Only two weeks stand between candidates for 50 state House and Senate seats and Election Day, but many voters probably haven't seen or heard much about them yet. Those ubiquitous, everything for everyone political ads are just beginning to hit the airwaves.
Why?
Money, in part, and a bombastic political climate that so far has made it hard to get a word in.
Not as much is being donated to political campaigns this year, and much of what is available is going to the high profile, highly contested races for the U.S. House and Senate, political consultants and pollsters say.
The state's senior Republicans -- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who's so far spent the campaign season on trial in Washington, D.C., and 18-term incumbent Congressman Don Young, who's under investigation -- face their most serious challenges in years from Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and former legislator Ethan Berkowitz, both Democrats.
Then there's Gov. Sarah Palin, who has spent the last seven weeks crisscrossing the country and hogging headlines, both in her new role as Republican John McCain's vice presidential running mate, and as the target of investigations here looking into the propriety of her dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner.
That Wall Street meltdown doesn't help much, either.
Read the full story at adn.com.