Scott McAdams is kicking ass at Alaska Dispatch's debate

[Blue_In_AK]

Joe was too chicken to show up, but Scott and Lisa are going at it. The questioners are demanding answers, with lots of follow-up, and Scott and Lisa are able to ask each other questions, as well. I'll post a link later for anyone who is interested. It's pretty good stuff.

http://alaskadispatch.com/

(They're on intermission right now.)

[HipChick]

1. Miller is a blow hard..

seems to share this with other Teabaggers

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Scott just keeps getting better and better.

The format of this debate was very unscripted, and I was happy to see how quick his responses, and with GREAT humor. He's really a very amicable, funny guy, while making tons of sense.

[pacalo]

4. Was there any mention of the "arrest" last night?

Seems like someone could have asked the candidates' thoughts about freedom of the press, etc.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Only indirectly.

The debate was actually on real issues and Miller was hardly discussed except that both Lisa and Scott agreed that Miller would be totally wrong for Alaska. Both candidates were respectful, and provided thoughtful answers, and the moderators followed up so that each one's positions were crystal-clear. The differences are very obvious.

Lisa got jammed up quite a bit about her corporate and PAC donations. Scott pointed out that he has not received any PAC money, and if he runs for re-election in six years, he won't accept PAC money then. He pointed out that you don't need millions of dollars to win a campaign in Alaska, and promised to work on campaign finance reform if he's elected, saying that corporate money in our elections is one of the major problems we face today.

He really is very good. I'm hoping that clips from this debate will be available on line. It lasted over two hours, but even bits and pieces would be good for people to see.

[pacalo]

6. You have been an invaluable resource for information about this most interesting campaign!

Thanks much, Blue!

Btw, did you read the article at the Dispatch site about the arrest incident? I went to the link you provided in your OP.

Miller is claiming the school required him to hire security, but the school's spokeswoman said that wasn't true. The school only requires that the door be monitored for those attempting to bring in food or drinks.

Interesting, don't you think? Why did he lie & who really paid for those goons?

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Excellent questions.

Everyone agrees that no candidate before in state history has ever felt the need for security. Miller seems to require it everywhere. Did you see the videos of him and his people in the Fairbanks Independence Day parade? They were all carrying assault rifles and pistols strapped to their legs. Miller was riding in a Hummer. No joke. And Miller has been seen with a security entourage at Republican Party functions, as well, as early as 2008.

In campaigns in the past, whenever events were held the campaign would usually have volunteers who directed traffic or answered questions, whatever -- never the need for a security detail. Everyone here is really just flabbergasted at Miller's behavior.

And, of course, he was the empty chair at tonight's debate, an empty chair between Scott and Lisa. It was glaring that he wasn't there, the "duly elected" nominee of the Republican Party. He says he had another engagement, and I'm sure someone will dig up what it was. My guess is he was just too chicken to face what was most likely a liberal audience -- or at least moderate, since Lisa did seem to have some supporters there. No Miller people, though, which is why the debate was so good.



ed. Oh, and thank you for being interested in Alaska's senatorial race. It really is one for the books.

[grantcart]

8. agreed on your valuable updates.

Question: I saw a political commentator discussing Kentucky and he made the point that the people there were conservative and all but they also never liked electing someone who would make them look stupid to people in the rest of the country and that they would vote for someone more liberal to avoid voting for someone that would make them look foolish.

Is there any of that sensibility in Alaska or is it more like Idaho where they don't care if the rest of the country thinks they voted for an idiot?

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Oh, no, we're very, very embarrassed by Sarah Palin,

but as I've pointed out elsewhere, she played a real con game on us here, so we were duped. The person you see today screeching on your TV bears no resemblance to the woman who presented herself to us as a reformer in 2006. And I do mean NO RESEMBLANCE. It's almost enough to make you wonder if she didn't have some kind of mental break -- but instead of being committed as she should have been, they've given her millions of dollars. It makes no sense.

But people here really aren't all that conservative. I would say that "real" Alaskans could more accurately be described as progressive libertarians. Back before Palin and her dominionist cohorts, even our Republicans were more interested in privacy rights and liberal social stands - pro-choice, anti-death penalty, and so on. We've even had legal pot here since 1975, so we were way ahead on that one. We had a civil rights law enacted in 1945, 20 years before the rest of the US. Alaska's really progressive in a lot of ways. We just got kind of complacent in the days of Ted and Don, and were caught completely off guard by the religious fervor of the Palinbots.

Another interesting fact about Alaska -- we regularly come in either 49th or 50th on the "most religious state" scales.

[savalez]

10. Very interesting stuff Blue_In_AK. Tell me, what are the chances of...

Miller pulling off a win? I've seen the polls but I'd like to hear from someone who lives there. Thanks.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. If he wins, I will be very, very surprised.

There are a couple of reasons why he won the primary, despite Lisa's apparent huge lead leading up to it. Lisa says, and I tend to believe her, that she was rather devastated by the death of her mentor Ted Stevens and three other friends of hers in the plane crash on August 10, right before the primary. There was the mourning, the funeral, etc. etc. It was during this time that the Tea Party Express came in here and bombarded the airwaves with anti-Lisa ads, accusing her of being a librul, RINO, Democrat-loving socialist. So many people don't pay attention to a senator's voting record -- the truth is that Lisa voted with Mitch McConnell 90% of the time over the past two years -- but Lisa just didn't have time or the heart to counteract the accusations, assuming that everyone would know Joe was lying.

The second factor was that there was an initiative on the primary ballot dealing with parental notification in the case of teenage abortions, strongly supported by Miller (who doesn't believe in abortion even for cases of rape and incest) and Mead Treadwell, the R lt. governor candidate. Lisa IS on the record in support of a woman's right to choose, and especially in support of allowing abortion in those extreme cases, so the fundies came out in droves to vote for the initiative (which passed) and against the "baby-killer" Murkowski in the Republican primary.

The morning after the election, Republicans who had failed to vote in the primary because they thought Lisa was safe woke up to their worst nightmare. That's when the push for the write-in began. Lisa took a couple of weeks to make up her mind, shopped around to see if the Libertarians or someone else would substitute her on their ticket, and finally announced her write-in campaign two weeks later. During that time, Scott McAdams gained considerable momentum as the anti-Joe and built up his campaign finances.

Joe has done nothing but implode since the primary with one gaffe after another. I've read many comments at the ADN site saying that if they had known what a crackpot he was, they never would have voted for him. This latest deal with the security guards and Tony Hopfinger has pissed just about everyone off. I think he's going to be left with only his most hard-core Nazi base.

So -- I see this as a race between Lisa and Scott. There is plenty to differentiate the two, so if Dems and left-leaning indies vote their consciences, now that they don't have to be so afraid of Joe, the big bad wolf, I think we stand a really good chance. Write-ins are really tough to win.

[savalez]

12. Sounds good to me. I appreciate your first-hand perspective on this.

Thank you for the detailed post.