The Alaska Senate race featuring pro-life candidate Joe Miller and pro-abortion candidates Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent senator, and Scott McAdams, is virtually tied. Meanwhile, pro-life Sen. Jim DeMint his hitting his colleague with television ads knocking Murkowski’s pro-abortion views.
A new CNN poll out today indicates that, among likely voters, Miller and Murkowski are tied at 37 percent apiece while 23 percent of Alaska residents back McAdams.
Other pollsters have said the race will be difficult to track because voters have to write in Murkowski’s name and that they will either forget to do so or spell her name wrong and not have their ballots count for her.
In fact, three percent of the Murkowski 37 percent support are voters who admitted they are not aware of the write-in process works. And 10 percent of Murkowski voters said they were likely to vote for someone else on the ballot if they can’t figure out the write-in process.
As a result, a Miller tie with Murkowsli likely gives a very slight edge to Miller if only because his name will appear on the ballot and Murkowski’s won’t.
Miller is also likely aided by the fact that pro-life Gov. Sean Parnell is running away with the gubernatorial race and Democrats are not motivated by it to turn out.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jim DeMint, a pro-life South Carolina Republican who is popular with pro-life advocates, is targeting Murkowski with new ads criticizing her position favoring abortion.
“There are three Senate candidates, but only one choice to defend the unborn,” the ad’s narrator says. [related]
The ad continues: “Republican Joe Miller is pro-life and the only candidate pledged to oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. Scott McAdams and Lisa Murkowski are pro-abortion and they refuse to oppose using your taxes to pay for it.”
According to a report in The Hill, DeMint told supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund, “Democrat Scott McAdams is pro-abortion. Lisa Murkowski is pro-abortion, too. And they’re pretty extreme about it
