Senate candidates invited to Valley forum

WASILLA — The summer’s series of political events continues Thursday with a forum for U.S. Senate candidates at the Alaska Club in Wasilla.

Diana Straub, who is organizing the months-long series on behalf of the Greater Palmer and Greater Wasilla chambers of commerce, said that so far she has received two confirmations.

Republican Joe Miller will square off against a surrogate representative for incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski.

She hasn’t been able to raise some of the other candidates on the phone. Everyone in the race, she said, is still welcome to take a seat on the stage.

“We certainly would welcome them even at the last minute,” Straub said. “There is only so much tracking down we can do. I am not a private investigator.”

So, here’s a rundown of who is in the race, in alphabetical order:

Fredrick David Haase

Haase is running as a Libertarian. In the broadest sense, Libertarians argue for greater freedom through a massive rollback of government powers.

On his campaign website, Haase talks about global warming as an act of God citizens must prepare for instead of counting on the government, the war on terror as a war of ideas requiring greater wisdom than is being applied, education as an area where the federal government has no place, oil drilling as something there needs to be more of, and the drug war as something winnable if first drugs are legalized.

Jacob Seth Kern

Observers of the race for mayor of Anchorage last year likely remember Kern as one of the more colorful candidates. He has entered the U.S. Senate race as a Democrat. Kern’s platform during his run for mayor advocated spending city money on advanced technology to provide wireless electricity. His website from the time has since disappeared and a search turned up no new site for this race.

Scott T. McAdams

McAdams, a Democrat, is mayor of Sitka with broad experience serving on local school boards and governing bodies for school board associations. He is a college graduate and former commercial fishing deckhand.

His campaign website says that as senator he would fight for fiscal responsibility, for using “the highest environmental standards in the world,” to develop Alaska’s natural resources, for reforming federal education policy — specifically the No Child Left Behind Act — and for protecting Alaskans’ liberty.

Joe Miller

Miller has produced perhaps the most heat in the race, having garnered the endorsement of the national Tea Party Express and of former governor Sarah Palin. His website is an active place, from which he takes many shots at Murkowski.

He is running on a small-government platform hoping to roll back any powers the federal government has not specifically outlined in the Constitution. He wants to curb government spending, repeal health care reform and stop cap and trade climate legislation.

Lisa Murkowski

Murkowski is finishing up her first full term as senator. She is sending someone from her campaign to the event because she has to be in Washington, D.C., until the Senate lets out in August.

In contrast to Miller’s endorsements, she has gotten the nod from 20 or more state legislators, including the Senate president, the speaker of the House and Valley politicians Sen. Charlie Huggins and Rep. Bill Stoltze.

Her campaign website lists a whole host of issues, from climate change to Alaska Native issues to the economy to energy policy. According to her campaign bio, she works hard to bring jobs to the state, develop Alaska’s oil and gas resources, keep federal taxes low, protect gun rights and make sure education policy is implemented fairly here.

Frank Vondersaar

Vondersaar, running as a Democrat, is also a somewhat familiar name to watchers of state politics. He considers himself an anti-fascist with probably the most strident support for the recently passed health care bill of any of the candidates.

“Health care reform is the latest target of hard-core, fascist U.S. senators, their fascist vermin propagandists, including the FOX network, and brain-dead followers and supporters,” he says on his website.

His campaign platform includes eliminating handouts to corporations, de-politicizing the military, ending “the punitive use of the secret police and mental health system against political prisoners,” and expanding by two the U.S. Supreme Court.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.