Huffington Magazine Issue 85 | Page 62

ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES ALASKA IS FLAGGING planning to target him with every weapon in their arsenal. History suggests that Begich’s seat should be an easy get for the GOP in 2014. Alaska has traditionally hewed conservative, and Begich was elected by the thinnest of margins in 2008. He won only after Stevens was found guilty on corruption charges eight days before Election Day. (The conviction was later overturned.) On the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell has already announced his candidacy, as has former Alaska Attorney General Dan HUFFINGTON 01.26.14 Sullivan. Joe Miller, who beat out Sen. Lisa Murkowski to become the GOP nominee in 2010, only to lose to her write-in campaign, is also running again. And because nothing gets cable news hosts and web editors as hot and bothered, questions about a Sarah Palin candidacy refuse to die, despite lukewarm interest from the former governor and vice presidential candidate. Begich’s campaign won’t shy away from Palin, whose standing with the public couldn’t be worse if she proposed opening up Mount McKinley to mountaintop removal mining. “I’m not even sure if she still Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, speaks during a press conference to announce an operation that seized the largest number of illegal guns in the city’s history in August 2013. Bloomberg has criticized Begich, who takes a more conservative position on guns, for his vote against expanded background checks.