Write-In Candidate Murkowski Leads Big in Alaska

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Even with Sen. Lisa Murkowski's Apparent 13,400-Vote Lead, Both Sides Lawyer Up and Raise Money for Legal Battle Ahead

(CBS/AP) Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is on the cusp of vindication after waging a high stakes--and long shot--write-in campaign to keep her job.

Initial returns show write-in ballots holding a 13,439-vote edge over GOP nominee Joe Miller, and though it's not clear how many of those are for her or will be counted as valid, she's confident enough in her winning to tell supporters that they'd "made history." The write-in count starts Wednesday in Juneau.

Rural Alaskans are the main reason for Murkowski's improbable likely victory, reports The Anchorage Daily News. Five rural voting districts -- all regions that voted for Democrat Tony Knowles over Murkowski in the Senate race just six years ago -- gave the Republican incumbent as much as 60 percent of her apparent 13,400-vote lead over Miller.

Regardless of the outcome of this week's write-in count, both Miller and Murkowski have begun gearing up for a lengthy--and potentially ugly--legal fight, reports the Politico website. With the aid of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Miller is fundraising for his efforts. Meanwhile, Murkowski has brought on additional lawyers, including a well-known Republican recount attorney, Ben Ginsberg, and started a legal fundraising committee, the Alaska Voter Defense Fund.

Miller's campaign released a statement earlier this week that detailed how the math could work in its favor, despite the large margin between the Republican nominee and the number of write-in votes.

"If past trends hold, a significant percentage of those 13,000 write-in votes will likely be disqualified and many others will be non-Murkowski votes," Miller's campaign wrote in the statement. "During the 1998 gubernatorial race, thousands of the write-in votes for Robin Taylor were disqualified."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/08/politics/main7034035.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.5

[joeybee12]

1. Good, two major assholes fighting it out...should kill both their careers

Although we'll have to put up with Lisa for about 6 years.

[kysrsoze]

2. Yeah, I don't look for her to be a friend of Dems. Time to move on.

[LynneSin]

11. I hope she wins only because it sends a big *F*CK YOU* to Sarah Palin

and that's a cause I can support

[cyr330]

27. My sentiments exactly!

I am not fan of Murkowski, but I LOVE seeing Palin get bitc* slapped by Alaska voters!!!

[Tippy]

3. In this case, I believe. she is the lesser of the two evils....

[connecticut yankee]

7. But

he was supported by Sarah Palin. She wasn't.

[Ter]

22. He would cut military

He's a little less pro-war, and he's more Ron Paulish and she's a Bush clone. I'm rooting for Miller. He's far-right he turns to the left on a few issues.

[demigoddess]

31. exactly! she may not be perfect but at least she has a brain

we can't say the same about miller.

[JackRiddler]

24. In what alternate reality do six years in the Senate kill Murkowski's career?

[Democat]

4. Miller's only hope is that he can get real votes thrown out on technicalities.

He wants to get elected by fighting to make sure that people's votes don't count.

A constant Republicans strategy.

[yellowcanine]

5. Hmm. In these cases "voter intent" is what matters. I think Mr. Miller needs to shut up and let

the process work. It doesn't look good to be trying to disenfranchise legitimate voters. And "Lisa Murkowsi" is kind of hard to mistake for anyone else even if they don't get the spelling quite right.

I don't care much one way or the other although another smack down of a Sarah Palin tea partier would be sweet.

[TroglodyteScholar]

6. Saw an AP headline this morning asking, "...how will she legislate?"

Apparently you don't have to know a goddamn thing about government just because you're covering it for the AP...

[polmaven]

10. Well, gee...

She's only been a Senator for 8 years....You don't think that is enough time to know anything about her, do you? :sarcasm:

[TroglodyteScholar]

13. Yea, but doesn't Alaska have a legislature to legislate?

Governors don't usually write the law...

[polmaven]

18. Huh?

What has this got to do with the Governor? U.S. Senators do legislate.

