Dear Alaska Politics,

You're a total mess.

We've been concerned about you for decades, but this Republican U.S. Senate primary makes it official. You've crossed into Amy Winehouse territory. We thought about staging an intervention, but you seem to think political rehab is for, well ... quitters.

Maybe you've heard: Joe Miller is holding a slim lead over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary. Just so you're aware, Miller ran on a platform largely consisting of a promise to fight against federal spending in a state whose very existence and continued viability depends in large measure on federal spending. Yeah, we know, most Alaskans are confused about it too.

As of this writing, the race won't be called one way or another for an agonizing week or two, maybe more, while absentee and questioned ballots are counted. By the way, we suspect many Alaskans vote absentee even if they don't have to, just on the off chance their vote could help decide a close race. This isn't the first time an election has come down to the wire like this, either, so we're a little used to it, but man, that doesn't make the wait any easier.

Just as we The Concerned can smell a hint of autumn on the morning breeze, we sense a bitter ugliness rising from the confusion that has followed Wednesday's vote. It smells more like diapers and character assassination than woodsmoke, though.

We're very concerned that until all is said and done, this primary fight is going to make 2008 look like an actual tea party, with crumpets and everything. We're also terrified that the tiny portion of all Alaskans who voted for Miller in the primary may end up committing Alaska to a doomsday scenario this fall.

People have been guessing away at all sorts of reasons Sen. Murkowski could be trailing: Democrats and left-leaning non-partisans cross-voting for Miller as some kind of sick joke; an out-of-state group spending more than $500,000 on Miller's behalf; centrist Republicans choosing to picnic on a primary day blessed by lovely weather while ancient polls gave them the idea that Murkowski would win handily; then there was that diamond-encrusted wedge-issue ballot initiative very appealing to the religious right. (In fact, that last one was enough to make some of The Concerned wish for a ballot initiative next election that would restrict initiative votes to general elections. Others of us thought there should have been a pot-legalization initiative to balance out the demographic appeal.)

People have also been trying to speculate about what comes next. We've heard that the Murkowski campaign is considering its options to defend her growing power on the Senate Appropriations Committee in the event the final tally goes in Miller's favor, but everything -- and we The Concerned mean everything -- is still up in the air.

Basically, Murkowski's choices are to run on another party's ticket or wage a write-in campaign. The deadline to register as an Independent candidate has passed, and the only parties besides the GOP to field candidates this year were the Democrats and Libertarians. People have been speculating that Murkowski's best option on a third-party run would be as a Libertarian. Which confuses us. Miller's platform appears more traditionally Libertarian than Murkowski's (except for the part where he favors using government to restrict abortion rights).