With Joe Miller fading fast, it's a McAdams/Murkowski race. Murkowski has probably been seeing that in her internal polling for the last week or ten days, and she's gone on the attack, hitting his lack of experience and saying that a vote for him is a vote for Miller.

The latest polling has proven the latter wrong--McAdams is beating Miller straight away. As for the experience? McAdams new ad, called "Paycheck," takes that issue head on, and hits Murkowski back hard.

She's changed. Voting against everything from dredging Alaska's harbors, to suicide prevention in the Arctic.

Now she's attacking Scott McAdams because he takes a low mayoral salary. She thinks unless you collect a big, taxpayers' salary, your job isn't worth anything. But Scott McAdams increased school funding, saved a hospital, and created jobs.

Lisa, public service is measured in results, not a paycheck.

Why Murkowski thought an attack on McAdams public service for his service as Sitka's mayor, however much it paid, was a smart thing to do in Alaska is a mystery, one that opened her completely up to this direct hit on her elitism.

There's Meg Whitman down by 10 in the Field poll (all the polls, really, but the Field is to CA what Selzer is to IA.)

Democrat Jerry Brown has amassed a 10-point lead in the California governor's race over Republican Meg Whitman, whose negative ratings have reached record levels despite her spending $162 million in the largest self-funded campaign in American history, a new Field Poll shows.

There's Linda McMahon, 42 million spent, and who hasn't convinced men and (especially) women that dead wrestlers and steroid abuse are the experience we need to move America forward.

U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon has spent $41.9 million on her campaign.

That's more than any other candidate running for Congress. In fact, it's more than any two candidates running against each other for any other seat.

Nate Silver gives her a 0.1% chance of winning. Way to show folks how to manage money, Linda. Why not just give each CT voter $25?

And then there's Rick Scott, down three in the Mason-Dixon poll and behind on the 538 forecast as of this writing (that one is still too close to call.) That poll position cost Scott and his wealthy wife $60 million.

Scott has personally contributed $48.8 million with his wife's trust adding an additional $11.3 million, bringing the grand total to $60.1 million.

You know, even though a dollar just doesn't go as far as it used to, the local TV stations must think they died and went to heaven. So how many jobs has $268 million created other than here, and how much of the money was spent out of state?

No matter what they believe they are fighting for, this is a perfect example of the change that tea partiers are actually going to get if Republicans manage to win back the House:

Representative Howard P. McKeon, Republican of California, who is slated to take over the Armed Services Committee, has been a particular focus of attention, as military contractors fret over spending cuts proposed by the Obama administration. ...

Recognizing the enormous power Mr. McKeon could soon have in helping shape Defense Department policy and spending, military contractors are teaming up with his office to form a new association of military suppliers they are calling the Aerospace Defense Coalition of Santa Clarita Valley, to make sure he can deliver as much money as possible to his district in California, where several of the big contractors already have large operations.

Mr. McKeon, who is known as Buck, has already hinted to industry lobbyists that he wants to push for more spending on unmanned aerial vehicles, which could benefit contractors in his district.

“Buck is a great advocate for our war fighters and for the industrial capabilities that support their mission,” said Hanz C. Heinrichs, a former aide to Mr. McKeon who now represents military contractors like L3 Communications..

One lobbyist who knows Mr. McKeon well and has contributed the maximum allowed by law to his re-election campaign has met with several military contractors in recent weeks as he seeks a way to profit from the rise of Mr. McKeon to chairman.

“I don’t want to count the chickens before they hatch,” said the lobbyist, referring not to the possible Republican takeover but to his possible surge in new clients. “But I would be surprised if it didn’t help me in one way or another. Business should be very good.”

This isn't to say Republicans won't be fighting against programs that help people who actually need it. And I suppose that will make tea partiers happy. But if they think they are actually going to do anything about truly wasteful spending, they are sorely misguided. And I'll guarantee they won't do a damn thing to hold GOPers accountable.

TPM has done something no one else wants to even think about a week before an election season that has been as ugly and brutal on a national basis as this one has: they ask what if the election isn't over next week? Given how tight some of the Senate races are right now, it's safe to expect to see at least one more Minnesota-style contested election this winter. So, courtesy TPM, here are the recount laws in the key states.

