Huffington Magazine Issue 85 | Page 65

AP PHOTO/MARK THIESSEN ALASKA IS FLAGGING flank, believing they help brand him as a political maverick. “It’s not difficult for me!” Begich said about whether his vote has become a political liability. “You press people think it’s difficult.” Nonetheless, it will be a tough needle for Begich to thread. Alaska’s often contradictory politics — solidly Republican yet strongly receptive to government money — will require him to cast himself as both politically independent and connected enough to his party apparatus to secure HUFFINGTON 01.26.14 federal funds for the state. So far, at least, he seems to be succeeding. Polling shows Begich defeating all of the declar