Bad Guy v. Bad Guy in Battle for Good. Alaska’s Election Under the Magnifying Glass.
Well, goodness me. The Alaska Senate race has certainly summoned an interesting cast of, um… ‘characters’ to the far north.
First, we learned that Lisa Murkowski has employed the services of a certain Ben Ginsberg for her legal team dealing with the vote count.
If you haven’t heard of Benjamin Ginsberg, let me illuminate you. He was one of Bush’s attorneys working on the Florida recount in 2000. He was also one of the attorneys behind Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the 527 group whose purpose was to assassinate the character of John Kerry.
This is who’s in Lisa Murkowski’s corner.
And before you start thinking that whoever Joe Miller has in his corner has got to be better than that, just wait.
I present, representing the Miller team – Floyd Brown. That’s him above, wearing a Lisa Murkowski wrist band. You might know him as the guy behind the infamous Willie Horton ad attacking Michael Dukakis for being soft on crime. Oh, and he’s also the founder of Citizens United.
Willie Horton v. Swiftboat Veterans? Citizens United v. Florida recount?
You’ll forgive me if I don’tt pick a dog in this fight. It’s hard to root for either one, so I won’t. The fight, however, is a good one and it has nothing to do with either candidate or their ideology. The fight is for open and fair elections. The fight is to challenge the system and determine a fair balance between accuracy, and voter intent, and to make our state government accountable for making election information available to the public. And the only way to settle these issues is to allow them to see the light of day. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, so they say.
Beyond the question of whether one ought to count a ballot that says Lisa Murkowsky, or Lisa Markowski, or Liza Markusky, or any of a million other incarnations, is the question of being able to ensure that the ballot counting itself is accurate, and that the results accurately reflect what the voters meant.
One of the candidates wants the Division of Elections to provide the campaign access to look at the poll books. They want to make sure that the number of people who physically signed in at the polls, matches the number of ballots that were cast at that polling place – a simple request with information that ought to be available to any candidate, or any citizen. If there are 748 people who signed the book, there should be 748 ballots coming out of the polling place. They were denied access to this information, and now they are suing.
Which candidate? It might have been Lisa Murkowski, or it might have been Scott McAdams. But in this instance it was Joe Miller. And it doesn’t matter. The Alaska Democratic Party has sued over “irregularities” before with no satisfying outcome. The machines that count Alaskas votes are illegal in the state of California because they’re easily hack-able, flippable, and switchable. They used to have them too, and now they’ve all been decommissioned. This is common sense stuff. When we the people no longer have a right to oversee our elections, we no longer have a democracy.
Mr. Brown has made allegations of voter suppression and fraud, but has not provided specifics yet.
“To facilitate collection of this material for law enforcement or legal review, we thought it best to establish a centralized number where people could call, anonymously if need be, and leave information,” said Brown at a press conference. “We encourage any citizen who has a concern to call this number” 1-866-446-4138.
Nobody should have any illusions that either Murkowski or Miller would be jumping up and down fighting for election law reform, and accuracy if they didn’t have skin in the game. But if two distasteful entities are ready to fight the good fight, (even if it’s for the wrong reasons) then bring it on.
Alaska has a long and growing history of “irregularities” in elections. More to come on this later, but an open, transparent and accurate system is something that we should demand. And if it takes two Republicans and their rented out-of-state junkyard dogs to duke it out and make it happen, then so be it.
How long will all this take? How messy will it be?
If we can some how come out of this all with a hand count of Alaska’s ballots – every single one – and a reasonable standard by which we balance complete accuracy with voter intent, and a mechanical system that is secure and accurate, then we all will have won. And we need to be patient and support the process of cleanup, even if we disagree with the ideology of the players.
Photo: Rick Browner/AP
I hope the ballots are hand counted. It’s not like there are too many of them. I hope Alaska comes to its senses in time for the next election; actually, I hope the country comes to its senses by then. I’m very disappointed at the poor turnout by voters under 30, and I’d like to know what they did instead.
Sounds like these two have hired some real HATE TALENT!!! Yikes… better get Shannyn to get the wattage cranked up over at her station cause Miller and Lisa have just cranked it up a couple of notches in the slinging contest…
But I thought I read somewhere that Miller’s legal team left Alaska last night or this morning..???
sadly, it’s like picking the lesser of two evils….not exactly a winning hand…
I donated more to Scott McAdams more than any candidate ever in my life. He may not have won this race, but I feel like I got more than my money’s worth.
He ran a clean & decent race, worked hard. He said he initially ‘wanted a conversation with Lisa” and THAT he did in the very public debates. pph here, ‘What good is your seniority or places on committees if you’re voting against Alaska?’
