Big news from Rasmussen Reports today. A new poll of the Alaska senate race (500 LVs, July 17, MOE +/- 4.5%) has Mark Begich up 9% (8% with leaners) over Ted Stevens (June, May and April numbers in parentheses.)

Mark Begich 50 (44, 47, 45)
Ted Stevens 41 (46, 45, 46)

As you can see, this is the first time Rasmussen has Begich with a lead larger than 2% and the first time he has been at the 50% mark.

Rasmussen breaks down the reason for Begich's lead:

One in five Alaskan Republicans (20%) now throw their support behind Begich. The challenger earns 84% support from Democrats in Alaska, while Stevens is backed by 72% of his own party. Among unaffiliated voters, Begich leads by a two-to-one margin. The candidates are relatively even among men but Begich has a twenty-two point advantage among women.

I'm not surprised to see Begich attracting such strong support from non-Democrats. I was able to meet him in Austin and I left our meeting feeling impressed and extremely confident about this race, largely because of Begich's obvious independent streak and his understanding of what it takes for a Democrat to win in Alaska. Begich is Mayor of Anchorage, which includes 43% of the state's population and 70% of the state's media. Traditionally, Democrats do not win in Anchorage, yet not only did Begich win an unlikely mayoral victory in 2003 but he won an overwhelming re-election in 2006. Anchorage is also a travel hub for Alaskans who don't live there and Begich said he is consistently approached by residents from all over the state and all over the partisan spectrum who tell him how impressed they've been with what he's done in the city.

Despite his "what you see is what you get" sort of everyman quality, Begich is really savvy about messaging and seems to me to be single-handedly branding himself AND the Democratic Party as synonymous with competence and progress, which is a perfect combination running against a man who has been in the senate for 28 years and whose home has been raided by the FBI. There was a lot of talk in Austin about downticket races helping Obama throughout the country in November just as much as Obama will help them and I think the Alaska senate race is a perfect example of that.

So, please help Mark Begich build on his momentum with a donation at our Road To 60 Act Blue page.

Also, you can watch a TPM interview with Begich below:

And here's one of Mark Begich's ads that's been running for the last two weeks.