AK-Gov: Parnell's (R) Campaign "Accidentally" Sends Fundraising E-mail To State Employees

This is the game changing race that is starting to really get interesting:

http://www.adn.com/...

Gov. Sean Parnell’s re-election campaign mistakenly sent a fundraising email to an unknown number of state employee inboxes on Thursday, prompting the state Department of Administration to quickly notify all 18,000 employees that using state resources for “partisan political purposes” is illegal.

But the email did not violate the law, said Paul Dauphinais, executive director of the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

“It was not sent from a state email. If it were, that’s potentially a different issue,” he said, adding that APOC staff met quickly after learning of the email.

The email came from info@Parnell2014.com. It had “the appropriate ‘paid-for-by’ message on it, so there was no violation there either,” Dauphinais said.

The campaign had contracted with an Outside email vendor, AirNet, to send the email, said Luke Miller, Parnell’s campaign spokesman. - Alaska Dispatch News, 9/4/14

But Democrats wasted no time going after Parnell on this:

http://www.moultonadvertiser.com/...

Democrats seized on the incident, with the party's executive director, Kay Brown, saying it is wrong for Parnell to use state resources to "promote his campaign."

Last year, the campaign reported that political emails urging recipients to check out Parnell's campaign page on Facebook were inadvertently sent to some governmental, education and legislative addresses. Campaign manager Jerry Gallagher reported that to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. - AP, 9/4/14

Whether it was a huge mistake or intentional, it's sounds like Parnell's campaign is nervous and they should be:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

The Democratic nominee for governor of Alaska and an independent candidate announced Tuesday that they have merged their campaigns, marking the beginning of an unprecedented political alliance in the state that could put a Republican-held seat in play this fall.

Walker will continue his run for governor and Mallott will become his running mate, the two men announced. Speaking at a press conference in Anchorage, they showered each other with praise, and vowed to pursue the campaign ahead as partners.

"We will work as a team," said Walker. "We will work as a team in the next 60 days. We will work a team in our administration."

The move allows the two candidates, who hold similar views on many issues and have a friendly personal relationship, to combine forces against Gov. Sean Parnell (R). In a three-way race, Mallott and Walker would have competed for many of the same anti-Parnell voters and potentially canceled each other out. The unified ticket applies new pressure on Parnell, who until now has not been viewed as terribly vulnerable.

As part of the arrangement, Walker agreed to change his party affiliation from Republican to undeclared. Tuesday was the deadline for ballot changes.

The Alaska Democratic Party overwhelmingly signed off on the decision Monday. Mallott said the idea of teaming up started taking shape over the weekend. The similarities between the two on various policy fronts made the decision to come together easier, he noted. - Washington Post, 9/2/14

And there's good reason to believe Walker and Mallott could pull this off:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/...

In the race for Governor incumbent Sean Parnell looks to be safe, leading Democrat Byron Mallott and Independent Bill Walker 37/22/20. Both challengers appear to be suffering from a lack of name recognition. More than half the electorate, 58%, are unsure of what they think of Mallott. Walker faces a similar battle, with 49% of voters having no opinion about him. - PPP, 8/5/14

We have another opportunity to unseat a Republican Governor and I say we take it. Click here to get involved with Walker and Mallott's campaign:
http://www.walkerforalaska.com/