So now, Scott HAS name recognition. He has shown that he can pull in money donations without having corporate stuff (or a lot of Democratic initial funds backing) flowing. I will donate again for McAdams without hesitation. I’m hopeful that he will run again in some spot that he feels like taking on!
He may not have won this particular race, but he has made a name for himself in politics. He has demonstrated over and over again that he has integrity and refuses to sink to the depths of dirty campaigning.
I suspect, and hope, that he has a bright future in Alaskan, and national, politics.
Irrespective of how the numbers shake out, joe and lisa are both losers.
Scott McAdams still has his integrity and values intact. He has won the admiration of people within Alaska, the lower 49, several countries, and probably even john tracy (lisa’s pr guy).
I don’t think the DNC realised what a gem they have in McAdams. Not once did I notice him capitulate or flip-flop on his initial positions. He looked polished and mature in debates and without the name recognition of a Tony Knowles or a Les Gara and running against the well-known incumbent and the Sarah-annointed Miller managed to achieve almost a quarter of the total votes. I am on the DNC’s mailing list and get invited to fundraisers and hit up for donations for candidates all over the Lower 48 yet had to donate to Scott through his website.
I think they know now – or at least I hope so!
OK, Ben Ginsburg is happy enough with the way it’s going he’s on a plane home.
How big is this story? It’s got a full page in today’s London Evening Standard. That’s more newsprint about one Senate contest than all the articles about Sarah Palin combined to appear in that daily.
Why does the paper think it’s important? Because it’s a rejection of the Tea Party-backed candidate in favor of an incumbent, but moreso because it looks like a write-in candidate will win an election for the first time in over half a century.
The author calls Miller “a seedy character”, but what he fails to mention is how much hand-wringing there is in the major political parties over the prospect of other candidates skipping primaries and party funding and going directly to the people – and winning.
Scott McAdams turned out to be a very worthy candidate and has a bright political future. But love or loathe Lisa Murkowski, this really is her story. As of today, without the platform on Fox (which is available on cable here), she’s as well known in London as Sarah Palin. That must make Palin very jeolous indeed.
If Alaskan democrats and independents had voted for Scott McAdams, this wouldn’t be happening.
Giving your vote away to a risky candidate, with the idea that it will prevent a boogeyman man from getting in, usually doesn’t work.
Really, just what crazy radical agendas could Miller have accomplished in DC?…SFA
The teabagging candidates are going through indoctrination by lobbyists, campaign consultants and the Claremont think tank gurus as we speak
Do you really think that Murkowski will vote any differently than Miller would have?
If you expect your politicians to have the courage of their convictions…………so should you, by voting for who truly represents your values
o/t but interesting;
FEC Letter to Sarah Palin Asks Her to Explain SarahPAC’s Spending
By Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call Staff
4:48 p.m.
It looks like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) political action committee needs a calculator.
In a Nov. 11 letter, the Federal Election Commission writes that it is seeking a half-dozen clarifications from SarahPAC, including corrections to the political action committee’s year-to-date calculations of cash it received, as well as a cash-on-hand figure for the period.
The FEC also seeks additional information on various expenditures made by the campaign and shown on its October quarterly report on fundraising services and “public communications … or vote drive activity.”
Among those line items were photography, postage, printing, and media and political consulting.
“Please clarify whether this activity contained express advocacy and amend your report to property disclose this activity, if necessary,” the FEC wrote.
The November letter marks the sixth request for additional information the FEC has issued to the Palin campaign since it organized in January 2009.
According to data compiled by CQ MoneyLine, SarahPAC has raised $4.9 million this cycle and spent nearly $3.6 million.
The PAC has contributed $276,000 to candidates.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/-200495-1.html
She and the kids needed new clothes, for heaven’s sake doncha know?
Is Murkowski in the lead? Who has the latest polling data?
Thank you for so succinctly defining the dog fight. What a mess – are we cursed, or what?
AKM, I think that although these two will highlight areas of improvement for vote counting and rules for voting, because either one of them will be in power, there will BE NO IMPROVEMENT MADE for future Elections.
Unless the voters of Alaska elect an individual who will actually campaign for and implement needed reform …you’re just going to be stuck with the same-o, same-o….Do you think your newlt elected State Officals are going to actually DO anything during their terms, other than suck as much as they can for themselves ?
Guess I got up on the wrong side of the bed today… sorry I’m so pessimisstic.. but just going to be an unhappy camper until 2012
Very good odds that you, ( all sane people will still or become unhappy campers in 2012) Happiness for me will be a carpetbagger heading south to Kansas with a palin under each arm
Is it any wonder that Alaska now has bed bugs?
http://www.adn.com/2010/11/11/1549652/bedbug-bites-reported-among-fairview.html
I’ll bet these rug rats brought them with them from the lower 48!
