Sen. Murkowski to Announce Write-In Campaign Within Hours

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign office, largely dormant since her loss to teabagger Joe Miller in the August GOP primary, is coming back to life yesterday and today, with signs being put into delivery trucks and this e-mail announcement Friday morning:

"Join us at the Kick-off of Senator Lisa's campaign -- with a theme of "write in her name in and fill in the oval."

"Denai'na Convention Center, third floor and hopefully out on the sunny deck, 5 pm. Bring your family including children, friends and business associates. We plan to make history!"

Alaska progressive blogger, Steve Aufrecht obtained photos yesterday of Murkowski campaign workers recovering large, 4' X 8' signs from an Anchorage recycling depot.

Let the three-way U.S. Senate race begin.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Juneau, Teabagger Joe and Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams had their first post-primary faceoff, in a Chamber of Commerce forum that was supposed to concentrate on problems unique to Southeast Alaska. The local paper, the Juneau Empire covered the debate from that angle:

The two hottest politicians in the state, Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller and his Democratic counterpart Scott McAdams, appeared in Juneau to debate before a packed Chamber of Commerce audience Thursday

The group heard Republican nominee Miller offer a conditional approach to keeping Juneau as the state capital, calling it a state decision, in contrast to McAdams' unequivocal support.

Miller said studies suggest it would not make economic sense to move the capital, and the state government currently wants it in Juneau.

"The state supports it and therefore I do," Miller said.

"Over my dead body," McAdams said of a capital move, saying it could have negative effects all throughout Southeast Alaska, including increased shipping costs and decreased plane flights, if the capital were lost.

But then the Chamber audience, long backers of a road north out of Juneau, heard Miller give strong support for the Juneau Access Project while McAdams waffled.

"I absolutely support it," Miller said, but said the local community also needs to support it as well. It is hard to open up new rights of way without strong local support, he said.

Rolling back environmental regulations make such projects more costly and lengthy, but Miller said his efforts at regulatory relief will also make such projects more likely to happen.

"Unequivocally I support it," he said.

McAdams, mayor of the island community of Sitka, didn't answer moderator Richard Burns question about the road, but instead talked of his support for ferries, a common strategy for road opponents over the years.

"I'm a big Marine Highway guy," he said, without saying whether he was for or against the road.

The Associated Press covered the forum from a different perspective:

The tone was set early, with McAdams taking aim at Miller, and Miller sticking close to his talking points.

McAdams has cast himself as a centrist against Miller, a self-described constitutional conservative.

Miller has said the federal government is on the brink of bankruptcy, the era of big spending and earmarks is over and that Alaska must be weaned from its dependency on the government. He advocates that the state be given the ability to develop its resource base -- and, therefore, to take greater control of its own future.

McAdams said the state deserves its fair share and that saying no to earmarks is a threat to Alaska.

Murkowski's entry into the race this evening will change the landscape of this contest markedly. Polls of a possible three-way contest, taken immediately after Murkowski's concession, showed her winning a three-way race as a candidate representing an established party. No recent polls have yet been released, but there will probably be fresh ones out by Sunday afternoon. The history of write-in campaign candidates on Alaska shows little hope for Murkowski, even in a three-way battle.

On Wednesday, a 527 group, America for Americans (disclosure - I'm helping them raise money for this campaign), came out with an anti-Miller TV ad: