FAIRBANKS—Alaska Democrats sent their top candidates to Fairbanks for Labor Day weekend., looking to capitalize on a bubble of public interest.

U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams and House candidate Harry Crawford hit a crowded Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. on Sunday morning, with McAdams drawing applause upon entering.

Democrats, backed by some recent polls, say Joe Miller’s upset Republican Senate primary win was a game changer that benefits Democrats far more than Republicans as the November general election nears.

Crawford, a state representative challenging U.S. Rep. Don Young, said independent-minded voters in Fairbanks are now in high demand.

“This is where we’ll win or lose these races,” he said, noting the area recently chose Democrats for two of its three state Senate seats.

The Democrats' gubernatorial candidate, Ethan Berkowitz was due in Fairbanks later this weekend. Party leaders said a wave of support has arrived from moderate voters, with contributions to McAdams, who is mayor of Sitka, growing more than tenfold in a matter of days. Yet the campaigns' message — that voters will recognize their slate of candidates as best suited for addressing worries about the economy — is mirrored by that of Republicans.

As Democrats looked to make a presence in Miller’s backyard, the Republican primary winner spent much of the weekend in Anchorage and at the state fair in Palmer. He said his campaign will be the one holding broader appeal this fall, with its strong call for improving long-term, private-sector access to resources and, with it, stronger economic development opportunities.

Miller, who defeated Sen. Lisa Murkowski last week, called “ludicrous” critics’ suggestions that his approach would scuttle Alaska’s relationship with federal agencies, saying he suspects his message will attract voters with job security on their minds in November.

“Passive leadership’s not going to do it,” Miller said by phone of pushing Alaska’s development interests in Congress. “I’m not in any way passive when it comes to fighting for Alaska’s interests.”

McAdams has sounded centrist notes since Miller’s win, saying he supports the popular call to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and is best poised to work across national party lines. This weekend he released a letter sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking Salazar to lift a moratorium on exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

“We must restart an aggressive domestic energy program now,” McAdams wrote. “Unless the Obama administration makes a decision very soon on Arctic operations, another exploration season will be lost, taking with it significant economic investment and jobs.”

McAdams has also directly challenged Miller, saying the Republican said what he thought would get him elected.

Miller said McAdams is wrong — that his message has been consistent — and said any characterizations of his Republican primary campaign as overly “partisan” are misguided. He said he has held both major parties responsible for failed national economic policies and said he senses McAdams falls closer to President Obama’s policies than anyone else’s, including Murkowski's.

“This is really about state control,” Miller said of his campaign, “and bringing back control of the resource base and bringing back regulatory control to the state. Whether or not you’re our supporter, or a supporter of Murkowski or McAdams, I think that holds real attraction.”

Crawford said, even as many national analyses predict Republican gains in Congress this year, that he suspects voters here are ready to shift away from Republican platforms that have moved rightward. He interpreted Miller’s narrow win as largely a function of apathy among moderates who felt Murkowski had been forced too far to the right.

“Lisa worked well from the center,” and the Democrats are better poised to do that than Republicans this year, Crawford said.

Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.