On the first week of the 2014 legislative session, pea-soup fog settled over Juneau and as of Sunday night, it has still refused to get slurped up. Alaska Airlines was forced to cancel flights and other flights had to pass over and not land because of poor visibility. People were stranded everywhere. At various times all week, Sitka’s airport was over flowing with those so close yet so far.

This is nothing new. Juneau’s the only state capital not on the road system, and you can count fog and sleet and rain among the fans of the capital city. In the past this particularly bad spate of weather would give fodder to those who have been pushing for decades to move the capitol to Southcentral Alaska. Talk of such a move has been so pervasive throughout the years that many of us believed that it would never end. Until it did. It seems that all of the studies, expensive campaigns, and votes, have resulted in absolutely nothing but a weariness that has appeared to mute the capitol move-boosters.

So I was surprised by a headline that read, “Senate candidate proposes moving the capitol.”

Turns out however, that the proposed move would be far more costly than moving our state capitol from Juneau to Willow. This proposal by Nebraska Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ben Sasse, is to move our nation’s capitol from Washington, D.C. to Nebraska. He believes that such a move would help cure dysfunctional Congress, cast light on lobbyists and special interests, etc. Substitute Nebraska and D.C. for Willow and Juneau, and the spot could have aired in Alaska, sans 1995.

Sasse knows what it took decades for Alaskans to learn: Nothing’s going to come of it. But it has gotten him some attention. He is running for an open senate seat being created by. Republican Sen. Mike Johanns. His candidacy has been endorsed by the Club for Growth, Senate Conservative Fund and Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wis.) to name a few.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com