Help of the questions today. Jeff mason is with reuters, anna palmer is with politico. A busy week for you coming up as well. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] Election Night on cspan. The results and be part of the National Conversation about the outcome. Bl location of the hillary sitesn and donald trump and watch live on cspan on demand at cspan. Org or listen to live coverage using the free cspan radio app. Now, a debate for the race for the u. S. Senate seat in alaska. The candidates discuss abortion, foreign policy, and health care law. Its about an hour. Alaska public media presents debate for the state election 2016. The race for the United States senate. Good evening. Welcome to alaska public medias debate for the state. Tonight is the final faceoff among candidates for u. S. Senate. Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski is the chair of the Senate Energy and National Natural resources committee. Democrat ray metcalfe is a Real Estate Broker and former state lawmaker. Independent Margaret Stock is an immigration attorney. And retired army reservist. And joe miller is a libertarian, an attorney, and an army veteran who won the republican primary for the seat in 2010. Im lori townsend, news director for alaska public media, and i will moderate. We will begin with a series of questions from our journalists, our panelists. We are in anchorage, simulcasting on public radio and television. We will also air video questions from alaskans in fairbanks and dealing and. Ngham. Li candidates, your answers will be timed. The limit for your first round is 60 seconds. Liz has the first question. Mr. Miller, you have run for the senate twice before as a republican. Why didnt you file as a republican this year and compete in the republican primary . Mr. Miller i was very honored to receive the unanimous endorsement of the board of directors of the libertarian party. They had their nominee step aside. I was not planning on running for the United States senate. I had a moose hunt planned for the week i declared. It turned out to be something that i think has provided alaskans with tremendous opportunity this season to have a conservative choice and have somebody who is going to fight for their liberties. I am excited to be in this race. And i am excited about the platform of the party. It talks about bringing decisionmaking closer to home, where you can be in charge of the decisions that are made, you can bring accountability to your government, and you can actually have a hand in making changes that bring great impact of the greatness back to the state of alaska. Ms. Stock, being an independent Party Candidate has been central to your campaign, but you have also donated your campaign with the Democratic Party. Are you an independent candidate in name only . Ms. Stock i am an independent like 54 of alaskans. I needed access to the Campaign Resources necessary to defeat an incumbent republican senator. The Republican Party was not willing to cooperate with me. In terms of sharing databases. The Democratic Candidates did not feel they have a viable candidate, and they felt i was a pragmatic Problem Solver who had a lot of experience in washington, and they offered me the opportunity to coordinate with their campaign in hopes that i would defeat Lisa Murkowski and return a sense of a compliment to the United States senate and the partisan gridlock. How beholden do you feel to the Democratic Party, if you are successful . Ms. Stock not at all. I am not a democrat. I purchased cooperation through the voter database. I am not a democrat. I am simply using the Campaign Resources they made available to me because i purchased them. Mr. Metcalfe, you used to be a republican. Now you say you are a Bernie Sandersstyle democrat. You dont have Party Support. You dont have money in your campaign account. Why should voters take you seriously as a candidate . Mr. Metcalfe liz, i dont have to say i dont have Party Support is not quite accurate. I dont have the support of some segments of the party. There is a split in the Democratic Party, and it boils down to efforts to remove certain corrupt practices from within the party, certain corrupt practices that are commonplace within our system. Those who support me are the ones who support what im trying to do in weeding out the corruption, and those who dont support me are the ones who frankly adjourned the state convention to avoid allowing the platform that had been proposed by the Platform Committee to be adopted, because it had my proposed anticorruption leg language in it, and it had been adopted by a 276 vote, and the old guard adjourned the convention to avoid ever having to deal with it. Ms. Murkowski, six years ago you ran as an independent and you won. Your voting record shows you to be one of the most moderate republicans. You do not support donald trump. How sure are you you are a republican . Sen. Murkowski i think its important to correct the record. I ran as a wrightin 2010. I was not my partys nominee. But i was a republican. I think this series of questions is interesting, because it demonstrates that you have a republican who has actually changed from being a republican five different times to run in the general as a libertarian, you have a republican who switched to an independent supported by the democrats, you have a former republican who has at least been true to the Democratic Party since 2008, who is not supported by his