The surprising ascendance of Alaska-Sen to a real race this year seems to have caught everyone off-guard. With Teabagger Joe Miller's upset win in the republican primary the republican party itself must now grapple with a candidate who who is not shy about espousing radical views (gutting or eliminating entitlement programs chief among them). Naturally in a state like Alaska which relies on the Federal government such opinions are not shared by the majority. This has left an opening for a relatively unknown and underfunded Democratic candidate Scott McAdams of Sitka, Alaska.

Present U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski was expected to win in a walk in November, and polls suggest she would have with a thirty point lead over McAdams and deep financial resources. Now, however, with an extremist like Joe Miller winning the race is in single digits by two pollsters (Rasmussen and PPP).

Some of the pundits are already writing these results off, saying there's no way a Democrat can win in Alaska this year, somehow forgetting that elections are strange things with a mind of their own. If McAdams runs a smart campaign and has sufficient resources he could very well win this race. In the past few days McAdams has become #3 at ActBlue, raising nearly $100,000.

SwingState (via Roll Call) has more on the growing enthusiasm.

"It's night and day," a Democratic source close to the campaign said about the feeling on the ground in the state since the primary. "People are excited. People are stunned." ...
"It is happening, and there's a new surge of energy and excitement into Democratic headquarters out here," Alaska Democratic Party spokeswoman Kay Brown said. "Scott's a good guy, a real Alaskan, and I think he's going to look good and compare favorably against Joe Miller." ...

The Democratic source said that McAdams could pick up Republican votes in places like the Aleutian Islands, which is home to the largest fishing port in the country and relies on significant federal funding - something some in the state believe could diminish with Miller in office.

"People are freaked out out here about this Joe Miller guy," the source said.

Here's his official donations link.

Video is from the Rachel Maddow show last night.