Nevada

...In Nevada, any defeated candidate can request a recount. But first the vote must be canvassed by the state Supreme Court -- after that, the Reid or Angle campaigns would have three days to file a recount request with the Secretary of State. They would then select a sampling of precincts in every county, and votes at those precincts would recounted by recount boards formed by county clerks. If partial recount totals match the canvas, then a machine recount is allowed. If there's a measurable discrepancy, then a hand count is required....

Illinois

...According to the Board of Elections, once the vote is canvassed, any candidate whose vote total is at least 95 percent of the winner's can request a recount.

In each county, one quarter of the precincts participates in the recount -- and the candidate requesting the recount picks which ones. However, a recount does not begin until the court deems it necessary. The State Supreme Court appoints a Circuit Court judge to supervise the recount, but state law provides no guidance for a counting method....

Pennsylvania

...Earlier this year, Governor Ed Rendell signed automatic recount legislation into law. According to the new law, a recount is mandatory if the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent. Any greater than that, and statewide office seekers have to request a recount of all votes cast.

In districts with paper ballots, the ballots are manually recounted, but in districts with electronic voting machines and no paper trail, an electronic review is performed, comparing the count on each machine to the initial canvas of returns....

Washington

...[I]f the vote margin is both less than 200 votes and 0.5 percent or smaller -- that will automatically trigger a recount. A hand recount is required if those margins are tighter still 0.25 percent and 1000 votes.

Any candidate can request a recount of all non-electronic votes. However, if the outcome of the election changes as a result of a recount, then a full recount is mandatory....

Wisconsin

...Recounts in Wisconsin are all candidate- or voter-initiated. The petitioners can petition the court for a hand recount. Wisconsin otherwise has an extremely detailed recount process, which can be accessed here....

Alaska

...Only an absolute tie automatically triggers a recount in Alaska. Voters and candidates can request a recount within five days of the state's review of the vote, if they suspect an erroneous or fraudulent vote count. The recount lasts no more than 10 days. In Alaska, officials use a paper audit trail to recount electronic votes....

Colorado

In Colorado, a recount is triggered if the vote margin is equal to or less than 0.5 percent -- but officials there tabulate their vote margins oddly. Rather than dividing the difference in votes by the total number of votes cast, the margin is determined by dividing the difference in votes by the number of votes the winner received. That's bad news for an underdog.

If the margin is wider, a candidate can request a recount within 24 days of the general election. Before a recount begins, the canvassing board tests voting machines with a sample set of ballots to determine the machines' accuracy. If the machines are determined to have malfunctioned, officials turn to the paper audit trail, and the Secretary of State lays out special rules governing the recount....

They also look at Florida and Ohio for the governor's races, leaving out Texas, which is another possibility and one where we're likely going to be hearing a lot of screeching about voter fraud from the Right. There's a very good chance that House seats could be close enough for recount territory as well. If you want to brush up on what would happen in your state, the Citizens for Election Integrity has the details.

Okay, then.

GOP Senate hopeful Ken Buck told a group of supporters in June that the Supreme Court wrongly inserted the right to privacy in the decision with Roe vs. Wade.

The video released Wednesday shows Buck taking questions in Lake City from a group of supporters.

Buck said, “I think Roe versus Wade was wrongly decided.”

“Why is that?” an attendee asked.

“Why? Well . . . a long constitutional issue. But the, the founding fathers did not write into the constitution the right to privacy. It was created in, in some cases that proceeded Roe versus Wade. And was in my view legislated into the constitution. By the, by the Supreme Court,” Buck said.

“The right to privacy?” someone clarified.

“The right to privacy as it pertains to abortion,” Buck said.

Buck’s campaign spokesman Owen Loftus said Buck’s view is that the privacy argument in Roe v. Wade is “dubious.”

It's much like his rejection of a separation of church and state--it's not expressly included in the Constitution, so it doesn't (or shouldn't) exist. In that way he's essentially a "tenther." But he's not like Joe "Noun Verb Unconstitutional" Miller, he's not talking about the "enumerated powers," but forming it around his personal beliefs. Suppose that the substantive due process doctrine developed in the Court in the Griswold, Roe, and Casey decision hadn't had to deal with the rights of women to control their own destiny through the legal use of contraception and abortion? Would Buck think that a right to privacy shouldn't exist in just about any other aspect of someone's personal life?

Or is it just more evidence of Buck's hostility toward women, from his no-exceptions abortion position, to his support for the personhood amendment that would declare a fertilized egg a human, and in the process make many forms of birth control illegal, to his refusal to prosecute a rape case because he believed the victim had had an abortion.

