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This Democrat Is Itching To Run Against Sarah Palin for Governor

CQ Photo

Ethan Berkowitz

The Alaska Democrat who almost toppled Rep. Don Young last year is gearing up for another statewide race — against Gov. Sarah Palin , if she chooses to run for re-election.

“My sights are now on the governor’s race,” Ethan Berkowitz, a former leader of the Democratic minority in the state House, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.  

In 2008, Republican Young defeated Berkowitz by a 5 percentage-point margin — a difference of 16,379 votes — after easily topping his 2006 Democratic opponent by nearly 17 points and nearly 40,000 votes, and winning a landslide victory as recently as 2004 by nearly 50 points and 150,000 votes.  

Two years before his 2008 House race, Berkowitz ran for lieutenant governor; the Republican ticket of Palin for governor and Sean Parnell for lieutenant governor defeated the Democratic ticket of former Gov. Tony Knowles and Berkowitz, 48.3 percent to 41 percent.

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