FAIRBANKS — Scott McAdams has a background in education, and he leaned heavily on it during a town hall meeting at Pioneer Hall in Fairbanks on Wednesday evening.

McAdams, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, made the argument before a packed room of more than 100 people that spelling, math and history all show that Sen. Lisa Murkowski is going to have a tough time winning as a write-in candidate on Nov. 2.

The former Sitka mayor said he's the candidate with the best shot to beat Republican Joe Miller — a candidate he said has a dangerously rigid conservative philosophy — and figures Democrats and moderates will end up picking his name when they step into the voting booth.

"The safe choice in this campaign is to vote your values, not your fears," McAdams said, drawing applause from the crowd.

McAdams said he figures Miller has a locked-in group of supporters who will probably deliver about 35 percent of the vote, and argued that he's the viable alternative who can top that figure.

With about $850,000 raised since the primary, McAdams said he's funding a constant travel schedule and a statewide TV ad campaign that will be seen by the average Alaskan 12 times before Election Day.

"A Democrat in Alaska has to work twice as hard to win," McAdams said. "We're working three times as hard."

In the past, some big names have run as write-in candidates and failed. Sen. Ernest Gruening claimed 17 percent in 1968, and Walter Hickel took 26 percent while running for governor in 1978. During those elections, voters were allowed to bring stickers with candidates' names to the polls, a luxury Murkowski won't have.

If history holds true, McAdams said Murkowski will need a cushion of at least 7,000 votes to offset spoiled ballots by voters who botch the write-in process.

"This is not politics," he said. "This is political science."

After making the electability argument, McAdams fielded a variety of questions from the crowd.

McAdams responded to a question about Alaska Native rights by saying that he supports a rural subsistence preference and sovereignty for the state's tribes.

McAdams also touted Alaska's potential as a renewable energy hub, saying that it could grow into the "Silicon Valley of renewable energy."

With the right leadership, he said the 150 villages that rely on diesel power for electric generation could shift to renewables in a generation.

He also said he'll be a heavy promoter of Alaska resource development, saying the state's environmental and labor policies make extraction here "greener" than any other location.

"We have the highest standards anywhere," he said. "We do it under a microscope."

McAdams, who works for the Sitka school district, said the federal No Child Left Behind education policy has been a disaster for Alaska schools. He said national standards are inevitably going to lead to a national curriculum, and away from local control.

"National standards are great for bridges and highways," he said. "They're not necessarily great for kids."

He also said he'll never vote to privatize Social Security, and supports lifting the $106,800 ceiling on income that is subject to the Social Security tax. That change makes the program solvent through at least the next 75 years, according to the government agency.

McAdams said his background as a school board member and mayor will serve him well. He's had to face critical constituents in the aisle of a grocery store, he said, and the experience has left him well-equipped for the constant touring he's planning in the next three weeks.

"Anyone who has not had to stand up and act for themselves at the local level isn't qualified to do the same thing for the entire state," McAdams said.

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Scott McAdams says he s best shot to lead Alaska in U S Senate