Murkowski Begins Write-In Campaign

[Sandra]

Murkowski Begins Write-In Campaign

Soon-to-be ex-Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) refused to accept defeat in the August
Republican primary, announcing this week that she is beginning a write-in
campaign to retain her seat in November. Murkowski's loss to Gulf War
veteran and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Miller made her the latest
in a line of establishment politicians beaten in party primaries this
year. Like a few of those spurned politicians -- Florida Governor and
"Independent" senatorial candidate Charlie Crist and soon-to-be
former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter come immediately to mind --
Murkowski is a sore loser.

Write-in campaigns are tough, and no one in Alaska has ever topped 27
percent. Probably the best Murkowski can hope to do is split the GOP vote
and send Democrat Scott McAdams to the U.S. Senate. But Murkowski has a
strategy that includes drawing out the supporters of her mentor, the late
Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, as well as the anti-Sarah Palin crowd,
though that group's reliability is uncertain. Despite leaving the
governor's mansion a year-and-a-half early, Palin remains popular in
Alaska, and her supporters there are more numerous and more motivated
than her detractors.

Still, this is a task that Murkowski no doubt relishes, considering the
bad blood between the two. In the 2006 governor's race, Palin ended
Lisa's father Frank Murkowski's bid for re-election in the GOP primary.
Palin then went on to call for Ted Stevens's resignation when he became
embroiled in corruption scandals, while Murkowski stood by the longtime
senator. Earlier this year, Palin threw her support behind Miller in the
primary. The "Murkowski" Senate seat belonged to her father for
21 years before he became governor in 2002 and appointed her to it. Now
Murkowski believes she's entitled to the seat, regardless of what the
voters say. She apparently didn't catch the message that 2010 is not the
year of the entitled.

And Last...

As we mentioned above, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is waging a write-in campaign to retain her
seat after losing the GOP primary. The campaign hit an unfortunate snag
this week, however, when an ad ran informing voters of her continuing
candidacy. As the trickiest part of the effort may be to get voters to
spell her name correctly, it certainly didn't help matters that her
own ad misspelled her last name. The ad suggested that viewers visit
LisaMurkwski.com. To add insult to
injury, that particular URL leads to an anti-Murkowski site owned by a
supporter of Republican candidate Joe Miller. The ad was soon corrected,
but the damage -- and hilarity -- had been done. Alaska's soon-to-be
former senator can only hope that her state's voters are better spellers
than she is.