Miller eyes Senate

WASILLA -- U.S. Senate candidate Mike Miller was in the Valley Thursday, stumping for support.

Miller is facing three other Republican candidates in the primary election, but is targeting a win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

"She and [Democratic candidate] Tony Knowles are too close on the issues," Miller said. "And, whether Lisa likes it or not, that huge gorilla is under the rug … and that's an argument Lisa can not win. If I'm in the race, it's a different story -- I'm the conservative in the race."

Although Murkowski is backed by deeper pockets -- she's raised more than $2 million, while Miller's largest campaign donation came from himself, in the form of a $200,000 campaign kick-start -- Miller and his team believe it takes more than money to win an election campaign.

"The person who wins the primary is probably going to do it with 40,000 or fewer votes," Miller's campaign manager Mike Pauley said Thursday afternoon. "I think there are 40,000 people out there who are politically sympathetic with the views Mike Miller has."

Pauley said although Murkowski has raked in the financial contributions, both from inside and outside the state, there's only so much campaign financing can do. He pointed to the 2002 race between Murkowski, who was then an incumbent Alaska senator, and Nancy Dahlstrom, also of Anchorage. In that race, he said, Murkowski outspent Dahlstrom and had years of incumbency in her favor, but won the primary race by fewer than 60 votes.

"One thing we're finding very clearly is, our support is very thick, but her support is very thin," Miller said, pointing out that while Murkowski has a lot of big-dollar donors that appear to come from the older political set in Alaska, Miller is getting a lot of under-$100 donations he said indicates support from average Alaskans.

"We will not be able to outspend Murkowski, but we will spend enough to win," Miller said.

Miller said his campaign is taking a different approach to the campaign than just fund-raising. They're assembling regional campaign offices around the state, and have been working to assemble a team of bright, well-connected people to chair their satellite campaign offices. Former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin and Sen. Lyda Green have agreed to serve as campaign co-chairs for Miller's Mat-Su campaign, and Tuckerman Babcock and Wayne Carmony have agreed to act as campaign managers for the regional campaign.

"They're really the best and the brightest," Miller said. "[They're] people of substance who know how to get things done."

Green, Miller said, served with him in the Alaska Senate during the final six years he worked as a legislator. After 18 years in the Alaska House and Senate, Miller returned to his family business, running the Santa Claus House in North Pole. After Gov. Frank Murkowski was elected, Miller was in the running as a replacement for the U.S. Senate seat Murkowski vacated. Although he didn't win that appointment, he accepted a position as the state's Commissioner of Administration offered by Gov. Frank Murkowski in February 2003. Fourteen months later, Miller resigned his position in order to run against Lisa Murkowski.

It's Miller's eight years in the Senate and 10 years in the state House he's standing on when he talks about his commitment to social and fiscal conservatism. He said he has a history of involvement in the Republican party and a philosophical commitment to its ideals -- although he was reluctant to specify what the Republican Party of Alaska's platform is, exactly, or where the group stands on some issues when asked in a Thursday interview what the differences were between he and opponent Murkowski.

"As we get more people, there are more differing points of view," Miller said. "I believe it's a pretty strong party in the state of Alaska, and we can weather these problems … I wish Lisa were farther to the right on a lot of these issues."

And that appears to be the crux of Miller's campaign -- he's touting himself as a "true conservative" while pointing out Murkowski's apparently more left-leaning stance. And Pauley said those differences are where the Miller campaign will focus -- on pointing out differences between Miller's and Murkowski's voting records.

"I'm certainly not the establishment candidate in this race -- but I am the candidate of the average working guy," Miller said.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.