Primary Voices: Cutting through the angst

July 12, 2010: There is no shortage of angst in the blogosphere over the U.S. Senate primary race between incumbent Lisa Murkowski and challenger Joe Miller.

One local blogger decries that the Anchorage Daily News unfairly left out Miller's military record while another predicts the race could get competitive if all the Tea Party money from outside starts cascading into Miller's mailbox.

Meanwhile, all I want to know is why Joe Miller still won't tell us why he failed to list a seven year gig with the Fairbanks North Star Borough on his resume. Was he double billing, not performing up to expectations or was it some leftist Mayor as supporters have mentioned?

But cutting through all the angst in the next six weeks will be difficult for some; the ads, the accusations, the back and forth. Already Murkowski has raised an issue about Miller's negative campaign tactics and Miller seems to realize that if he is to make any headway he has to adopt combative techniques.

Miller has already attacked Murkowski on her vote for the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) back in October of 2008, a plan supported by both Republicans and Democrats as well as a Republican President.

The fact that Miller would attack Murkowski on such a vote proves he is clueless on the generally accepted economic consequences that occured because of the TARP package.

Most respected economist agree that the initial $350 billion helped save the banking system and almost the entire amount has been paid back with interest. Murkowski's vote on the initial TARP legislation, (she voted against the second round of funding) was a necessary vote taken, and the government has come out in the black.

But lets be clear; Lisa Murkowski will walk all over Joe Miller in the primary election just like she did to Mike Miller six years ago.

Six week outs and I'm calling it 62-38 Murkowski.

In 2004 against Mike Miller, Murkowski was facing chants of nepotism, a voter initative that was targeted at changing how she was appointed and a whole host of conservatives supporting her opponent, including Sarah Palin and the Lt. Governor, Loren Leman. Murkowski still won with 63% of the vote.

This doesn't mean that Murkowski doesn't have to run a solid race and avoid the mistake of following Joe Miller into the far right corner of the political spectrum. Lets face it, some of Miller's positions are just plain toxic, especially considering Alaska's demographics. 

But it does mean that with current polls showing Murkowski with a 70% approval rating among Republicans and a forty point lead over Miller in a head to head horse race, poor Joe Miller is going to have to do a lot of distorting about Lisa Murkowski's record to even get 38% of the primary vote.

Game on.