party. I look at what i have done representing alaska as being one who supports alaska 100 of the time. When i think about my voting record, its not as a moderate, its not as a conservative, i have not changed my party label to be someone i am not for the purposes of an election. I have remained true to alaska. We will move on to an energy question. The Dakota Access pipeline would move oil to major markets in the lower 48. At the same time, the Pipeline Route threatens lands and waters that are valued by the Standing Rock sioux tribe, both as sacred lands and as a water source. Using this case as an example, mr. Miller, how does the federal government balance the broader need for economic interest Like Development of a pipeline across the country with those of individual native american tribes . Mr. Miller i am a tribal sovereignty advocate. I think we need to have local control. People in control of their land need to be able to make decisions. Fortunately in alaska, we are , not confronted with those issues. The real ogre in the room is the federal government. The federal government is preventing development of the resources. Its not that we have landed in private hands where we can get transit for pipelines. Its where you have a situation where overbearing federal agencies are cutting off the ability of agencies who want to invest in alaska, stopping that. I think the way forward for alaska is to ensure that when we say we want to open and what are, we use our political leverage. Rather than grabbing at the ever shrinking federal pot of money. Thats a problem we have. We send people to washington, d. C. , but that easy money is getting smaller. Weve got to rein in the federal government. How would that ease the conflict between the Standing Rock and the developers of the private land . Mr. Miller if we had access in this state to the billions of barrels of oil under the ground that the government has prevented, there would not be fights like that. We would have so much oil, we can refill the taps pipeline. We would not be looking at uneconomic ways to get at, things that create conflict with other people. If we actually had access to the full Resource Base of the state of alaska. Thank you. Mr. Metcalfe, how would you Balance National economic interest with tribal rights . Mr. Metcalfe if the federal government would have done a better job of consulting with the traditional knowledge of the elders prior to the planning process, this whole mess could have been avoided. Thats just what should have happened. Ms. Murkowski, tribal rights versus National Interest . Sen. Murkowski we need to move our resources, and most would knowledge that a pipeline is the the mosty to move oil, efficient way to move oil. We have to move resources for the benefit of the economy, for jobs, and for the country, but we also have to work with the tribe. Its called consultation. This is where i think we have lost sight of some of the trust, responsibility, an obligation to make sure there was confrontation well in advance. In alaska, we have done that. We did it with the transalaska pipeline. We could not move forward without making sure that the obligation we had to native alaskan people was settled. We were able to do that, and we moved forward with an alaska pipeline. Ms. Stock, what is a way out of this . Ms. Stock thats a great question. The Standing Rock sioux tribe believes that their interests were not taken into account, so we have protests going on. It is true that the pipeline is on private land. Also, pipelines generally are safe, but we have had problems in alaska with the taps having spills and linkages, and we try to get them cleaned up, but the tribe is worried about their Drinking Water. We are familiar with that in alaska. We know from the refinery at flint hills where 1500 people lost their Drinking Water because of contamination. That is something the tribe is very much concerned about, because they felt their interests were not taken into account. In permitting processes, it is important to take into account the local community, the folks around the private land on which the pipeline is being held, build because the pipeline , can have effects beyond. And now, because of the protests, the government is paying attention. I have heard today that they are considering an alternative route that may reduce some of the impacts. Mr. Metcalfe, to get things done in the senate, you have to have allies, relationships matter. Who among todays senators has an approach to Senate Politics that you would aspire to . Mr. Metcalfe i would have a fabulous ally in Bernie Sanders and elizabeth warren. Im sure they would be my mentors as a freshman senator. By the way, im the only person on this stage who has embraced the entirety of Bernie Sanders agenda. What is it about mr. Sander approach to Senate Politics that you would emulate . Mr. Metcalfe he would become the chairman of the budget committee. I would support his agenda, what he wants to accomplish. He would have largely my support, and he will have 20 of allies, and i am sure he will have more allies given the outcome of this election. His National Support is clear. Ms. Stock, the same question. Who among todays senators takes an approach to Senate Politics that you might emulate . Ms. Stock there are actually a number of senators that take approaches i would like to emulate. I like senators who are very hardworking, who spent time working on bills, Holding Committee