Anchorage Joe's Fifteen Minutes Are Up

The Anchorage Daily News reports that approximately ninety-eight per cent of the write-in ballots in the race for one of Alaska's two U.S. Senate seats are counted for Lisa Murkowski. Simple mathematics says that Murkowski has won this race handily.

According to published results, "write-in" has garnered 98,565, with 87,517 for Republican Joe Miller. The ninety-eight percent trend is based on three days of counting; thus, it is a significant trend. Third-grade mathematics tells us that 98% of 98,565 is 96,593 votes for Lisa Murkowski. That total gives Murkowski a nine-thousand vote lead over Miller.

It is my sincere hope that the Miller campaign has someone who can do math at the third grade level because that person can now tell him that it is time to stand down. It is time to shut down the fundraising. It is time to stop the interviews on talk radio and Fox News. It is time to stop the attacks.

But based on reports published in the Anchorage Daily News, and based on the posts on Joe Miller's Facebook page, it does not appear that Miller. The Miller campaign is touting affidavits that they say are evidence of voter fraud. They are making chain-of-custody allegations. They are alleging that the group charged with ballot security is biased toward Senator Murkowski. They are challenging votes where the name is not spelled exactly right. They are challenging write-ins for every possible reason. This was very unnatractive when Al Gore did it in 2000 in Florida. It is very unattractive now.

They have a team of attorneys up there who are being funded by the NRSC, who started raising money after Mark Levin and others took them to task on talk radio. Senator Murkowski has stated that she would caucus with the GOP. I suspect that she is mature and experienced enough to appreciate that this is just politics, and as a result she will still caucus with the GOP. But the GOP should not take that for granted.

As an election law attorney with fourteen years experience, I can tell you that the Miller camp is using the "spaghetti justice" approach to election law. They are throwing the whole pot of pasta up on the wall to see what sticks. We have a job to do in Washington, one that Joe Miller passionately supports. It is my sincere hope that the person who understands third grade math prevails soon because the Alaska ballot count is a distraction from the task at hand: Balancing the federal budget and ending the Obama deficits.

Joe Miller's fifteen minutes of fame are expiring. Joe, please face that fact. You are making the Tea Party look bad now. You are making your patron, Sarah Palin look bad now. I understand that it is tough to face the silence after the campaign, but you are hurting the very cause for which you have so ably fought in this year's elections.