The state elections division in Alaska has a schedule for counting absentee ballots, and it's a stretched out one, kind of like the state. The first count of absentees not received by election day will be Aug. 31, the next Sept. 3, and the final one on Sept. 8. Getting ballots, which only had to be postmarked by Tuesday, in from overseas and from remote parts of the state takes a while. As of now, Miller has a lead of 1,668 votes over Murkowski. She'd have to get about 60% of the absentee vote to pull this out. Or run as a third party candidate, which apparently is under consideration.
Which leaves the way clear for Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams, the Dem nominee, to ramp up his campaign. That's a little harder to do without knowing precisely who his opponent is, but it looks like he's betting on it being Miller.
He invited people who supported Murkowski to consider joining his campaign. It's a rejection of Miller's tea party-tinged message, McAdams said.
"I believe we are the moderate, rational, practical campaign, not the campaign of extreme measures and 19th century ideology," McAdams said. "Not only do they say no to progress in the form of things like developing Alaska through congressionally vetted appropriations, but they also say no to social progress. ... The Tea Party has been clear in rejecting the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and other great progress our society has made."
The likely upset on the Republican side came as such a shock to national Dems and the traditional media, who hadn't paid any attention to Alaska that they immediately began talking about whether they should get a higher profile Dem in the race. Sen. Mark Begich seemed to put that speculation to rest by giving McAdams his full support.
...McAdams has the full support of Democrat Mark Begich, who two years ago pulled off his own successful upset of a Republican senator, Ted Stevens. Begich on Wednesday had this to say of McAdams: "I like what I see."
"Welcome to Alaskan politics, anything can happen, everything's viable," Begich said. "It doesn't take a lot of money, but it takes someone who is committed and hard working and can run a campaign. So I tell people and I've been telling people that this race shouldn't be discounted out and has potential."
....
Begich wouldn't say who he had been speaking to at the national level to encourage their support of a Democratic Senate candidate in Alaska. But he did say that since his 2008 win, "they realized that we actually knew what we were talking about up here."
"I'm just talking to who whoever wants to listen," Begich said. "If they believe in Alaska's future, I'm happy to tell them what I think."
This race is starting to bring reminders of Montana in 2006. Over at Swing State, James L. (in a very good overview piece) links to this post at Mudflats that fills in some gaps.
Scott McAdams, little known to Alaskans outside the southeast pan-handle, is a popular small town mayor. He runs the city of Sitka and has balanced budgets, focused on education, served on the school board, and has even figured out how to sell water to India. He was a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat all over the state, and is all the kinds of things that Sarah Palin said she was, before the media began to shine a flashlight in all the dark corners. He’s a “real Alaskan” in the style of the politicians of old, before oil was discovered and turned a libertarian blue state reddish.
I say redd-ish because despite the meme that Alaska is ruby red, and that it’s full of a bunch of Palin-style conservatives, Alaska is actually very... plum-colored. Democrats have an equal number in the state senate, and in November stand a good chance of getting a decisive majority in both the senate and the house. It has one Democratic Senator and one Republican Senator. Before Frank Murkowski and Sarah Palin, Alaska had a two-term Democratic governor. The Anchorage Assembly has a progressive majority. It’s a complicated state.
McAdams who unlike Miller, is a fiscally conservative moderate Democrat, has executive experience, was born and raised in Alaska, and has worked with his hands in the fishing industry, suddenly finds himself with an incredible opportunity. One could even say that attorney and Yale Law grad Joe Miller who was born and raised “Outside” is kind of “elite,” while McAdams is all about Alaska, and “real people.”
Alaska, politically, is a lot like Montana--"plum-colored." Being "real Montana" was one of the things that put Jon Tester into the U.S. Senate. People were actually talking about the fact that incumbent Conrad Burns, who'd been in the state for decades, was actually from Missouri. Being "real Alaska" will be a strong advantage for McAdams against Miller.