Scott McAdams has filed papers to begin his candidacy for Senate in Alaska pitting himself against Lisa Murkowski and providing an excellent opportunity to turn Alaska blue for the first time.
I feel especially compelled to voice my support for Scott because he is the mayor of Sitka, my hometown. Sitka is a small community of 8500 in Southeast Alaska, it has fourteen miles of road with an economy based largely on commercial fishing and tourism.
Lisa Murkowski was appointed to her seat in 2002 after her father won the Governorship and nominated her to fill his Senate seat, a travesty of law since rectified, and held her seat in 2004 by a slim margin on the assumption that a Democratic victory would result in a loss of pork for the state of Alaska. (She is after all from Ketchikan home to the infamours "Bridge to Nowhere")
She is by most current definitions a moderate Republican, but has unfailingly supported Big Oil and its hold on Alaskas politics.
This alone justifies an all out effort to replace her with a Democrat. She has been a leader in preventing the increase in BP's liability cap, despite representing a state that should empathize with the Billions in lost revenue that an oil spill will inevitably cause. She knows first hand of the 20 year litigation forced by the endless appeals process. The pain of trying to wrest even modest payments for fishermen in the face of Big Oil. Yet she continues to defend their bottom line.
I'm sure that Scott will have plenty to say for himself, but as a fellow Sitkan and Alaskan, I would encourage everyone to pay utmost attention to this race. I'm sure he will make an excellent candidate and a wonderful Senator.