Celebrity pundit James Carville shares his thoughts on Alaska’s political races

On an ordinary August night in the year of a presidential election, James Carville would be out at rallies, firing up Democrats and sitting in for round-the-clock punditry on CNN.

Monday night, Carville had just come off a rally on Zoom with Texas Democrats and as midnight approached at his home in Virginia, the political analyst and author, who made his name as Bill Clinton’s lead strategist in his unlikely run to the White House, still had plenty of enthusiasm for talking politics.

Suffice it to say, the ragin’ contagion is no match for the Ragin’ Cajun, cabin fever being what it is.

“All this Zoom, it just drives me crazy,” Carville said in his trademark Louisiana drawl. “I can’t hug anybody. I want to just do something — I’m an emotional guy, but I’ve just got to deal with it.”

As Carville was examining the races setting up nationwide back in 2019, one race in Alaska drew his attention as a potential upset of a Republican incumbent no one was talking about.

“I think Alaska is going to make some real history in this election. I’m a horse player and I found an early exacta in the Missouri governor’s race and Al Gross,” Carville said of the U.S. Senate race that pits the former surgeon from southeast Alaska against Dan Sullivan. “If you pause and handicap the races — everyone knows about North Carolina, Arizona and Maine and I think the Democrats will do well there, but I think there’s a real call for change in Alaska and I think that’s going to produce some surprising results.”

With the primaries a week away — Sullivan running unopposed in the Republican, and Gross getting a late challenge from Edgar Blatchford in the Democratic, even after the AK Dems had pledged their support to the Independent Gross — polls show the two running virtually neck-and-neck, this despite Gross’ limited name recognition and the challenges to door-knocking brought on by Covid.

Though the virus has frustrated traditional efforts, phones still work, and hitting them hard, the Gross campaign raised more than $3 million going into the primary season.

But why would Alaskans want to change junior senators in midstream? After all, Sullivan has the look of a successful politician you’d expect from central casting, along with distinguished service in the Marines and a law degree from Georgetown.

“It’s because (Sullivan) is tied to what is currently going on in America. People are decidedly unhappy with the status quo and Dan Sullivan is a big supporter of the United States as it exists today,” Carville said. “I don’t think people in the country, or people in Alaska want that.”

Being in the shadow of senior Senator and everyone’s favorite swing vote, Lisa Murkowski, doesn’t help Sullivan either, Carville said.

“Everybody knows who Murkowski is, but the problem with Dan Sullivan is nobody even knows who he is,” Carville said. “Dan Sullivan is a not particularly significant, he’s a loyal sycophant to Donald Trump and I think people are looking for something different.”

Carville is somewhat less confident that the change wave will be enough to bump off Alaska’s lone congress person Don Young, but he believes it could help challenger Alyse Galvin get over the top after she lost to the longest-sitting member of Congress by just six points in 2018.

“I think Al has a really good chance to win; I think Biden has a reasonable chance to win Alaska, and if that happens, Don Young is much more status quo than Dan Sullivan, so if you’re one of those very status quo people, Don Young is kind of the ultimate keep-the-Republican-Party-the-way-it-is kind of guy.”

Covid-willing, Carville hopes to visit Alaska to help Gross campaign, but the chances of that happening diminish by the day.

“I’d just love to come there; I hope this thing affords me the opportunity,” Carville said. “The time I went there it was an amazing place and I would come up and start a campaign with Al anytime I could. Maybe he could help me with my late-stage arthritis.”

Carville said his previous visit to Alaska came via cruise ship. “My wife and I went to speak on a cruise ship — it was kind of a 1-percenter kind of deal,” Carville recalled. “It was April and it was just unbelievable watching these icebergs calve. Alaska is just a remarkable place. It’s admittedly, and kind of proudly, quirky and I think that’s kind of what I like about it.”

Carville and his wife Mary Matalin, have long been a curiosity in the world of political celebrity with Carville being a devout Democrat and Matalin equally as Republican, having worked in the Reagan White House and was the campaign director for George H.W. Bush. Carville did not wish to offer an opinion about his wife’s thoughts on what’s become of the Republican Party in the Trump era.

“Whether you’re from Louisiana or Alaska, one thing we all learn is that we don’t speak for our wives,” he said. “That’s a common phenomenon that if I say something about her — it’s not going to be pretty.”

As an unapologetic Democrat, Carville takes no offense in Gross nor Galvin both maintaining an independent label.

“Bernie Sanders isn’t a Democrat; (Maine Senator) Angus King isn’t a Democrat,” Carville countered. “But if Al Gross or Angus King believe in the promise of America, I’m fine with that.”