Friday opinion.

Michael P. McDonald:

So we are left with the question of what early voting tells us about the current election. I do not think that the early voting numbers are meaningless. I believe that when intertwined with polling numbers, they fold into the narrative about what we may expect in key 2010 races. Here is my take on what these numbers mean, nationally and within key states.

NATIONAL: The apparent Democratic advantage among early voters appears to support Mark Blumenthal's insight that some of the most favorable polls for the Republicans are likely overstating their advantage. While Mark describes this as a narrowing of an "attentiveness gap" as the election nears what he does not examine -- and cannot, because there is little past data to infer much from -- are party voter mobilization efforts that now emphasize early voting.

If the most extremely favorable polls for Republicans are indeed coming down to earth, I am vindicated in my initial early voting analyses that suggested things were not going to be as bad for Democrats as some pollsters indicated. I - and Mark - caution that this does not mean that Democrats are going to sweep to victory, only that the political climate is not as wildly favorable for Republicans as some suggested it was.

Makes sense, since no one really likes Republicans, they're just frustrated with Democrats.

Jon Ralston on early voting in NV:

GOP closing in on 5 percentage point edge in Clark County, but Democrats have 14,000 raw vote lead in urban Nevada

Ian Reifowitz:

In his farewell address, on January 11, 1989, Ronald Reagan called America "a beacon...for all who must have freedom."  Here Obama is subtly but unmistakably redefining that notion.  Traditionally, people around the world have admired what they see as the freedoms Americans enjoy and the democratic principles on which the U.S. political system rests.  In the Pentagon speech, Obama added another element, emphasizing that America’s democratic values allow us to generate unity while showing respect for diversity.  These values, he argued, mandate that we treat Americans from every background as fully American.  He is defining a twenty-first century "American Mission" according to which the U.S. provides a model not only of democracy as opposed to tyranny, but of a pluralistic democracy as opposed to fundamentalist tyranny.

With the election in a few days, it's good to remind ourselves about what we like in this president.

The Week has a round-up of Daily Show/Obama reviews.

National Journal:

Louisiana has a history of forgiving its colorful politicians. In 1983, Gov. Edwin Edwards famously joked that "the only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy." While the Vitter sex scandal is not forgotten, it is largely gone from the headlines and from the minds of conservative voters across the state -- lost in a desire to foil President Obama’s agenda.

Rather than elect a Democrat who might support Obama, Louisiana voters are willing to overlook Vitter’s past, Stonecipher said.

EJ Dionne:

If there is one candidate who truly wishes that Christine O'Donnell had not won the Republican senatorial nomination in Delaware, it is the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey.

Toomey, a former member of the U.S. House, became a hero to the right for pushing Sen. Arlen Specter out of the GOP. For much of the summer, Toomey ran safely ahead of the man who went on to knock out Specter in the Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Joe Sestak.

Then came O'Donnell's defeat of Rep. Mike Castle in one of the Tea Party's most celebrated victories. Northern Delaware happens to be part of the Philadelphia media market, and the attention lavished on O'Donnell, her sometimes exotic views and her "I'm not a witch" TV spot spilled over state lines.

Ezra Klein:

The administration has been caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to corporate rhetoric. The country would love some anti-corporate populism, particularly when it comes to Wall Street. But the administration can't let things get out of hand, because when things get out of hand, the financial markets and the corporate titans get scared, and that makes the economy worse. On the other hand, if the administration simply ignores the public's anger, it both destroys itself and creates room for demagogues. We saw this during the AIG bonus fight, when the White House's relative absence created room for a bill regulating Wall Street bonuses to race through the House of Representatives.

So the White House has tried to walk the line between saying the bare minimum in populist applause lines and simultaneously pursuing an extremely pro-business policy agenda.

PS There are polls and there are polls. Then there's the superaccurate Field poll in CA.

Brown leads Whitman by 10 points, Field Poll says

Tonight's Diary Rescue is brought to you courtesy of the hard work and diligence of the following Rescue Rangers:  vcmvo2, Louisiana 1976, jlms qkw, BentLiberal and srkp23.  Obligatory nods go to dadanation for appearing to both rescue and edit tonight.

