, Danny Consenstein and Bob Buch.
The offices are still mostly empty. There are campaign signs, but no pizza boxes.
One of the rooms that looks the most lived in belongs to Ellis, an incumbent state senator who is running unopposed. On his wall is a poster of Napolean Dynamite, a movie character whose appeal must cross party lines. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Gov. Murkowski adopted one of Napolean's catch phrases, telling legislators Alaska's outlook was "flippin' sweet."
Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com.
