This Democrat Is Itching To Run Against Sarah Palin for Governor
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.