Diaries Rescued (The)

• Attempts at obliterating Native-American beliefs and artifacts continue to this very day under cover of fundamental Christianity in Swallow & "smashing Native American vessels" by Winter Rabbit. (vcmvo2)
• In an informative piece Stranded Wind tells us about Legislative Situational Awareness With Progressive Congress News. (Louisiana 1976)
• Persuasively and scarily dengre details the post-Civil War roots of what is now the Tea Party movement in Getting out their old Red Shirts... (Louisiana 1976)
• With a clever first diary, quidley expands and refines our vocabulary in 2010 Political Devil's Dictionary. (jlms qkw)
• Denni explains why it's genetic in Olbermann's Special Report - My American Identity. (jlms qkw)
• Ojibwa once again shares with us from his seemingly unending wealth of knowledge and history in Indians 101: Colorado's "Meeker Massacre". (BentLiberal)
• Suspecting a bit of Kabuki theater, Robert Naiman asks biting questions in Pentagon Deliberately "Degrading" Afghan Capacity for Peace? (BentLiberal)
• Daphne Eviatar Human Rights 1st keeps us informed on the Omar Khadr sentencing trial in Google Searches Undermine Government's Star Witness in Khadr Case. (BentLiberal)
• gmoke presents the Great Power Race: Global College Competition, ARPA-E, and Automotive X-Prize. (srkp23)
• Avenging Angel says Save American Charities. Restore the Estate Tax. (srkp23)
• occams hatchet demonstrates his strong stomach once again and presents more of The Republicans, in their own words (Part 4): 'Let 'em eat applesauce'. (srkp23)
• That Santayana warned that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, pale cold does their best to make sure we all remember in The Know Nothings. History repeats. (dadanation)

Suspects Usual (The)

jotter brings us High Impact Diaries: October 27, 2010.

sardonyx has tonight's Top Comments: 1968 Olympics edition.

Remarks Concluding (The)

Please use this as an Open Thread as well as your chance to promote your favorite diaries of the day. Respectful engagement is most welcome here. Please keep in mind that each Diary Rescue's daily purview extends from 3pm PST yesterday to 3pm PST today.

We could call this, perhaps, the calm before the storm on the polling front. After three consecutive days north of the half-century mark, the data load retreats today, back into the low forties. When all is said and done, we have 42 polls to peruse today.

As has been the case for far too many days this cycle, the news is almost ridiculously mixed. If you are a fan of Paul Kanjorski (PA-11) or Alex Sink (FL-Gov), you are pretty gleeful today. If you are a Jack Conway (KY-Sen) or a Libby Mitchell (ME-Gov) supporter, today's numbers are more likely to make you despondent.

We have data on those races, and dozens more, in the Thursday edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

• Alaska Senate (Hays Research):

  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (WI) 34%, Scott McAdams (D) 29%, Joe Miller (R) 23%

• Alaska Senate (Hellenthal--R):

  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (WI) 44%, Joe Miller (R) 29%, Scott McAdams (D) 23%

• Connecticut Senate (Merriman River Group):

  Richard Blumenthal (D) 52%, Linda McMahon (R) 44%

• Delaware Senate (Fairleigh Dickinson):

  Chris Coons (D) 57%, Christine O'Donnell (R) 36%

• Florida Senate (Quinnipiac):

  Marco Rubio (R) 42%, Charlie Crist (I) 35%, Kendrick Meek (D) 15%

• Kentucky Senate (Braun Research):

  Rand Paul (R) 47%, Jack Conway (D) 39%

• Kentucky Senate (SurveyUSA):

  Rand Paul (R) 52%, Jack Conway (D) 43%

• Ohio Senate (SurveyUSA):

  Rob Portman (R) 52%, Lee Fisher (D) 37%

• Pennsylvania Senate (Muhlenberg College):

  Patrick Toomey (R) 48%, Joe Sestak (D) 40%

• Wisconsin Senate (We the People Wisconsin):

  Ron Johnson (R) 48%, Sen. Russ Feingold (D) 44%

THE ANALYSIS: Inexplicably, stomping a head is apparently less offensive to the delicate sensibilities of Kentucky voters than a mean television ad. Despite the post-debate assault tied to a Paul volunteer, the Republican still enjoys a lead in the high single-digits, which are actually improvements for Paul with both pollsters. Meanwhile, Charlie Crist might be starting to consolidate Democrats, but it looks like it is too late. Despite Kendrick Meek dropping to the teens, Crist can only pull within seven of Marco Rubio. Like Dan Maes in Colorado, Crist is going to need Meek in single digits to harbor any hopes of pulling off the upset. In the "as expected" news, both Chris Coons (D-DE) and Rob Portman (R-OH) maintain wide leads.

