Bob Poe to Challenge Sarah Palin for Governor

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- If Gov. Sarah Palin decides to run for a second term, at least one person has come forward to say he's ready to battle it out.

Democrat Bob Poe said he plans to seek his party's nomination for the next gubernatorial election in 2010.

Poe is a former state commissioner, and he previously served as the CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation.

He said he's ready to take on the state's top job, and he's doing it, in part, because Palin hasn't been paying enough attention to the needs of the state.

"It's a really big deal to most Alaskans how our economy moves forward and the role state government has in that," Poe said. "I'm concerned that right now there's not much attention to running state government, there's a lot of attention to running for something else."

Source: KTUU News

This should prove an interesting test for Governor Palin. If she intends to seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012, she will have to begin spending some serious time on that effort in 2010.