http://www.adn.com/article/20141104/poll...-us-senate-race

Baggage trying to figure how he can cheat....

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan appeared to grab an insurmountable lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich early Wednesday, with all of Alaska's precincts reporting.

With results from all 441 precincts counted, Sullivan led 49 percent to 45 percent. The margin remained essentially the same from the first returns early in the evening.


Speaking just after midnight at his election night party in a packed ballroom at the Hotel Captain Cook, Sullivan praised his supporters and told them: “We are taking back our country!”

“We’re still going to be respectful of the process,” Sullivan said. But he nonetheless touted Republicans’ successes in Senate races across the country Tuesday, and to hearty cheers, he proclaimed that the party had sidelined Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate.

“We’re going to take back America, the land that we love,” Sullivan said, as the crowd erupted in chants of “USA! USA!”

Shortly before midnight, Begich’s campaign issued a statement saying he wouldn't be commenting on the race until all the rural Alaska precincts were counted.

The Senate race was the costliest campaign in Alaska's history, with more than $50 million spent by the two major candidates and the groups that supported them. The race was viewed as potentially pivotal in flipping control of the Senate out of the hands of Democrats.

But by the time polls closed in Alaska, control of the Senate was already decided, with Republicans winning key races in Colorado, Arkansas, North Carolina and Iowa. And as they awaited results, Sullivan supporters at his party joked they were expecting the arrival of a Republican “red bore tide” in Alaska.

“We saw a wave today,” said Sullivan’s political consultant, Mike Dubke.

With votes from some precincts still uncounted early Wednesday, Sullivan’s campaign hadn’t officially declared victory.

Tens of thousands of additional votes won’t be counted until next week, at the earliest, state election officials said. That includes some 20,000 absentee votes the state hadn’t counted as of Tuesday evening -- and even more absentee ballots will continue to arrive through a Nov. 19 deadline. There are also an unspecified number of so-called “questioned ballots” -- typically cast by people who voted at the wrong polling place -- of which there were approximately 13,000 in the last midterm election, in 2010.

But Democrats would need a huge advantage among those uncounted voters to close Sullivan’s lead, which sat above 8,000 votes.

Begich left his party, at a downtown pizzeria, without speaking to media, and several outlets reported he would not concede election night.

A statement from his campaign shortly before midnight said: "Sen. Begich is proud to have run the most extensive campaign in rural Alaska's history and to have stood for the rights of Alaska Natives and rural Alaska. Begich will make a statement on the race after counts arrive from the 70 outstanding villages," and when the number of outstanding ballots is clear.

Speaking to supporters earlier, Begich compared the evening to his successful bid for Senate in 2008, when he won by 4,000 votes despite trailing by 3,000 on election night.

"I tell people, it's never over until the last counts of the last votes, and that includes bush Alaska," Begich said.

In an interview, however, his wife, Deborah Bonito, acknowledge the wide margin between Begich and Sullivan.

"Oh, I think it's looking really tough," Bonito said. But, she added: "It always looks that way."

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