THE U.S. HOUSE

• Connecticut-01 (Merriman River Group):

  Rep. John Larson (D) 56%, Ann Brickley (R) 38%

• Connecticut-02 (Merriman River Group):

  Rep. Joe Courtney (D) 57%, Janet Peckinpaugh (R) 38%

• Connecticut-03 (Merriman River Group):

  Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D) 56%, Jerry Labriola (R) 37%

• Florida-25 (Susquehanna--R):

  David Rivera (R) 44%, Joe Garcia (D) 43%, Others 8%

• Georgia-02 (Landmark--R):

  Mike Keown (R) 50%, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D) 46%

• Georgia-07 (Landmark--R):

  Rob Woodall (R) 60%, Doug Heckman (D) 30%

• Georgia-08 (Landmark--R):

  Austin Scott (R) 53%, Rep. Jim Marshall (D) 39%

• Michigan-07 (National Research--R):

  Tim Walberg (R) 49%, Rep. Mark Schauer (D) 36%

• New Jersey-12 (Monmouth):

  Rep. Rush Holt (D) 51%, Scott Sipprelle (R) 43%

• New York-23 (Siena):

  Rep. Bill Owens (D) 40%, Matt Doheny (R) 37%, Doug Hoffman (C) 15%

• North Carolina-02 (Civitas/SurveyUSA):

  Renee Ellmers (R) 46%, Rep. Bobby Etheridge (D) 41%, Others 6%

• Pennsylvania-10 (Critical Insights):

  Tom Marino (R) 47%, Rep. Chris Carney (D) 38%

• Pennsylvania-11 (Critical Insights):

  Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) 47%, Lou Barletta (R) 39%

• Virginia-05 (SurveyUSA):

  Rob Hurt (R) 51%, Rep. Tom Perriello (D) 43%, Others 2%

THE ANALYSIS: On paper, this would qualify as a pretty bad day for the blue team. But most of the bad data has caveats attached: the SUSA poll in VA-05 shows a marked improvement for Perriello, who has been routinely down by twice that margin in SUSA's assessment of the race. The Michigan poll that shows Schauer down double digits is pretty dubious, given that two public polls in the past week have given Schauer a lead in the mid-single digits.

Critical Insights is somewhat upside down in the Keystone State, becoming the only pollster showing Paul Kanjorski out in front, but showing Chris Carney (who has led in some public polling) down badly to Republican Tom Marino. SurveyUSA brings bad news in North Carolina, where Bob Etheridge has not recovered.

There is some good news for Dems here: both Rush Holt (NJ-12) and John Larson (CT-01) seem to have repelled surprising challenges, while Doug Hoffman, even from the sidelines, continues to haunt the GOP in upstate New York. And in Florida, a Republican pollster only has David Rivera holding onto the GOP-held 25th district by a single point.

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

• California Governor (Field Poll):

  Jerry Brown (D) 49%, Meg Whitman (R) 39%

• Colorado Governor (RBI Strategies):

  John Hickenlooper (D) 48%, Tom Tancredo (C) 34%, Dan Maes (R) 10%

• Florida Governor (Mason Dixon):

  Alex Sink (D) 46%, Rick Scott (R) 43%

• Florida Governor (Quinnipiac):

  Alex Sink (D) 45%, Rick Scott (R) 41%, Others 3%

• Georgia Governor (Landmark--R):

  Nathan Deal (R) 49%, Roy Barnes (D) 42%, Others 4%

• Maine Governor (PPP):

  Paul LePage (R) 40%, Eliot Cutler (I) 28%, Libby Mitchell (D) 24%

• Minnesota Governor (Humphrey Institute):

  Mark Dayton (D) 41%, Tom Emmer (R) 29%, Tom Horner (I) 11%

• Ohio Governor (SurveyUSA):

  John Kasich (R) 49%, Gov. Ted Strickland (D) 44%, Others 4%

• Oregon Governor (Grove Insight--D):

  John Kitzhaber (D) 49%, Chris Dudley (R) 45%, Others 3%

• Pennsylvania Governor (Muhlenberg College):

  Tom Corbett (R) 52%, Dan Onorato (D) 37%

• Rhode Island Governor (Fleming and Associates):

  Lincoln Chafee (I) 33%, Frank Caprio (D) 26%, John Robitaille (R) 26%

• Rhode Island Governor (Quest Research):

  Lincoln Chafee (I) 35%, John Robitaille (R) 28%, Frank Caprio (D) 25%

THE ANALYSIS: If there is a bright spot for Dems, it is in the gubernatorial races. California's "gold standard", the Field Poll, confirms the movement away from Meg Whitman. Meanwhile, another gazillionaire (Rick Scott) appears to be fading, as Alex Sink has moved into the lead with two different pollsters who preferred Scott not long ago. Meanwhile, Colorado and Minnesota look better and better for Democrats, while Frank Caprio's shot across the bow at President Obama seems to have bought him third-place status.

