Related: Alaska Murky About Election Rules
ANCHORAGE — The reprise of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is cobbling together a write-in campaign after being beaten in the GOP primary, is the biggest surprise in a series of shocks that have rocked the frontier politics of Alaska. Here, the three-way race for US Senate has the feel of surreal political theater, at times enthralling and baffling voters.
The winner of the Republican primary, Joe Miller, has an ad showing him walking through the woods in a lumberjack shirt, wielding moose antlers — he asserts that Murkowski changes positions on issues more often than moose shed their antlers (which, according to the National Park Service, is every fall, after the breeding season).
On the Democratic ticket, former commercial fisherman Scott McAdams is working hard to grab attention, with ads that spoof his time working on a fishing boat with a Norwegian captain.
“After you’ve been cursed at in Norwegian, you can take on anyone,’’ he says in one spot.
And Murkowski is distributing fliers with pictures of cows and skis in an effort to teach voters how to spell her name.
“It’s a very interesting race, no question; a lot of fun,’’ said Carl Shepro, a political science professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.
The fun aside, the race is turning into a bare-fisted rematch between Miller and Murkowski, with polls suggesting that they are in a statistical dead heat in the mid-30s and McAdams in the mid-20s. It has several intriguing subplots, including one pitting the Old Guard of the Republican Party against the vanguard melding of Tea Party movement and GOP ideas, championed by Miller and his backer, Sarah Palin, the former governor.
You have to start somewhere, and it is ESTABLISHMENT OUT! INCUMBENT OUT!
In addition, the race has history-making potential. If Murkowski wins, she would be the first candidate in the country to win a write-in bid for US senator since Strom Thurmond from South Carolina in 1954.
That's why I'm sensing a steal.
To Alaskans, though, what matters is how the next senator will deal with federal funding, regulations, and land use....
Miller, a father of eight from Fairbanks and a friend of Palin’s husband, Todd, is appealing to those Alaskans, saying he wants to return federal lands and programs to state control. He also wants to wean Alaska from its reliance on federal money — nearly 40 percent of the economy relies on it. His message has resonated with an independent sensibility indigenous to the state nicknamed “the last frontier.’’
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But the specter of cutting off federal funding has energized its recipients. Several native tribal organizations have formed a super political action committee called Alaskans Standing Together, which has sunk $1 million into supporting Murkowski. The organizations, known as native corporations, are for-profit companies that receive no-bid federal contracts. They accounted for nine of the top 10 companies in the state last year, according to Alaska Business Monthly....
She's their rep, huh?
Murkowski could face some problems with the tabulation of write-in ballots. Murkowski’s opponents could challenge each write-in vote that is not spelled properly or is irregular.
Election officials will rule based on voter intent, potentially echoing the hanging chads debacle in Florida after the 2000 presidential race.
An informal survey of a dozen Alaskans in downtown Anchorage last week found four out of 12 could not spell Murkowski correctly. “M-u-r-c-o-s-k-i-e?’’ “M-u-r-k-i-o-s-i.’’ “M-u-r-k-s-k-i?’’
This country has really been dumbed-down to the max.
“Can I have a hint?’’ asked Steven Libardi, a 35-year-old Anchorage resident manning a skin care kiosk in the Fifth Avenue mall.
A construction worker outside got it right. Duane Shockley, 42, said he has seen Murkowski signs all over town, but he also credited his heritage.
“I’m a little bit Polish,’’ he said.
Yeah, it is OKAY to INSULT THEM with RACIST COMMENTS!
I'm offended because I AM of Polish heritage!
But I am AMERICAN FIRST and FOREMOST!
McAdams, who has steered clear of the Miller-Murkowski battle, gave up his job as mayor of Sitka, an island community in southeast Alaska, to run for Senate. He is a burly former football coach whose tribal name, Keét Yiyaágu, means “Boat Size Killer Whale.’’
In a Winnebago plastered with McAdams signs, the Democrat said in an interview that Alaska “is more than the stereotype one might draw from the Palin experience.’’ He said there are lots of voters who embrace the traditional Democratic ideals that he espouses —“community-minded Alaskans that don’t buy into this Joe Miller view of the world.’’
As for his ad bragging about his ability to withstand a cursing out by a Norwegian captain, he said, “We try to have a sense of humor here.’’
“We’re certainly not trying to run a standup comedy routine here, but we’re having fun,’’ he said.
That's why he's in third.
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