From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage --

While Joe Miller and Lisa Murkowski are duking it out in the Republican primary, little known Democrat Scott McAdams is running an under-the-radar campaign to take on the winner in November.

"We're building a steady campaign the right way, voter to voter...we’ll let those two sort out their business and we’ll be ready for whoever emerges,” said McAdams, after the 39-year-old Sitka mayor came by the Daily News to be interviewed the other day.

McAdams didn’t get into the race until June 1 and raised $9,175 between then and June 30, according to the latest campaign disclosures, leaving him with $4,533 in the bank after expenses. That compares with about $2.4 million for Murkowski and $125,000 for Miller. McAdams, though, doesn’t have a competitive primary to worry about next month.

Here are excerpts from what McAdams had to say in the interview.

On the Miller-Murkowski race:

“I believe that Joe Miller is a real candidate. I think there’s an ‘it’ factor with this guy as it’s related to the people who believe in him…talking to Joe Miller supporters, I see fervor and a passion for this guy that I don’t see in any other camp,” McAdams said.

On why he got into the U.S. Senate race:

“One of the things that was very compelling in both a rational and an emotional way was taking a look at the you tube video of Senator Murkowski standing on the floor of the United States Senate and becoming the voice or the very embodiment of a block on a call for unanimous consent to raise the liability cap on oil polluters from $75 million to $10 billion. That really was kind of a defining moment in my decision making process to run.”

“How can you monetize or valuate a way of life, how can you put a price tag on a culture. I don’t think you can and I believe that’s what the senator did on the floor of the senate,” he said. (Murkowski has said she supports raising the cap but contended the $10 billion figure would prevent smaller, independent companies from drilling along the Outer Continental Shelf.)

On what he’d like to do in the U.S. Senate:

McAdams said he wants to argue to Democrats and environmentalists that oil drilling should be allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf -- in return for revenues from such drilling being used to create a renewable energy Permanent Fund. That fund would be used to pay for renewable energy projects throughout Alaska, he said.

“We make the case to Democrats, to environmentalists, to liberals on the East Coast, that yes, we want to develop our energy resources, but the key to this is that we use that old energy platform to create a new energy future for Alaska,” McAdams said.