Murkowski's write-in plan encourages two others

Bill Walker, a governor candidate who got 33 percent of the Republican primary vote, hasn't yet decided whether to run as a write-in against Gov. Sean Parnell, who won the GOP primary, and Democratic nominee Ethan Berkowitz, said Taylor Bickford, Walker's campaign manager.

Also considering a write-in candidacy is Bill Cook, who lost by four votes in the Republican primary for House District 18, which includes parts of Anchorage and Eagle River.

With Murkowski's announcement Friday afternoon that she will run as a write-in, "it definitely looks more attractive than it did before," Bickford said. "It brings a lot of legitimacy to a write-in candidacy."

Murkowski will campaign hard and will educate voters on the process, which includes filling in the bubble and writing in the name, making it easier for other write-in candidates, Bickford said. She's taking on Republican Joe Miller, who narrowly beat her in the primary with the support of the Tea Party Express, and Democrat Scott McAdams.

Walker, an Anchorage attorney who invested about $300,000 of his own money into his unsuccessful primary bid, framed his campaign around a vision of building a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, from the North Slope to Valdez.

He's evaluating whether Parnell or Berkowitz would take on the fight for an all-Alaska pipeline as he considers whether to keep running. Berkowitz says he's behind an all-Alaska pipeline project and that if he wins, Walker can serve on his administration's gas line team. Parnell has said he's keeping the options open, either for an in-state gas pipeline or big pipelines to the Lower 48 market or Valdez, depending on market forces.

Both the Parnell and Berkowitz campaigns have been courting Walker, hoping that if he doesn't run, Walker and his supporters will get behind their candidacy.

"He hasn't closed the door on endorsing either of them," Bickford said. Walker has talked with Berkowitz and Parnell and his running mate, Mead Treadwell, about whether they'll do enough. So far, "he doesn't see the governor's message changing at all," Bickford said.

For days, Walker has been stretching out an announcement on whether he's staying in the race. Last week, he lost any opportunity to get on the ballot as a third-party candidate. The deadline passed and neither Alaskan Independence Party candidate Don Wright nor Libertarian candidate, William "Billy" Toien, stepped aside to make room.

Walker initially said he was disinclined to run as a write-in, but Murkowski's decision shakes things up, Bickford said.

In the House District 18 race, Cook said he's not satisfied with the results of a recount last week and believes some questioned ballots may have been improperly thrown out. No vote totals changed for any of the three Republican candidates in the recount. Dan Saddler, who has worked as an aide to three Republican governors, won with 415 votes, Cook, an Eagle River lawyer, had 411, and former Anchorage Assembly member Dan Kendall was third with 332.

Cook could take the issue to the state Supreme Court but says he believes the only court remedy would be a new election, which he acknowledges is unlikely.

"I've got to think, 'What are other possibilities?' " Cook said. He's looking at the Murkowski write-in candidacy and wondering what Walker will do.

"I mean four votes," he said.

Both Walker and Cook say they'll make announcements soon on whether they are staying in.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.