{"id":34335,"date":"2015-11-16T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T17:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/most-alaska-superdelegates-silent-on-gop-choice\/"},"modified":"2015-11-16T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T17:03:07","slug":"most-alaska-superdelegates-silent-on-gop-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/most-alaska-superdelegates-silent-on-gop-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Alaska superdelegates silent on GOP choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 <\/strong>Most of the Alaska delegates free to support whomever they want as the Democrats\u2019 nominee for president aren\u2019t saying who they think would be the strongest Republican candidate.<\/p>\n

Only one of the state\u2019s four superdelegates, Ian Olson, offered a name when asked which Republican would be the strongest opponent in the general election \u2014 Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Two of the superdelegates deemed the GOP field weak or unimpressive; another said she hoped Republicans would base their decision on who they think would be a good leader.<\/p>\n

Nationally, The Associated Press contacted all 712 superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention next summer, and asked them which Republican they thought would be their party\u2019s strongest opponent in the general election. Superdelegates can support the candidate of their choice regardless of what happens in their states\u2019 primaries or caucuses. Superdelegates are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n

Of the 176 superdelegates who answered the question, 65 said Marco Rubio, a first-term U.S. senator from Florida, would be the Democrats\u2019 strongest opponent; 45 said Kasich and 36 said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Businessman Donald Trump was mentioned by 16 Democratic superdelegates as the candidate who would be the strongest opponent, with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cited by four each.<\/p>\n

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would be the strongest GOP opponent in the eyes of two Democratic superdelegates, while businesswoman Carly Fiorina and former New York Gov. George Pataki each got a vote. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who dropped out of the race, got a vote, too, as did Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee.<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s superdelegates are Olson of Fairbanks; Kim Metcalfe of Juneau; Casey Steinau of Big Lake and state party chair Mike Wenstrup. Wenstrup is the only one of the four to have a preferred Democratic candidate already. Given his position in the party, though, he isn\u2019t publicly endorsing at this point.<\/p>\n

Olson thinks former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton could beat any of the Republican candidates but said Kasich would be one of the most challenging opponents for Democrats because he has a \u201cmore moderate record\u201d and has been governor of a state that is not held strongly by one party or the other. \u201cSo he has worked across party lines, and his record reflects that,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n

Not that Olson agrees with Kasich\u2019s entire record. He also doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s electable in the GOP primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s probably the strongest\u201d Republican, Olson said. \u201cI\u2019d be hard-pressed to figure out a No. 2.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 Most of the Alaska delegates free to support whomever they want as the Democrats\u2019 nominee for president aren\u2019t saying who they think would be the strongest Republican candidate. Only one of the state\u2019s four superdelegates, Ian Olson, offered a name when asked which Republican would be the strongest opponent in the general election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-34335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34335"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}