Yesterday we saw over 100 people file as write-in candidates in the Senate race for Alaska after a judge gave Lisa Murkowski an unfair advantage by allowing polling officials to provide a list of name of write-in candidates after another judge had already ruled that went against Alaska laws.The idea to encourage people to file as write in candidates came from multiple sources, Dan Reihl at Big Government, Conservatives4Palin and a radio talk show host, Dan Fagan.
Sitting Senator, Lisa Murkowsi, who lost her bid for reelection in the GOP primary against Joe Miller, then decided to run as a write-in candidate, sent her "hired guns" over to threaten the radio station, which without the money for a defense, folded and took Fagan off the air.
Palin stands up for Dan Fagan's right to free speech in a Facebook posting titled "Lisa, are you going to shut down my Facebook page for writing this?"
Teaser:
The concept of “electioneering” involves several issues, but typically refers to campaigning at the polls, which is appropriately banned. Under federal law, it can also mean paying for advertising on broadcast media during a federal election cycle, and it requires disclosures if done by groups and corporations. Fagan used satire to mock Murkowski’s write-in efforts and encouraged Alaskans to run as write-in candidates. That is not illegal. That is free speech.
Individuals like Dan Fagan have a fundamental right to speak their minds without threats from the incumbent Senator from Alaska. It is hard to find a constitutional right Americans cherish more than the right to free speech. This was a right Joe Miller, as a decorated combat veteran – a tank commander tested in battle, was willing to die to defend. Dan Fagan has not always agreed with me, but I will gladly defend his right to speak freely on his radio show, which he has often used to criticize me. In fact, Fagan has actually used his radio show to attack and insult me, my husband, my children, and my family in just about every way possible. He was especially insulting to my son, who left for a war zone to defend Fagan’s right to attack our family. But when I was his governor, I never would have dreamed of threatening his right to free speech. I support him in this fight because this D.C. Beltway thuggery, as exemplified by Lisa Murkowski’s latest threat, is ruining our country. The powers that be want ordinary Americans to sit down and shut up and let the ruling class ride us right off the debt cliff we’re heading towards with Obama, Pelosi, and Reid steering the nation’s car. We can’t let them. Now is the time to put aside our past differences and stand up to the establishment powers.
Murkowski has shown time and again her disrespect for her constituents, with lies claiming if Miller won the GOP primary she would "respect" that decision, she didn't, instead she decided to ignore the will of those constituents and run as a write-in.
Now she is is showing just as much disrespect for the right of free speech by using intimidation tactics again a man who was using his right of free speech.
[Update] The unfair advantage Murkowski could have had by the write-in list being provided at the polls, is now not a problem, because of the amount of names on the list.
Lawyers on both sides of the fight conceded that the rush of new write-in candidates lowered the stakes in the dispute over whether to give voters the list.
Given all the new candidates since Thursday, said Ms. Paton-Walsh, "I don't think that list could really function in a meaningful way as electioneering."
The Republican Party attorney Kenneth Kirk said that, given the spike in the number of write-in candidates, all the fuss over handing out lists of their names could "become a moot point at this point."
The playing field is now level and Murkowski has shown her true colors at the last minute, so to speak, by using her intimidation tactics against Fagan too late to stop the last minute additions to the list provided.
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