# Alaska Senate race
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [August 27, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607 "2010-08-27T01:03:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/41 "2010-10-13T01:23:59Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> I think it means Miller is going to win. Pretty much everybody doesn’t want to have to answer for shitty things they’ve done in the past. And it seems that nobody wants to hold politicians to higher standards anymore.
>
> Plus, not enough people will be able to spell Murkowski’s name right.
She has now got the financial support of the Native communities and the labor unions, so we may see an upset.
---
### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/42 "2010-10-13T01:46:35Z")
They better pour a lot of money into spelling programs.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/43 "2010-10-13T01:50:44Z")
Actually, they’ll accept a close spelling as a vote for her. They said that they would even accept “Lisa M.”
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/44 "2010-10-13T01:52:25Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> Actually, they’ll accept a close spelling as a vote for her. They said that they would even accept “Lisa M.”
I heard they were still struggling over just how bad the spelling will be allowed to be, but maybe there is newer news than I’ve heard.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/45 "2010-10-18T13:45:37Z")
The [latest bizarre twist](http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/7186-breaking-alaska-dispatch-editor-detained-at-miller-event) in Joe Miller’s campaign: his security detail “arrests” a reporter asking questions at a town-hall type meeting in a public school.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/46 "2010-10-18T13:51:19Z")
I can picture Miller’s victory speech, “Alaska, you are under arrest.”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/47 "2010-10-18T16:00:55Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> I can picture Miller’s victory speech, “Alaska, you are under arrest.”
‘Bout fuckin’ time . . .
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/48 "2010-10-19T00:45:42Z")
[Polls still have Miller leading](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Alaska,_2010#Polling_2) – but it’s **very** close. At least, Miller and Murkowski are close. McAdams must feel like . . . like Kendrick Meek in Florida. ☹
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/49 "2010-10-19T01:02:32Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> The [latest bizarre twist](http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/7186-breaking-alaska-dispatch-editor-detained-at-miller-event) in Joe Miller’s campaign: his security detail “arrests” a reporter asking questions at a town-hall type meeting in a public school.
Having never lived or even visted Alaska (one of the two states I’ve never been to), perhaps it’s a stereotype I’ve got, but I have a very hard time seeing Alaskans reacting well to this.
Being sort of a wimp, isn’t he? Not exactly someone with nerve, and a backbone.
---
### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/50 "2010-10-19T04:06:44Z")
It gets better–check out the [video](http://community.adn.com/adn/node/153751)in this story taken by a couple of other reporters from the ADN while Hopfinger was being detained in handcuffs. Keep in mind that this event was advertised as an open Town Hall meeting, held in a public school, and that bullet headed motherfucker who refuses to give his name is William F. Fulton, head of “Dropzone Security Services” which Joe Miller hired to do security for the event. Apparently the business license for Dropzone expired in 2009 and has never been renewed, so that guy has no legal right to be hiring out as security at all, let alone throwing his weight around pushing and threatening reporters in that manner.
Typical Teabagger, all about the Constitution unless it involves freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or freedom of the press for someone he doesn’t like, at which point the jackboots come out and the threats, intimidation and violence start.
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/51 "2010-10-19T04:14:10Z")
And another item–[Joe Miller thinks the East Germans really had a great idea with that Berlin Wall thing.](http://community.adn.com/adn/node/153757)
Welp, guess he’s got a head start on his very own Stasi right there in Alaska, huh?
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### Author:  [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/52 "2010-10-19T04:17:42Z")
He does know that wall was to keep people _in_, right?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/53 "2010-10-19T04:23:56Z")
> [@Raygun99](#):
>
> He does know that wall was to keep people _in_, right?
Yeah, but the great thing is, you can use the same kind of wall to keep people _out_, and you don’t even have to turn the machine guns around! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/54 "2010-10-19T14:35:52Z")
> [@Frank](#):
>
> Having never lived or even visted Alaska (one of the two states I’ve never been to), perhaps it’s a stereotype I’ve got, but I have a very hard time seeing Alaskans reacting well to this.
>
> Being sort of a wimp, isn’t he? Not exactly someone with nerve, and a backbone.
I wouldn’t think it would go over very well, especially in Fairbanks. They’re an odd lot up there, and while it’s a red state, there are a lot of independents and libertarians. Fairbanks never does what you expect it to do.
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/55 "2010-10-19T14:42:33Z")
In other news Levi Johnston [has no platform](http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507896/levi-johnston-says-i-want-to-be.html).
Also, Miller’s father [rats him out](http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507733/miller-admits-borough-disciplined.html).
---
### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/56 "2010-10-19T14:59:52Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Also, Miller’s father [rats him out](http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507733/miller-admits-borough-disciplined.html).
