When he gave a speech announcing his withdrawal from the election, Gov. Bill Walker told his audience that they should support Democratic candidate Mark Begich.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Walker’s campaign said the incumbent’s support of Begich has its limits.<\/p>\n
In a message to supporters, Walker campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Hobson wrote, “Independent expenditure groups are running advertisements that go far beyond the scope of these areas of alignment into areas where I am not necessarily aligned with Mr. Begich. I have asked that these ads be immediately edited or removed. However, anyone with questions as to where I stand on the issues of this election should look solely to my statement on October 19.”<\/p>\n
By phone, Hobson said the message refers to a minute-long radio ad that included Walker’s support for Begich and touched on Begich’s support for abortion rights.<\/p>\n
That is “definitely not an area where they see eye to eye,” Hobson said.<\/p>\n
Walker explained his views on abortion in a September opinion column<\/a> in the Anchorage Daily News, saying, “It is not secret that I am personally pro-life.” He went on to say that he believes the Alaska Constitution’s privacy protections preserve abortion rights.<\/p>\n Begich has said believes that too, but he thinks the Alaska Legislature can pass legislation to “whittle <\/a>away”<\/a> at abortion rights, which is why it is important to have a governor who is willing to veto such legislation.<\/p>\n While the Walker campaign contacted the group behind the ad over the weekend, it issued a statement because some Alaskans had already heard it, she said.<\/p>\n “The governor’s support of Mark Begich — it’s narrow,” Hobson said.<\/p>\n While Walker and Begich “do see eye to eye on the economy, the (Permanent Fund Dividend), the gasline … on other issues, they do not see eye to eye, and to take that narrow scope of support and extend it to a universal endorsement is inappropriate,” she said.<\/p>\n On Oct. 19 at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage, Walker declared that it had “become clear we cannot win a three-way race” and “Alaskans deserve a competitive race. Alaskans deserve a choice other than Mike Dunleavy.”<\/p>\n He warned that Dunleavy’s election would mean the elimination of an expanded Medicaid program, an end to the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline and a reversal of “the bipartisan approved sustained fiscal plan.”<\/p>\n Walker’s campaign has told supporters to take down their yard signs, but a spokeswoman for the Begich campaign said by email that interaction between the two groups has been minimal.<\/p>\n “Some staff reached out during transition either about logistics like yard signs or potential volunteer opportunities,” wrote Nora Morse by email, adding in a subsequent message that there have been no high-level conversations.<\/p>\n Fundraising<\/strong><\/p>\n In the days since Walker’s withdrawal from the race, Begich has seen a surge in fundraising support, though he still trails Republican candidate Mike Dunleavy by a significant amount.<\/p>\n Dunleavy is supported by several multimillion-dollar independent expenditure groups, such as Dunleavy for Alaska, which had spent $915,000 by Oct. 5, and the Republican Governors’ Association-backed Families for Alaska’s Future, which had reported $2.7 million in contributions by Oct. 8.<\/p>\n Begich is seeing some support from a group that formerly backed Walker. The indpendent group called Unite Alaska for Walker transferred more than a quarter-million dollars<\/a> to a new group calling itself Alaskans Opposing Dunleavy. That group was created four days after Walker’s withdrawal from the campaign<\/a>, and its treasurer is the same person behind the Walker group.<\/p>\n