AK-Sen: Libertarians, Lawyers, The Fed, and Other Updates

Elections officials on Thursday evening released the first detailed breakdown of the remaining ballots.

The state has received back 11,266 absentee ballots so far out of over 16,000 requested. The ballots had to be postmarked by Tuesday’s election but can come in as much as 15 days afterward.

There are also 658 early votes not yet counted and 8,972 questioned ballots. A ballot can be “questioned” for several reasons. Often the reason is that the voter cast the ballot in a precinct other than where they live.

Of course, it’s worth repeating that some of these ballots will be counted toward the Democratic primary (although Murkowski’s campaign manager, who observed the sorting of absentee ballots at the Division of Elections, said that a “very, very high percentage” of the ballots were Republican) and some will ultimately be disqualified. Counting the ballots should be a deliciously tense affair for all involved, and Joe Miller has already lashed out at Murkowski for calling in an NRSC lawyer in an attempt to “pull an Al Franken”. (I think the more appropriate term would be “pull a Norm Coleman”, but clearly Miller knows how to ace the lunatic cultural litmus test of the right.)

The Division of Elections plans to count all the absentee ballots on Aug. 31 that it has received by then. Some of the questioned ballots will be disqualified; for example if it turns out the voter really wasn’t registered in Alaska. Those that are valid will likely be counted on Sept. 3. Elections officials said they’ll do a final count of absentees and any other remaining ballots on Sept. 8.

Circle those dates on your calendar — especially the 31st, which should represent the biggest chunk of outstanding ballots.

There is a possibility that Murkowski could run on the Libertarian ticket in the November general election if she loses the Republican primary. The Alaska Libertarian Party is discussing the possibility and its Senate candidate, David Haase, has said he is open to talking to Murkowski about him stepping aside.

Andrew Halcro, a Murkowski supporter who served with her in the state Legislature, called Haase on Wednesday and discussed the possibility. Halcro said he was acting on his own and not coordinating with the Murkowski campaign.

Halcro said he did bring it up with Murkowski on Thursday morning. “She said what she’s told (the media), that she’s considering all the options,” he said.

Libertarian Haase is the only third party candidate in the race, so that would be the only option for Murkowski to join a new party for a run. Haase would surely press Murkowski on the Federal Reserve, which is his focus. “Let’s take the Federal Reserve, nationalize it and take that income earning capacity and turn it over to the people to finance Social Security and Medicare,” Haase said.

Putting aside the mind-boggling reality of a Libertarian who wants to protect Social Security and Medicare… I have to admit that I’m mystified as to what exactly “nationalizing” the Fed would entail. But, hey, no one reads SSP for the policy! Anyhow, I wonder if Murkowski’s support of a David Vitter amendment which supported a stronger audit of the Fed than the one that ultimately passed might endear her to the Libertarians.

McAdams soothed some of the heartburn within the party after his first conference call with reporters on Wednesday, in which he came across as poised and up to speed on statewide issues. Then in a speech on Wednesday at the Alaska Democrats Unity Dinner in Anchorage, McAdams made it clear that he will not make the same mistake that Murkowski did in neglecting to define Miller early.

The Democratic nominee struck an aggressively contemptuous note, referred to “this Joe Miller character” and calling him a “fringe character.”

The man’s got some game:

As McAdams also demonstrated on Wednesday, he will also seize upon the very platform that appealed so much to Miller’s fiscally conservative to libertarian primary voters. After all, it won’t be easy for a candidate who vows to fight government largess to win a general election in Alaska-the state that has long benefited more than any other from federal pork projects.

“I hear him talk about the end of federal investment in Alaska,” McAdams said on Wednesday, eliciting uproarious laughter from the crowd of Democrats in attendance.

“There’s a vote getter!” an anonymous voice in the crowd shouted, causing another eruption from the crowd.

McAdams continued to hammer home the point. “But the good news is that we as Democrats stand up for working people,” he said. “We believe in job creation. We believe that Alaska as a young state deserves to be developed like every other western state in the history of the United States.”