October 1, 2014 — As the two candidates prepare for a debate Wednesday in Kodiak over fisheries, Begich is counting on strong support from the multibillion-dollar industry, which employs more than 30,000 people statewide.
The difference in reception for the two U.S. Senate candidates was stark.
The Republican, Dan Sullivan, got 45 minutes Friday morning to make his pitch to the United Fishermen of Alaska’s board of directors in a dimly lit hotel conference room in Anchorage — a pitch that at best would draw just a few votes away from his opponent, incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, whom the group had endorsed months earlier.
Begich, by contrast, was invited to give the keynote address Friday night at the UFA’s glitzy 40th anniversary banquet, where he presented a fish-centric stump speech and described how he’d gone to bat for attendees by fighting against genetically modified salmon and illegal fishing in Alaska waters.
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