Looks to me like Floyd Brown is sporting a wristband for ” We Are The World”, the song and movement sung by Micheal Jackson, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springstein, Diana Ross. and other greats….
I could be wrong.
If only… No, it’s a Lisa Murkowski wrist band (complete with filled in oval), doubtless to make the point that she knew the importance of spelling, and filling it in, and that people could take all sorts of devices into the booth to get it right.
I want to start this post out with the qualification that Scott McAdams was the best qualified candidate and that Lisa Murkowski should have stayed out of the election after the primary. That being said, the rest of the nation hopes that Lisa Murkowski wins over Joe Miller, because we want all of those opportunities for interviews with Alaskan Residents who can explain why THEY aren’t interested in anyone who has anything to do with Sarah Quittypants.
“But if two distasteful entities are ready to fight the good fight, (even if it’s for the wrong reasons) then bring it on.”
I don’t know, AKM.
While the fight for election integrity is indisputably a worthwhile fight, I’m not as sanguine as you are that two distasteful entities on both sides will achieve a necessarily worthy result. This is not the domain of mathematics where a negative multiplied by a negative produces a positive. If history is any guide, underhanded maneuvering will be out-maneuvered by more egregious underhanded maneuvering.
I’d be more comfortable with the fight for election integrity being fought by people with integrity, principles and at least some degree of objectivity.
I do like the part about “Under the Magnifying Glass” though.
I’m with you, Lee323. Two junkyard dogs fighting over a bone only results in one junkyard dog getting what it wants.
Talk about voting machines messing up—-Think something is very wrong with the voting on Dancing with the stars. When we can’t watch something that is NOT political—I give up!
I am very disappointed that Kurt Warner was voted off—-he did much better than most of what is left.
No, he was better than Bristol, but not nearly as good as Kyle, Jennifer and Brandy. Bristol needs to go home.
She could fall flat on her face and wouldn’t be voted off because all of her mother’s groupies flood the phone lines every week and vote for her.
I read where the bots are voting in mass to keep palin on one way or the other
Yeah, I agree. Bristol Palin STILL on DWtS? SOMEBODY’S stuffing the ballot box! I’d like to know if there’s an email from the teabaggers making the rounds telling everyone to vote for Bristol.
Unfortunately, my teabagger Brother-In-Law in Georgia hasn’t forwarded any to me. Although he has forwarded every Anti Obama email in existence!
Leave it to the Alaska Republicans to hire/attract the bottom of the pond scum.
I’m an optimist. Here’s hoping the will of the people manages to eek out–even though these extremely skeezy “consultants” have traveled north into the fray.
I used to think we deserved better. But in a country that makes American Idol and Dancing With the Stars, and celebrity-hood in general its top interests…no, we are getting exactly what we deserve.
May I modify your sentiment to this: A whole bunch of morons are getting what they deserve and whole other bunch of people are getting punked.
yep.
The horrid thing is that the majority didn’t vote (or went anti Dem) and we got our noses cut off to spite their faces – which unfortunately chopped off all faces )o:
So many people are idiots – no we don’t deserve this, you nor I not even the idiots who did it. That is the worse part for them – when they realize they got screwed over.
Gentley slapping doesn’t work, I think we are screwed )o:
Agreed.
No, we do deserve better.
That’s how this once apathetic chick rolls and votes.
Too bad all of this had to happen this way.
OY, I am so sick of living in a state where our politics are a national laughingstock…
You’re always welcome in Florida…but…
never mind…same problem, different state.
{{{{{InJuneau}}}}}
Don’t worry. It happens to all of us. I live in a state where the Attorney General is fracking nuts. And our governor is your Parnell’s twin brother separated at birth. And my neighboring district just traded in their blue dog representative for one of the new, hybrid republicans (the ones that don’t mind getting tea party votes but don’t want to be associated with tea party quotes.) We are living in interesting times.
Try Ireland….we are now the laughing stock of Europe.
When both my countries are now laughing stocks, there’s nothing for it but to laugh our asses off!
Might as well because, after all…laughter is GOOD for you!!!! 😀
We have some true nut politicians in TX! I can’t even believe some are real–like Louie”terror babies”Gohmert and our gov. forever rootin, tootin ye-haw Perry. So embarrassing–and it will only get worse because of Nov.2. I am in Dallas Co. which is blue, so maybe I can stay sane.
Miller would fit right in with Gohmert.
Want to see Ireland. Lucky girl!
We need to backtrack a little–to the week before the elections. When the Superior Court judge made a clear and concise ruling about write-in lists not being allowed at polling places in Alaska because, well, the law said so. After this sensible ruling, most of Alaska breathed a sigh of relief, trusting that Alaska would have fair and legal elections with a law that all could understand and would be applied consistently across the state.
