WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- Daily news notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Line of succession -- Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski is preparing to head home to take his place as governor next month. Rumors are running wild as to the identity of the person he will choose as his replacement in the Senate -- and Murkowski is doing nothing to tamp them down.
On Friday Murkowski read off a list of 25 names he is considering for the job including former Alaska Attorney General Charlie Cole and Alaska Teamsters Union leader and former Alaska Democratic National Committeeman Jerry Hood, who switched parties and campaigned for Murkowski.
Also on the list are state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of his U.S. Senate colleague Ted Stevens; former NATO Commander Gen. Joseph Ralston; and Lisa Murkowski, the state House GOP leader who is also his daughter. Murkowski becomes governor on Dec. 2, the day on which he has announced he will resign from the Senate and make the appointment.
Nevertheless, some conservatives in Washington are nervous. Opponents of abortion rights are making the case to Murkowski that if he appoints someone who shares his anti-abortion views it will head off a nasty split within the party like the one that permitted Democrat Tony Knowles to be elected governor. The anti-abortion rights community is a potent political force in Alaska. Its leaders are telling Murkowski that "a pro-life candidate" would keep the coalition together that kept him in the Senate and helped elect him governor, which would seem to rule out Hood, whom Murkowski is said to want to appoint. Hood became a Republican over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, but is not with the Republicans on abortion.
What price glory -- In a move that many observers found surprising, Louisiana state Sen. Cleo Fields, a former member of the U.S. House, has endorsed fellow Democrat Mary Landrieu for re-election to the U.S. Senate. This comes as something of a shock considering how deep the animosity between the two runs -- going back to the days when Fields was the Democratic candidate for governor of the state and felt he had received insufficient support for his efforts from Landrieu.
Meanwhile Republican Suzanne Terrill has picked up the endorsement of the state's GOP governor, Mike Foster, and state Rep. Tony Perkins, whom Terrill beat in the Nov. 5 primary. GOP U.S. Rep. John Cooksey, whom Terrill also beat in the primary, was already on board, if somewhat lukewarmly.
Pop? -- The trial balloon floating the name of Erskine Bowles as a potential successor to Harvey Pitt as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to pop, sooner rather than later. It's not that Bowles, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and the recently defeated Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, couldn't do the job: his credentials are impeccable in that regard. The fact is that Bowles would be unlikely to survive the battle that would be certain to erupt over his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
In the midst of his campaign for U.S. Senate Bowles found himself named a target of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. The suit is an attempt to recover more than $120 million in lost state pension funds from a firm in which Bowles was a general partner. The state is accusing the New York investment firm Forstmann Little of making investments not permitted under its contract with them. According to Blumenthal, Connecticut lost $31.4 million in state pension funds as the result of a deal with McLeodUSA, an Iowa telecommunications company on whose board Bowles sat from 1999 to 2001 -- at the same time he was a general partner at Forstmann Little. McLeodUSA filed for bankruptcy in January and has since re-emerged. Campaign aides continually declined to offer comment on the lawsuit during the campaign.
Though some think that choosing Bowles would blunt Democrat criticism of the way the White House has managed the corporate confidence crisis, others point out that it would give the GOP a chance to go on the offensive. Aides to Bowles are not ruling out the idea but say he is focused on other things right now.
Airport insecurity -- Anyone looking for Adrienne Bundy of Indianapolis needs to go to Cleveland. That's because she is going to spend some time in the terminal at Mark Hopkins International Airport wearing a sign that reads, "I am appearing here because I refused to comply with airport security." In July Bundy refused to comply with requests by airport security personnel to submit to a search after she set off the scanners. Police on the scene said Bundy refused to submit to a wand scan and swore at an officer. The judge in the case says she will dismiss the charge of aggravated disorderly conduct that is pending against Bundy if she wears the sign for two hours in the terminal.
Colorado 7 and counting -- Almost the last election left to be accounted for from Nov. 5 is the congressional race in Colorado's new 7th Congressional District. Though Republican Bob Beauprez, a former state GOP chairman, has led through most of the count, Democrat Mike Feeley has taken his case to a Denver court. Feeley is alleging voters are "being treated unfairly" because the three counties where they are an issue are using different standards to determine whether to accept or reject the provisional ballots. Beauprez leads Feeley by 386 votes, but the estimated 2,000 provisional ballots are more than enough to change the outcome.
Personnel notes -- The White House has announced the intention of the president to nominate Ellen Weintraub to be a member of the Federal Election Commission for the remainder of a six-year term expiring April 30, 2007. She is currently with Perkins Coie LLP in Washington and is the wife of Bill Dauster, legislative director for Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
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