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA
Ras is still on the Rick Scott island (in stark contrast to everyone else today), and they see a Jim Huffman boomlet that absolutely no one else sees. This is great news, oddly enough, for Democrat John Kitzhaber, because giving Wyden an almost inconceivable 11-point edge against Huffman might also cast doubt on their gubernatorial poll (which showed Republican Chris Dudley with a four-point edge). Meanwhile, they also have Carly Fiorina stronger than anyone else, but still trailing.

CA-Sen: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) 49%, Carly Fiorina (R) 46%
FL-Gov: Rick Scott (R) 48%, Alex Sink (D) 45%
ME-Gov: LePage (R) 40%, Cutler (I) 26%, Mitchell (D) 26%
OH-Gov: John Kasich (R) 48%, Gov. Ted Strickland (D) 44%
OR-Sen: Sen. Ron Wyden (D) 53%, Jim Huffman (R) 42%
WA-Sen: Dino Rossi (R) 48%, Sen. Patty Murray (D) 47%

   This Rescue Diary covers the period from 6 PM, Wednesday, 10/27 to 6:00 PM EDT, Thursday, 10/28

Today's Menu Includes :
67 Diaries Overall

- 8 On House races

- Covering 7 individual Districts in 7 states

- 20 On Senate races

- Representing 11 different states

- 11 On Various election races and ballot issues

- Encompassing Governor, Secretary of State, Local, and more

- 28 General election-related diaries

And be sure to follow the Election Diary Rescue on Twitter

There seems to be a vast range of stories lurking in Joe Miller's history, which really explains why he refuses to answer any more questions about it, but Alaska Dispatch has another one that's kind of complicated and quite strange about property Miller has owned for the last 14 years, but hasn't reported on his financial disclosure statements.

The deed for the property is recorded in the name of something called "The Wilmington Trust," but the woman named as the trustee says she had no idea of the exact nature of her legal connections and obligations to the property. Whether a trust actually exists is unclear....

The land was purchased in 1996. Former owner Arnie Hrncir said he gave in to a low-ball offer from Miller because he really needed to sell. Hrncir didn't say how much Miller paid, but land in the Willow area was going cheap at the time.

Miller had been working for a year or so as an attorney at an Anchorage law firm, although in 1995 he'd signed a sworn statement that he was indigent. That claim allowed him to save $50 on a state hunting and fishing license; he got a license reserved for the poor for only $5....

But Miller's name does not appear on the deed registered with the state.

On paper, the land Hrncir sold to Miller is in the name of "Bobbi Reed,'' trustee for The Wilmington Trust. Reed is an old friend of Miller's wife, Kathleen.

Reed lives in Anchorage, but tax statements are sent to her at an address in Fairbanks. The address is the post office box for the Law Offices of Joseph W. Miller.

In an Oct. 19 interview, Reed said the property is Miller's. Attorneys familiar with federal campaign disclosure laws say that if that is the case, Miller should have reported it on his Senate filings.

The Senate disclosure forms do list the 1,000 acres of Delta farmland Miller bought with a state loan in 1999 as well as his home and law office in Fairbanks. But there is no mention of the Willow land or any trusts Miller might control for his children if, in fact, a trust exists. Reed said she knows nothing about a trust even though she is named as trustee. She knows only that after the Millers bought the property, they asked her to do them a favor as a friend....

Attorneys familiar with federal campaign disclosure laws say that if the Willow property is owned by Miller, it should have been reported as an asset on his federal campaign disclosure forms.

It also would have to be reported, they said, if it is in a legally established trust for dependent children.

More secrets from Miller, from the very strange arrangement he made to create the apparent fiction of "The Wilmington Trust," to his failure to declare the asset in his financial disclosure forms. The story also provides a not-so-flattering portrait of Miller, not surprisingly, from the man who sold him the property.

