The Alaska candidates for lieutenant governor debated in Wasilla Thursday night. Who cares?

Who, for that matter, would want to be lieutenant governor? The job might be more boring than that of an Anchorage fireman sitting around the station house and sitting and sitting and sitting. Alaska's lieutenant governor has only one assigned job: Oversee Alaska elections.

Those happen every couple years. What does the lieutenant governor do the rest of the time? Whatever the governor tells him, if the governor tells him anything. A lot of Alaska's lieutenant governors have been left to do little or nothing. They did so little that in most cases they couldn't even get enough name recognition to make a bid for governor themselves.

Since statehood in 1959, 12 Alaskans have been elected lite-gov. Not a one of them has ever managed to get elected governor. Most of them have faded into obscurity or appeared headed there. Anyone remember Hugh Wade?

2010 Republican contender Jay Ramras, well-known around the state because of the television commercials for his Fairbanks hotel, is likely to become only less known if he is elected lieutenant governor.

And Republican contender Mead Treadwell, a former deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation and a successful entrepreneur, is clearly overqualified for the lite-gov's job.

At least Republican Eddie Burke has a good excuse for running. He needs a job. And the lite-gov's job can sometimes lead to the big, white mansion in Juneau.

Alaskans have elected only 10 people governor since statehood, and two of them -- the late Wally Hickel and the prominent Sarah Palin -- resigned from office. So, if you are elected lite-gov, you do have a 1-in-5 chance of becoming governor.

Not bad odds.

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.