Miller really handled that poorly. His actual offense was pretty minor and probably too boring to get much interest from voters. But by treating it like some deep dark secret he’s made it a lot more damaging then if he’d just said what he’d done in the first place.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/57 "2010-10-19T15:40:49Z")
[Murkowski and McAdams debate; Miller absent.](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43822.html)
WTF?!
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/58 "2010-10-19T15:41:37Z")
I wonder what was the point of using 4 computers. Was he trying to skew the poll results by pretending to be 4 people and answering the poll 4 times?
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/59 "2010-10-19T15:49:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> [Murkowski and McAdams debate; Miller absent.](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43822.html)
>
> WTF?!
The Dem candidate was asked to name three things he admired about Sarah Palin, managed one iffy one, and then said, “Gee, I’m stumped.”
---
### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alaska-senate-race/551607/60 "2010-10-19T16:30:13Z")
[A (now) former Miller supporter corroborates Hopfinger’s account of the handcuffing incident.](http://alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/politics/7195-witness-reporter-was-rude-but-not-a-threat)
> [@](#):
>
> A Valley woman who witnessed the incident involving Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller and the editor of Alaska Dispatch on Sunday says the journalist, Tony Hopfinger, did not threaten Miller and that the whole thing should never have escalated into a police matter.
>
> Lolly Symbol says she drove in from Big Lake with her two young sons because she was a staunch Miller supporter and wanted to ask him a question about his stance on gun control.
>
> She said she found the opportunity to speak with Miller when he stuck around after his town hall at Central Middle School and spoke with a few people outside the main room. She says she stood right next to the candidate as the scene that has captured national public attention played out.
>
> Symbol said Miller became angry with an elderly woman who asked him about his military background. “He ended up getting really huffy with her,” Symbol said.
>
> She said she got about two words into her question when Hopfinger interrupted her, stuck a small camera in Miller’s face and asked him about his work with the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
>
> “I would say Tony was aggressive, and I would say he was rude because he interrupted me, but he didn’t do anything wrong and he wasn’t posing a threat to Miller,” Symbol said.
>
> She said Miller tried to get away from the reporter and in doing so put his hand on her arm and pushed her aside. Her 8-year-old son, Vincent Mahoney, was standing right behind her, and Miller bowled him over in his attempt to get away. “I don’t know if [Miller] didn’t see him or didn’t care, but he didn’t say ‘excuse me’ or ‘I’m sorry’. He didn’t even turn his head,” Symbol said. “He simply did not care at all.”
>
> Symbol said after Miller fled, she turned and saw Hopfinger trying to get around the security guards who were blocking his way. “They kept pushing him back. He kept saying, ‘I have a right to be here, I have a right to be asking these questions.’ Tony would try to walk forward and they would push him back.”
>
> Symbol said she did not see Hopfinger push anyone in the time she was watching the confrontation.
And this is really fucked up–some of the Dropzone (unlicensed) security guards are [active duty military who apparently don’t have clearance to do this sort of work.](http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507982/questions-surround-use-of-security.html)
> [@](#):
>
> The soldiers, Spc. Tyler Ellingboe, 22, and Sgt. Alexander Valdez, 31, are assigned to the 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade at Fort Richardson. Maj. Bill Coppernoll, the public affairs officer for the Army in Alaska, said the two soldiers did not have permission from their current chain of command to work for the Drop Zone, but the Army was still researching whether previous company or brigade commanders authorized their employment.
Their unlicensed scumbag of an employer is throwing them under the bus:
> [@](#):
>
> Miller’s chief guard at the Middle School event, Drop Zone owner William Fulton, said it wasn’t his job to ensure soldiers complied with the regulations, though he said he informs them of their duty.
>
> “They’re adults – they are responsible for themselves,” Fulton said.
>
> He said the two soldiers called him Monday and said they may be in trouble.
And of course Joe Miller was lying through his teeth when he asserted he was required to bring security to the event:
> [@](#):
>
> Miller gave interviews to Fox and CNN on Monday. He told Fox, “I might also note that the middle school itself required us by a contract for a campaign, required us to have a security team.” He told CNN, “There was a – a private security team that was required. We had to hire them because the school required that as a term in their lease.”
>
> But district spokeswoman Heidi Embley said that wasn’t true.
>
> “We do not require users to hire security,” she said. Renters must only have a security plan to protect users and the school itself, she said, and can resolve the issues with “monitors.”
>
> The contract the district has renters sign requires groups to make an “expectation speech” at the beginning of an event reminding people to be respectful, to park properly, and to remain only in permitted areas. That did not happen Sunday.
I sure hope Alaskans are smart enough to send this dickwad home crying on November 2.
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