"He knew I wanted to sell bad," Hrncir said. "He made me one of those 'offer's good only until the sun goes down' deals.'"

Hrncir didn't really want to sell for the cut-rate price being offered, but he felt that he had to. And he perfectly understood the low-ball offer; business is business.

What followed wasn't, at least not by Alaska standards. The deal was made in Willow, Hrncir said, but he met Miller in Anchorage at the Denny's on Dimond Boulevard to sign the papers to close the sale. Up to that point, Hrncir said, he'd always found the Anchorage lawyer a friendly guy. That changed the second the legal documents were inked.

Hrncir told Miller he planned to go back to Caswell to get the last of the family's stuff out of the cabin, including the generator Hrncir had said all along he planned to take with him. Miller told Hrncir that he was to stay off the property.

Accustomed to an old Alaska where a man's handshake is his word, Hrncir was taken aback, but he didn't fight.

"He schemed me out of that," Hrncir said. "He pulled out a paper and said it said (sold) 'where is, as is.' Legally he was right, (but) he went from a friend to a legal counsel in a minute.... I'll admit it," Hrncir said. "He got me."

Miller was five months late in filing his financial disclosure forms, and it turns out they're not complete, which for our immediate purposes is the main story. It could be just a simple oversight on Miller's part, that happens. But the whole bizarre backstory of the subterfuge in concealing his ownership of this place has to make one wonder what exactly the big secret about it is, or whether it's just another grifter-type effort to hide an asset and avoid paying taxes on it, like his good buddies, the Palins did with their Mat Su property.

No one could've predicted...

The Department of Homeland Security, apparently ready to cut its losses on a so-called invisible fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, has decided not to exercise a one-year option for Boeing to continue work on the troubled multibillion-dollar plan involving high-tech cameras, radar and vibration sensors.

The result, after an investment of more than $1 billion, may be a system with only 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the nearly 2,000-mile border.

And so another Bush-era boondoggle bites the dust, as conservatives seek magic solutions to a serious and complex problems.

Only question is, how many more billions will be pissed away building more fences. Someone should let Republicans know that they've invented these fence countermeasures called "ladders".

All of this would be funny, if these supposed "fiscally conservative" xenophobes didn't insist on shoveling billions of our dollars into this money pit.

They're pissed off! Even if they don't have the facts to tell you why.

Rachel chatted with some Joe Miller supporters campaigning on a street corner, but before she could walk away, the activists wanted to emphasize that they resent Sen. Lisa Murkowski for being one of 19 Republicans to vote to confirm Eric Holder as the U.S. Attorney General. Rachel asked why that was a bad thing. That's when it got amusing.

One young man insisted that Holder is "the most anti-gun attorney general this nation has ever had." When Rachel asked how he arrived at this, he had absolutely no idea why he believes what he believes. He referenced Holder's "voting record beforehand," which made no sense, since Holder has never held elected office. Asked what it was, exactly, that Holder did on gun policy he didn't like, the Miller supporter -- who, remember, feels so strongly about this issue that he brought it up -- replied, "I, uh, I honestly, uh, I don't know enough about him to answer that truthfully."

So, Rachel moved to the next voter who's mad about Holder, and who also brought up the subject. "He's anti-gun," the woman said. Asked what he'd done that's anti-gun, the Miller support replied, "I don't have all the facts, but I know that he is."

This crowd of illiterates don't know why they're angry, they just know that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh told them to be angry, generated a few boogeymen on which to focus that anger, and that's good enough.

Your modern conservative movement is built on ignorane.

Darth Raese:

It’s time to get inspired:

Here’s the deal:

--Democrats are down in the House, but they are not out of it.

--Democrats look good to hold the Senate, and President Obama has endorsed filibuster reform.

--Early voting is well underway, and Democrats are holding their own.

--Today and tonight are the final times you can give money to campaigns, and still have your money spent on or before Election Day.

--The Daily Kos community is really close to hitting our $1,000,000 goal.

This is it. This is our time. Don’t let it pass you by, and always wonder what could have been.

One last time, contribute $10 to Orange to Blue candidates.

Update: $1,000,000! You guys are amazing. I am just glad to be here for the ride.

We can still pull the upset, and shock the system. There is still time to give, if you do so tonight.

TPM reports on an incident from a few weeks ago in which another young, female political activist was assaulted by a Republican man.

