Stacy McCain at The American Spectator reports that the Murkowski campaign has lawyered up with Mike Roman, who worked on Norm Coleman's behalf in the 2008 Minnesota recount that that made comedian Al Franken a U.S. Senator:
Murkowski's campaign is "bringing in the big shots," Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said in a telephone interview late Sunday. Meanwhile, voters who cast absentee ballots were reporting that they had gotten calls asking how they'd voted -- the names of absentee voters are a matter of public record in Alaska -- and when Miller's campaign suggested this was evidence of mischief by the senator's team, Murkowski accused Miller of being "paranoid."If the Alaska LP wants nothing to do with Murkowski, then her only way of retaining power would be manipulating the count of the 23,472 remaining uncounted ballots. Joe Miller's conservative and small-l libertarian supporters see Murkowski as a RINO, a political animal which has been added to the endangered list, along with the liberal Democrats in Congress who have driven the country into the ground in just four short years.
Of course, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you, and Miller's supporters already had solid reasons to suspect that Murkowski would stop at nothing to retain her Senate seat. Chief among these reasons was the fact that Anchorage political consultant Andrew Halcro placed a call first thing Wednesday morning to Scott Kohlhaas, chairman of the Alaska Libertarian Party. Halcro was asking whether the Libertarians would be open to having Murkowski replace their Senate nominee, Dave Haase. Halcro is a former Republican state legislator best known for his boundless hatred of Sarah Palin. After Palin won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2006, Halcro waged a third-party campaign aimed principally at attacking the Republican and earned him the nickname Mr. Nine Percent, that being his share of the vote. Since being chosen as John McCain's running mate two years ago, of course, Palin has become world-famous and Halcro's bitterness toward her has only increased.
It was Palin's early endorsement of Joe Miller that was widely credited with launching the underdog to victory, and thus the intrusion of ex-Republican Halcro into the post-primary phase of the Senate campaign is scarcely surprising. Certainly Miller's supporters could be forgiven for wondering if Halcro would be reaching out to the Libertarians on Murkowski's behalf without the senator's permission, especially after he disclosed to the Anchorage Daily News that he had spoken by phone with Murkowski.
For their part, Alaska LP officials initially said they were receptive to Murkowski's interest and seemed dazzled by their newfound status as potential kingmakers (or at least, senator-makers) in what had suddenly become the hottest political story of the summer. Yet Halcro's attempts to play matchmaker were clearly hampered by the vast difference between Murkowski's big-government Republicanism and the anti-statist ideology of the Libertarians. Harley Brown, vice chairman of the Alaska LP, told me Saturday that his feeling was "99 percent… no way" that his party would replace Haase with Murkowski. The top leadership of the LP held a two-hour meeting Sunday to discuss the idea and have scheduled a press conference for today. If, as seems likely, the Libertarians say they won't take Murkowski as their nominee, that will end all talk of the senator seeking re-election as a third-party candidate.
Related: Miller attorney's letter (PDF) to AK Division of Elections
Update: Guess who is headed "North to Alaska?"
"Frankly, I was planning to go later, but got an e-mail Sunday from a source who suggested I didn’t want to miss the action Tuesday and so I did something crazy: Booked a one-way flight on short notice, because (a) I wasn’t sure I had enough money yet to buy a round-trip; (b) it isn’t clear how soon they’ll have an official decision; and (c) maybe I can drop by and see the neighborhood where, uh, Joe McGinniss lives."- JP
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