After that, everything went downhill. Rules were left ambiguous and up the judgment of poll workers in each voting place, with no consistency across the state, and easily open to charges of undue influence for one candidate–a write-in–in many locations.
The Supreme Court overlooked the fact the these write-in lists were put out early by the Div. of Elections against their own regulations, with illegal party information on them, with only three names BEFORE the deadline of names of official write-in candidates had passed, were posted in at least one place inside the polling booths, and known inappropriate “assistance” was provided to a poll watcher at one other voting site.
Outcome doesn’t much matter anymore between these two. A good percentage of Alaskans have lost trust in their Div. of Elections, in the their Alaska Supreme Court, these two attorney candidates, and their high-profile attorneys.
Thank you for bringing all this up again. The decision by Judge Pfiffner was so correct and then the overrule by the Supreme Court so dumbfounding and disheartening. Not a big Joe Miller fan by any stretch but I would be really peeved if I were him and saw this reinterpretation of established election law over and over to blatantly benefit Lisa Murkowski. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see his high dollar lawyers find grounds in the arbitrary 11th hour election law changes for appeal after appeal. We may find that Lisa has the most votes but still not have a second senator for months because of the very disgusting manipulations by the Div. of Elections.
Good point, sad but too true )o: I know in my district in Michigan we don’t understand how the majority voted out every candidate that was good for us. Or at least not harmful…!
I would surely rather see Murkowski win rather than Miller in Alaska but also frustrated with the votes taken from MCadams. I think I have made an error in spelling so perhaps my opinion doesn’t count for Scot (t) (sp?) )o:
We sent people to the moon more than 40 years ago and have people living in a station in space. We figured out how to destroy the entire world several times over. We’ve identified and cured thousands of diseases. We created a series of intertubes that instantly links people in every part of the globe. We created tiny machines that let us communicate by voice and text AND take photographs and videos that we can instantly send to other people in any part of the world. We created computers that can fit in our laps but have the power and memory that let us run businesses from a park bench or a living room rocking chair.
WHY, oh WHY can’t we invent a machine that allows us to vote accurately and securely?????
Yes.
Absolutely right, why not? A verifiable receipt has been around for years for credit cards, debit cards, and a multitude of other uses. Apparently, it is not deemed to be in the best interests of politicians to ensure our elections are fair and verifiable.
I’d also like to see disclosure of political contributions of manufacturers of said machines.
we can and probably already have. certain of the ptb don’t want them.
Spot on AKM.
The machines that count Alaskas votes are illegal in the state of California because they’re easily hack-able, flippable, and switchable. They used to have them too, and now they’ve all been decommissioned. This is common sense stuff. When we the people no longer have a right to oversee our elections, we no longer have a democracy.
I wonder how many of the machines that were in California are now in Alaska? Any bets?
“…an open, transparent and accurate system is something that we should demand. And if it takes two Republicans and their rented out-of-state junkyard dogs to duke it out and make it happen, then so be it.”
Amen!
rock…hard place
devil…deep blue see
frying pan…fire
clowns…jokers
stuck in the middle with you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8StG4fFWHqg
deep blue *sea*
“The fight, however, is a good one and it has nothing to do with either candidate or their ideology. The fight is for open and fair elections.”
Yep.
What she said and a “caw” to boot!
ThatCrowWoman,
Its 11pm, yet you made my day:)
This link came from a blog at newsminer.com and is so shocking that I had to share it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PnfpefgI5c
Joe really knows how to pick ’em, doesn’t he?
stunning.
On the one hand yes it should be stunning but it is actually business as usual for the Republican PR machine. It been that way all may life.
What the Rethugs can’t dig up they make up. And collateral damage to innocents be damned. Just look at the lies they made up about the husband of Terri Schiavo (Google Florida, coma)
And while St Sarah the Offensive whines about how much she suffers slings and arrows, if you were to go back and read the mailings my Republican parents got when Clinton was running for POTUS and Hillary wasn’t even a candidate you would be nauseated at the volume, variety and graphicness of insults that Hillary has had to endure over the last 20 years. And most of it was purely fiction.
Ferraro went through the same as Hillalry.
Vince Foster’s suicide has been investigated by the Republicans probably half a dozen times, in addition of the Park Police investigation, the DC police investigation, and the FBI investigation, and probably the CIA as well, there was Starr’s investigation, the Republicans investigated again when Hillary was a POTUS candidate. Each time his family and friends have to under go the invasion, the questions, the nasty innuendos, and the public spot light. But the RepoThugs don’t care about the pain they cause innocents. They just want to smear Clinton with innuendos, again and again.
This is what they do to people who oppose them. (See Sarah Palin for reference material.)
This is a measure of how much they respect the American public.