The incident occured outside GOP headquarters in Walla Walla County where the demonstrator, Christie Stordeur, was "one of five protesters standing about 40 feet from the entrance of the office," according to the Tri-City Herald.

Stordeur and the other protesters "were wearing bags over their heads and holding a sign that looked like a check." That's when Victor Phillips, according to a Sheriff's deputy on scene, walked over to Stordeur to "lift her bag off her head." When Stordeur "lifted her arm in defense," Phillips hit it "with 'force.'"

The Herald reports that the deputy on scene "immediately stepped between the two and arrested Phillips on a charge of investigation of assault."

Incidentally, the assailant, Victor Phillips isn't just any Republican. He's a precinct committee officer in Walla Walla, so is in the GOP establishment there. He said he wanted to get a picture of the protestors. The assault is getting attention now because of the headstomping of Lauren Valle in Kentucky. In the absence of that highly publicized attack, this one would probably have just received local media coverage.

And that's not how is should have been. This is just one of a handful of incidents in Washington that have been high profile enough to make the news.

Republicans have worked hard to sow fear and anger this election season, and if recent events in the Washington Senate race are any indication, their rhetorical hyperbole is having an unsurprising effect. On October 14, a man was arrested for threatening Patty Murray supporters with a meat cleaver outside a debate in Spokane. Four days later, a man was arrested outside Walla Walla County Republican headquarters for assaulting a young woman who was protesting Dino Rossi, hitting her with "force." And just a few days ago, a man was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for threatening to kill Sen. Murray.

Patty Murray's been a target of violent rhetoric for the length of the campaign, with one teabagger saying she should be hung and another saying she (and Maria Cantwell) should be shot. It's remarkable because we're pretty low-key people up here in the PacNW, and multiple incidents of violence in a single campaign isn't too common in our politics. Yes, there's the whole white supremacist problem, but they're not generally out there assaulting 23 year old women. Even in the extremely bitter and nasty Gregoire/Rossi rematch in 2008, the most that made the media radar was a Joe-Miller like roughing up of a Dem tracker at a Rossi event.

If the headstomp hadn't been recorded, it's likely that the nation wouldn't know about this other assault on another 23 year old woman by a Republican man. And if there's this much that's been reported on in Washington state alone, how many of these incidents are occurring around the country that aren't making the news?

There's more on this incident in phenry's diary.

Neck and neck:

While most of Florida's 25 congressional races tilt toward Republicans this year, Democrats' best chance for a takeaway is in South Florida's sprawling 25th District, a new Sunshine State News Poll shows.

Republican David Rivera holds a 44-43 lead over Democrat Joe Garcia in a four-way contest for the seat being vacated by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.

Rivera is certainly getting hammered in the closing days of the election. His efforts to hide the source of his income has generated a frenzy of investigative stories:

Republican congressional candidate David Rivera has repeatedly failed to file annual reports detailing the activities of his consulting company in Puerto Rico, records show -- further compounding the mystery surrounding the state lawmaker's private work.

Rivera, a four-term state representative from Miami, first founded a company called Interamerican Government Relations in Puerto Rico in November 2003. But Rivera never filed any annual reports on the company as required by law, according to a review of the company's records in Puerto Rico.

"This corporation should have had a notification of cancellation since April 2006,'' said Eduardo Arosemena, assistant secretary of Puerto Rico's Department of State. But because of administrative problems at the department, the agency has allowed Rivera's company and thousands of others to remain as technically active companies.

Rivera has already come under scrutiny over questions about his purported work as an "international development consultant'' for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Though Rivera said for years that he worked for USAID -- through his Puerto Rican company -- USAID officials told The Miami Herald they have no record of any work done by Rivera or his firm.

There's this, from his fellow Republicans:

Rep. Juan Zapata, who heads Miami-Dade County's 25-member delegation, recalled Rivera telling him he worked for USAID but said he never knew in what capacity.

"He's always unclear about things, and if you ask him too much, he'll just laugh," Zapata said.
Former state Rep. J.C. Planas, a Rivera rival, had a similar response.

"Honestly, I never understood what David Rivera did for a living," he said.

It'd be hard for him to admit the likely source of that mysterious revenue -- money laundering and god knows what else.

This is a rare Democratic pickup opportunity, and the polling shows it'll be a race to the finish. So if you can help out, please do so. We can offset the loss of a Blue Dog with a victorious great Dem.