Carl Moses is pulling a "Lieberman"

After losing a primary race so completely tied that it had to be decided by flipping a gold coin onto a seal pelt, State Representative from Western Alaska Carl Moses has decided to possibly muck it up for the Democrats and run as a write-in candidate. This would pit him against Republican challenger Ron Browers and winner of the coin toss, Democratic candidate Bryce Edgmon. This gives a Republican challenger who had little chance of winning in a rare Democratically-dominated Alaska area a better possibility of success.

Of course, this is especially infuriating, since Mr. Moses crawled out of his sick bed not long ago to fly to Juneau and cast a tie-breaking vote (meaning that some Republicans had crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats), giving the oil companies a win on a controversial oil and gas tax bill.

Of course, Mr. Moses claims that the $3,000.00 campaign contribution from VECO Corp only a few days before had no influence on his decision.

Days before an ailing Rep. Carl Moses flew from Anchorage to cast the deciding vote on a contentious oil and gas tax bill last month, six Veco Corp. executives contributed $3,000 to the Unalaska Democrat's campaign.

Four of the six executives have been linked to an FBI investigation that resulted in raids of six legislators' offices Aug. 31.

Of course, one of the search warrants executed by the FBI was related to the tax bill:

One of the 20 search warrants executed in the FBI raids links the investigation to the tax bill passed last month by the Legislature and the draft natural gas pipeline contract proposed by Gov. Frank Murkowski and BP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Conoco Phillips.

The warrant called for seizure of documents concerning any payment, contracts, agreements, gifts or employment provided by Veco or company executives Bill Allen, Rick Smith, Peter Leathard and Roger Chan.

These names should be familiar to Moses:

On Aug. 2, Allen, Smith, Leathard, Chan and Veco personnel manager James Slack each contributed $500 to Moses' campaign, according to Alaska Public Office Commission records. Then, on Aug. 7, Thomas Corkran, Veco's chief information officer, donated $500 more.

By the way, Carl Moses was the ONLY Democrat who received ANY VECO contributions this year, while at least 18 other Republicans received comparable amounts.

Mr. Moses is also pro-Pebble Mine...a project strongly opposed by the majority of Western Alaska over fears of what the operation may do to the fishing industry.

The fact that Mr. Moses is willing to risk losing that seat to a Repub rather than bow out graciously after his primary loss, no matter how close, shows a selfish addiction to power over all else.

Are we sure he's not really a Bush Republican (as in George W, not Alaska Bush) after all?