My name is Scott McAdams, and I'm the Democratic candidate for Senate in the great state of Alaska. I met some of you this year at Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, back when my candidacy was a tiny blip on the 2010 Senate radar screen. Since then, as some of you might have heard, my race has heated up into an almost unprecedented three-way battle, complete with a nationally televised Republican Family Feud.
I'm a big guy from a small town. I was raised by a single mom in Petersburg, AK. I grew up in an Alaska where we looked out for one another, and that spirit of community is what drives me to this day.
To save space in this diary, I'll direct you to my first DKos post, back in July, for a little bit about my history as a fisherman, educator, and public servant.
I couldn't have been a school board member, a mayor, or a Senate candidate without the love and support of my beautiful wife of 17 years, Romee, and our three wonderful children. The hardest part of this campaign has been being away from them for so long.
Why should you care about a small town mayor running for US Senate in Alaska? As we've seen, a single senator from any state, whether next-door or far-flung, can become an almost insurmountable impediment to progress. I'm running for the Senate because I think Alaska needs a senator who understands what it means to do a hard day's work, who helps build communities, who watches out for his neighbors and gets them the help they need in a changing economy. I'm a guy who sees problems and tackles them, who rolls up his sleeves with Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike to get results on the local and state levels. I know that my young state needs continued federal investment to keep developing our natural resources. This race is about Alaska. But Alaska is inextricably linked to the rest of our great country: as goes one, so goes the other. Policies that are good for Alaska will help build a stronger America.
Congress is broken, especially the Senate, where good bills go to die. Progress on key issues important to Alaska families is not happening. Instead, political grandstanding, partisan bickering and election-year road-blocking has stopped immigration reform, clean energy legislation, and tax cuts for working families. We've seen bailout after bailout and giveaway after giveaway. They've outsourced and free-traded away millions of good American jobs. Just earlier today, a measure to keep jobs from being outsourced failed in the Senate, blocked by the corporate interests that run the show. You and I know that the time for action is now: it is time to put the country's economic house in order so that we can pass on a strong and healthy America, a strong and healthy Alaska, to our kids.
I'm running for the United States Senate to lend a big hand to those trying to strengthen the middle class, to benefit the American worker. We need to extend the tax cuts on the 98% of Americans making $250,000 or less. We need to cut taxes on small businesses (not rich companies that classify themselves as small) to jump-start the real engine of our economy. Two years ago, our political establishment borrowed billions from us and our kids to hand over to banks that claimed the world would implode unless they got their $800 billion. Well we saw what happened with that: big bonuses, golden parachutes, great dividends, and an unemployment rate near 10%. The Geithner/Summers policy of dumping cash into the hands of the Masters of Wall Street has failed as small businesses have been denied the credit they need to thrive. It's time to get to work to fix our economy with sensible policies that deliver for those of us who didn't get bailed out.
It's time to get to work to fix our energy future, too. On energy, a lot of you will disagree with my support of drilling in ANWR, which I view as an essential production capacity that we need to wean ourselves off foreign oil while we transition to a renewable energy future. I believe in climate change and humankind's contribution to it, and I'm the only candidate that believes in harnessing Alaska's vast resources, both traditional and renewable, to begin the transition to a greener energy future.
It's time to beat back the forces that threaten Social Security and Medicare, the unbreakable promises America made to our seniors almost 70 years ago. Politicians and lobbyists who have spent decades raiding our treasury to spend our children's money on wars and tax cuts for the rich we couldn't afford, without coming up with ways to pay for the things they wanted, have their sights set on cutting the essential fibers of our safety net to fix their mistakes. Send me to the Senate and there will be one big Alaskan standing right in their way, ready for a good fight.
I'll be back very soon to talk a little about my opponents in this race and what is at stake should either of them win. I'll also have more diaries up in the next few weeks on my specific issue platforms, many of which you can already find on my site, www.scottmcadams.org. I'm Scott McAdams, and I'm running for Senate in Alaska to fight for the community values I was raised with. I'd appreciate your support.
PS - Check out this diary by Kossack alpolitics from August, which is a nice little summary of our race.
Here's the link to my first TV ad - check it out. And many thanks to Rachel Maddow for covering the fact that, unlike my opponents, our campaign is focused on Alaska. Though I disagree with Rachel that running a local race isn't the right way to go -- Alaskans want their problems solved, and I'm confident they will choose me as the one to solve them.
Cross-posted at DailyKos and FDL.
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