Republicans hold pep rally in the Valley

WASILLA — Lt. Gov. Loren Leman told local Republican supporters he’s expecting a record turnout of voters in the Nov. 2 election, but encouraged every attendee at the Rally in the Valley Tuesday at Evangelo’s in Wasilla to do everything possible to get friends and neighbors to the polls.

“I don’t believe the race for president in Alaska will be close,” Leman said. “I don’t think there’s an election that’s as important as the [U.S.] Senate election.”

Most of the speakers — including U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a second-term Republican senator from Pennsylvania — said it was critical to the ongoing efforts of the state to elect U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in November.

“She’s a great member of our team — she’s a great member of the Alaska team,” Santorum said. “She did diligent homework to go around to all the people in key positions, to make sure they understand how ... important [the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline] was to this state.”

Santorum said aside from the pipeline project, other appropriations — including one he requested for his state — were gutted from Congress’ energy bill.

Although many who organized the event Tuesday have also been involved in Murkowski’s campaign, both locally and statewide, other candidates in Valley races had a chance to stump for votes and report on campaign progress at the rally as well. The Valley delegation, with incumbents in one Senate and three House seats up for election, spoke a message of unity — and one of vigilant voter participation.

“It is so important for you, your spouse, your children, your neighbors to vote,” Rep. Carl Gatto admonished attendees. “It hurts me to think that, in this group, only 50 percent will show up [to vote]. We need to simply get big numbers — and if we do that, we will prevail.”

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.