hearings and as opposedoversight, to calling corporations and asking their executives for money. As you probably know, i dont take money from corporate pacs. In contrast to my opponent. One senator i do admire is angus king, an independent from maine. Ms. Murkowski . Who among the other senators has a political approach to Senate Politics that you admire . Sen. Murkowski in order to be successful in the congress, you have to be able to work with everybody. I have worked with and will continue to work with those who are the most liberal and those who are the most conservatives and those in between. I have worked with senator Barbara Boxer on fishery regulation issues and afterschool learning programs. I have worked with senator lee from utah, very conservative, on issues relating to privacy and civil liberties. I have worked with in fact, i set up the arctic caucus with the independent angus king from maine to work through some of our arctic issues. Its the ability to work with all of your colleagues, and to reach out and bridge the differences that we clearly have, but make things happen. Those who would suggest that you have to just stay in your corner and hope that others come to you is not a realistic approach to legislating. Mr. Miller, in the past you have spoken of your admiration for senator cruz. Does that admiration extend to his approach to Senate Politics . Mr. Miller the main reason why, i think americans across the United States, alaskans, we have, want to come 11 Approval Rating in congress . The reason why is because most alaskans regard the senate and congress as corrupt. It is broken. It is not broken because it is not getting along well enough. It is broken because it is getting while long enough just getting along well enough to give themselves pay raises, exemptions from laws. Its a club, and it is a club that is destroying america. We are at 20 trillion in debt right now. Alaska is the essentially a federal colony. Alaska does not have access to most of its resources because things are not getting done in the right directions. There are a few outliers. Bernie sanders has some great ideas. Im not a socialist, most people understand that, but he wants to rein in the big financial powers. Mike lee is a quiet guy, but he has expanded the Resource Bases that states can access. Thank you. Id like to followup, when was the last Time Congress voted themselves a pay raise . Mr. Miller several years ago, but the problem, 11 Approval Rating is the consequence of a congress that constantly exempts themselves. The wealth of Congress Members goes up exponentially when somebody gets there. Why . Because there is insider trading, and those in congress refuse to apply those laws to prevent insider trading. We will have to leave it there. Lets move on to immigration. Ms. Stock, this is your area. What do you say to those who look at the terror attacks in san bernardino, manhattan, and orlando and say it is unsafe to admit muslim immigrants because they or their americanborn sons could become radical jihadists . Ms. Stock we have always had a problem in america with folks who get angry at the government and attack it. Timothy mcveigh blew up the Oklahoma CityFederal Building and an act of terrorism that was initially attributed to muslims, and it turns out he was a roman catholic. We are always going to have a problem with terrorism in the United States, and what is important is to figure out what causes the terrorism. Its not necessarily tied to a particular religion, though at one point in time lots of the folks committing the terrorist attacks for best believe in a particular religious system. Most important thing to fight terrorism is to have good intelligence, and that includes intelligence that talks to the communities from which the terrorists might come to try to find out who is going to radicalize them. Most terrorists in the United States today were a result of people getting radicalized over the internet, and we do not have a good handle on how to stop that. We need to have a conversation about how people get radicalized over the internet. Mr. Metcalfe, d believe the do you think the u. S. Should admit more Syrian Refugees to help with the massive crisis . Mr. Metcalfe in our largest immigration port, there is a big statue of liberty, and i remember why its there. We are a country of immigrants. Just before the Second World War was heating up, we turned a way a ship load of jews who got returned to germany, and many of them died in the camps. It is a stain on our history for having done so. We should vet as best as we are able, but when there is a humanity crisis like this, we have an obligation to open our arms. I ask myself once in a while, and im not a religious man, but what would jesus do . I think jesus would open his arms and say take care of these people, they are my people. Mr. Miller, what is the right response during this refugee crisis . Mr. Miller i think it is absolutely insane that we would be letting in thousands and thousands of refugees with inadequate background checks. We know it is not being done properly. The government intelligence agencies are telling us it is not being done properly. In this time of hyper security issues, why dont we address those issues . I keep on hearing about how, oh, weve got to attempt down individual liberties, weve got to have an nsa surveillance state that listens to everything you say on the phone, that is able to track everything you do on