A flurry of sudden senatorial contenders may be hitting the state of Alaska at the last minute before Election Day 11/2/10 – thanks to conservative talker Dan Fagan of Morris Communications Anchorage blowtorch KFQD-AM Newsradio 750.
Fagan urged his loyal listeners to file as eligible write-in candidates for the election, the route incumbent Lisa Murkowski has been forced to take after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller, who now gets to have the (R) after his name.
Murkowski has been doing well in many polls, and Miller has encountered several speed bumps, leading many observers to the opinion that Murkowski may be the first write-in candidate to earn a ticket to Washington DC since Strom Thurmond pulled off the feat back in 1954.
Fagan believes that the presence of a plethora of write-in possibilties may water down support for Murkowski, and asked listeners to engage in what he called “civil disobedience” by getting down to Division of Elections to register as a bona fide write-in candidate.
The reason this would work is not that candidates with a name similar to “Murkowski” might confuse voters – it is because a list of potential write-in candidates may be available to voters at the polls. The theory is that a list with many names may make it harder for voters to find Murkowski tucked in the middle.
According to reports, dozens of Alaska citizens have applied for senatorial write-in candidate status – up to 100, according to politico.com.
Of course, if any of the 100 do happen to have a name bearing any similarity at all to Murkowski’s, it works all that much better for Fagan and his supporters.
UPDATE: KFQD suspended Fagan before his show on Friday after the head of a company that produces ads for the Murkowski campaign called to complain about his electioneering for Miller. That brought fire back from former Governor Sarah Palin, who accused Murkowski of using her “hired guns” to violate Fagan’s free speech rights.
