Alaskans Feel the Bern: Sanders Opens Campaign Headquarters in Anchorage

[Donkees]

Five campaign staffers were dispatched to Anchorage to set up camp in the Northway Mall. The office opened Sunday afternoon, and enjoyed a steady flow of traffic for hours while volunteers steadfastly called potential voters at tables spanning the room.

“We’re getting our network into Alaska and we’re trying to make sure that people in Alaska self-organize and do things like phonebank and knock doors,” Sanders’ Alaska field director Chris Johnson told the gathered crowd, mentioning that other operatives were organizing in other locales. “There’s a lot of things that have to happen to have a successful caucus and a successful election. The biggest one is, people need to show up in droves to their caucus site, and they need to be registered. So, those things are what we are focused on doing out of this office.”

Alaska is a caucus state that holds its Republican and Democratic contests on different dates. Last week, the GOP narrowly awarded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a victory over Donald Trump. The Democrats will weigh in on March 26.

A January Alaska Dispatch News poll conducted by Ivan Moore Research found Sanders has broad support in the state, but it comes with asterisks. Among the 651 registered voters surveyed, Clinton enjoyed a slight edge over Sanders among registered Democrats, 44.2 to 41.1. But among independents, Sanders wins big: 51.5 to 26.8. That averaged out to a 14 point lead for Sanders, who up until announcing his presidential bid was one of only two independents serving in the U.S. Senate.

Alaska’s Democratic Caucus is limited to registered Democrats, but caucus goers can register and change party affiliation the same day (so long as it is done before 10 a.m.).

Scott Maxwell, who works at an engineering firm in Anchorage and showed up to Sanders’ campaign headquarters opening on Sunday to volunteer, told me that the same day registration was a big deal.

“He’s got a huge wave of support from independents, third party folks — not just registered Democrats — people from both sides of the aisle. People who have been disengaged from politics for years are really getting excited about Bernie. I’ve made friends through the Bernie group here. It’s been a really rewarding experience.” he said. “I’ll be honest, it’s a new experience for me. I come from a primary state where you just showed up. Click, click and you’re done. This whole caucus thing is, you know, a little out of my element. But I’m excited to see how it plays out on the 26th.”

Maxwell said he’s been voting since he became eligible in 1998. This was the first time he was inspired to volunteer for a campaign.

A lot of what he’s talking about, as far as income inequality, is a big deal. Just sort of detaching politics from corporate cronyism I think is a major deal. I think that that really resonates with a lot of Alaskans where, you know, we are a little suspicious about how much the oil companies and people like that deal in our state politics. So, I feel like a lot of Alaskans are connecting with the fact that he is so strong about getting money out of politics; about returning it to a true democracy. That’s where I see a lot of the energy coming from, from his strong stance against corruption. It’s a powerful message.

Ariel Haren told me a similar tale. She said she voted for President Barack Obama and become active in volunteerism during the 2008 campaign. But she became disillusioned during the president’s first term.

“We’ve got to get the billionaires out of the driver’s seat. We’re not going to make any progress on anything with those people. They’re crazy. They’re living in a bubble. They don’t know what’s real.”

She refrained from voting for Obama in 2012. Yet, on the first day the doors opened at the Anchorage campaign office, she was calling voters to gauge their support for Sanders.

“I’ve been following him for a long time and I like what he says. It’s clearly what the country needs. But, see, a lot of people — and then when they get elected — well, they do what the rich people tell them to,” she told me. With a hopeful smile, she added, “It’s a close election and I want to make a difference.”

I asked Haren, Maxwell, and others present if they thought Sanders could win in Alaska. Each time, the response was an emphatic “absolutely.”

Johnson asked volunteers to trust the team Sanders sent to Alaska. The staff in Anchorage had just come from Nevada, where Sanders lost to Clinton narrowly, but over-performed in rural, northern counties.

“We ran an extremely successful program in northern Nevada,” he said. “We did not take the state, but that was simply because we could not carry Vegas. These folks here are the best of the best. They ran 10 out of 15 rural counties in places where people like [538 blog founder and pollster] Nate Silver projected us to lose.”

The question asked repeatedly by the steady flow of traffic coming through the office was: “Is Bernie coming to Alaska?”

“We’re working on it,” staffers uniformly answered.

http://www.alaskacommons.com/2016/03/06/alaskans-feel-the-bern-sanders-opens-campaign-headquarters-in-anchorage

[SoapBox]

1. Cool!

And if that is the multi level mall in downtown, I've been in there...several years ago but I remember that.

Plus an office in Fairbanks!