Tea Party Express still roaming the tundra

You can't keep a good Tea Partier down. With one week until Election Day, the Joe Miller campaign has been forced to jettison its campaign manager and has topped out at about 30 percent in most polls, with Miller's opponent, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, holding the other 70 points.

But the Tea Party Express is steaming ahead. The group says it's spent over $250,000 on Joe Miller ads as of last week, with about $100,000 going to radio and the rest going towards television. Just last night the group raised about $75,000 with a two-hour "RadioThon." And the group's leaders also cite a poll by an anonymous third party that puts Miller within nine points (hard to take such a secretive poll seriously, but there you go.)

"I think this race is much more competitive than Lisa Murkowski wants it to be," said Bryan Shroyer, political director for the Tea Party Express. "I think we have a good shot to take her out."

Shroyer said campaigning in Alaska is fundamentally different than the battles the group has fought in the Lower 48. He said the race, with its focus on retail politics and shaking hands, has felt like a congressional race spread out over half the continental United States. That's in direct contrast to statewide races in large states that usually hinge on a candidate dumping money onto the airwaves to get their message out (Shroyer cited Meg Whitman's $100 million quest for governor of California).

"That doesn't work in Alaska," he said.

So with one week to go, both the Tea Party Express and the Miller campaign are feeling good. "We sense the momentum is on our side," Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto said in a Monday evening e-mail, "and we're going to win this race."

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul(at)alaskadispatch.com.