Pilot, retired reservist, announces candidacy for [Alaska] Senate seat

Anchorage Daily News ^ | May 15, 2003 | Anchorage Daily News

[JohnnyZ]

A 46-year-old commercial pilot and retired U.S. Air Force reservist said this week he plans to run for the U.S. Senate in next year's election as an independent.

Marc Millican, of Anchorage, has never run for political office, and will have to collect 2,329 signatures by the date of the primary election in 2004 to make it onto the general election ballot, according to the state Division of Elections. The number is equal to 1 percent of the votes cast in the last general election.

Millican said he wants to run for the seat now held by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican. He said that his top priority will be opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development and that he will discuss his plan for doing so at a news conference later this year.

Millican said he is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a former lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves. He is a pilot for Northwest Airlines.

In 1999, he and another commercial pilot confirmed their finding of the fabled wreckage of a chartered Northwest Airlines DC-4 that crashed into Mount Sanford in the Wrangell Mountains in March 1948.

[JohnnyZ]

What effect would a Millican candidacy have on the 2004 race, assuming it's a close one between Knowles and Murkowski? I doubt he'd get more than 1 or 2 percent, but if it's close . . .

He could eat into Murkowski's conservative/Republican base, or alternatively deny Knowles some anti-Murkowski votes.

[fieldmarshaldj]

It's simply too early to tell. Independents without party label will scarcely get any votes. However, if he chooses to go after the "Alaska Independence Party" nomination or even "Libertarian", he'll get at least 5%, possibly higher.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Should say "has the potential" to get 5%. We don't know who he takes it from.