Frank Bickford, the Anchorage campaign coordinator for the Yes on One campaign, said he recently found himself in traffic behind a car sporting a No on One bumper sticker. It looked uncannily like one he designed, he said, but he shrugged off the similarities: Maybe the driver had somehow doctored a Yes on One sticker.

As it turns out, the No on One side has produced a nearly identical sticker. Both are green, both have a regal moose posed before a lake, and both say, ''Protect Alaska's Wildlife.''

''It's kind of weird,'' Bickford said.

Dune Lankard, the No on One campaign manager, said the stickers aren't exactly the same. ''Our's is a lot darker green, the moose is standing differently, and ours says 'no' and theirs says 'yes,' '' he said.

There's one other difference. The No on One campaign added the words ''And Our Constitution'' below ''Protect Alaska's Wildlife.''

The copycatting was just tit for tat, Lankard said. ''We thought it was ridiculous that they stole our message, 'Protect Alaska's Wildlife.' . . . That's how the bumper sticker came to be.''

Palin on fence on tax cap

Just where does Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin stand on the statewide property tax initiative?

The Kodiak Daily Mirror, covering the Alaska Conference of Mayors meeting there last week, reported Palin, the group's incoming president, was having second thoughts about the tax cap.

Palin is one of the 40,000 Alaskans who signed petitions to get the measure on the November ballot. She now believes voters will reject it, and she can understand why.

''As the weeks have gone by, I've seen more of the potential problems,'' Palin told reporter Heidi Zemach. Among them is the loss of local control, she said, which would be especially hard on rural cities and boroughs.

But in Wasilla this week, where sentiment is usually pretty strong against government spending and taxes, Palin struggled to stay perched on the fence as she negotiated traffic during a car-phone interview.

''I'm certainly not wavering in my support of it being on the ballot,'' Palin declared.

Does that mean she'd vote for it?

''I still have five more weeks to make up my mind, like everybody's trying to do,'' Palin said. ''I wish it were not a statewide issue.''

Palin said she has declined requests by Tax Cap Yes to speak in favor of the initiative. Yet, she said, she doesn't object to her name's continuing to be listed on the group's Web site among 10 current or former government officials -- half from Mat-Su -- in support of the initiative.

Palin acknowledged that she was sounding quite the politician. ''I am so sorry I'm such a weasel,'' she said.

Bunde campaigns at roadside

Con Bunde: another roadside attraction.

Lots of incumbents use their elected office in some form to campaign for re-election. Con Bunde is just more upfront about it than most.

The four-term state representative spent many evenings over the past month parking his pickup at the side of the road with a sign leaning against the lowered tailgate that reads: ''If you have any questions about the Legislature, stop, let's talk.''

''This is the second campaign I believe I've done this,'' said 62-year-old Bunde, a former UAA professor.

Campaigning by knocking on doors doesn't really work in House District 18, which runs from between Abbott Road and Abbott Loop Road in Anchorage down to Portage, Bunde said. This way, he can talk to about half a dozen people a night, he said.

Cold calling might be safer. He said he thought a moose was charging him one recent evening, but the young bull ran headfirst into a van passing by instead. Afterward, the moose was dazed but alive, Bunde said.

His opponent, 64-year-old Pat Abney, isn't complaining. She's had plenty of exposure after nine years on the Assembly and prefers meeting her would-be constituents the old-fashioned way.

''I'm going door to door and shaking people's hands so they know who I am and what I stand for,'' she said.

Campaign Notebook will appear regularly before the Nov. 7 general election. Daily News reporters Elizabeth Manning, Richard Mauer and Tim Pryor contributed to this report. They can be reached at emanning@adn.com, rmauer@adn.com and tpryor@adn.com.

(Published: October 8, 2000)





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