[TroglodyteScholar]

19. My first post was about an AP headline..

...that read something to the effect of "Write-in candidate Murkowski in lead; how will she legislate?"

I thought that was pretty odd.

[polmaven]

23. My point is...

That the U.S. Senate does actually "legislate". This is not a gubernatorial race.

[TroglodyteScholar]

29. I was mixed up.

For some reason I thought that was the Gov race. sry

[phleshdef]

8. Hehe, this still makes me somewhat happy, just because I know it really pisses Palin off.

[Zambero]

15. Palin's influence in Alaska is zilch

She's very adept at burning bridges and making political enemies in her own party. As long as Palin continues to rake in the bucks from ghost-written books, media overesposure, phony reality shows, and lucrative rubber chicken dinner speaking tours, she won't lose too much sleep over who wins or loses a given race.

[EC]

9. I wonder who she will caucus with?

She said loud and clear that she owes nothing to the Republicans...she's pissed at them big time for backing Joe...but I don't think she will caucus with Dems either...so this will be interesting to watch...

[anokaflash]

12. To caucus with GOP

She stated she would caucus with GOP, but that can change I suppose:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44521.html

--
By SHIRA TOEPLITZ | 11/1/10 7:32 PM EDT

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told POLITICO unequivocally that she plans to caucus with the Republican Party if she wins her write-in campaign Tuesday.

“I have caucused with the Republicans in the past; I will be caucusing with the Republicans when I go back in January,” said Murkowski in a phone interview, responding to recent news reports speculating about whether she’d buck the party and comments Murkowski made over the weekend saying that, if elected, she would represent Alaska before the Republican Party.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44521.html#ixzz14i1OQXLy
--

[millerm777]

16. caucus with gop

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski should be upset at REpublicans for still funding and backing Joe Miller. Did anyone notice VP Biden called her lat week. Don't count out Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski cauces with us Dems.

mel miller

[TheIdiot]

25. Don't get your hopes up...

it's a guarantee that she'll caucus with the GOP unless she's willing to give up her post as top Repuglican on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee.

[Tx4obama]

28. An article a few days ago that said R's were going to take her off the Energy Committee n/t

[herbm]

14. She voted more like a Blue Dog Democrat than anything else. The votes she didn't make I think show

something a bit positive, they were mainly minority pushed bills. I think she'll be very independent now that the party turned on her and went all teabaggy. Regardless of how you all feel, the Democrats did not do well in Alaska and the feeling I get: that all Republicans are bad and the hell with the voters of Alaska that they needed a Democrat for this seat is a bit elitist and throughly undemocratic. The only way our president is going to make it is if all progressives get together and fight. Sen. Lisa Murkowski might be a prime candidate for the President to reach out to. Maybe now that she's been cut loose from Teabag conservatives she just might reach in and find that closet Republican Progressive tradition inside of her and step up. What we don't need is the vituperative crap thats happened here at DU since the election in progressive circles. I am a Republican and I want the Presidents mandated agenda advanced and we had all better to be ready to reach across party lines before the teabagging neocon "conservative" money interests return us to the bad old days.

[Zambero]

17. An Independent-Republican "version" of Lieberman perhaps?

Under very similar circumstances, Joe was rebuffed by his own party (for good reasons I might add), and he's been a thorn in the side ever since. Perhaps Murkowski isn't all that ready to sing Kumbaya with fellow Republicans just yet. Given a more moderate stance, she could wield considerable power as a swing vote, particularly when the Senate vote is a close one. One thing's for certain, last year's "glimmer of hope" washout Olympia Snowe and her other accomplice from Maine won't be breaking away from the naysayers any time soon.

[herbm]

26. All I am saying is let's not implode yet like tea bagging wing of the GOP. There's still a beachhead...

There's still two years. At worst we want another Clinton administration, not a Carter one. I really admire Bill once you get around the issue of boinking women not your wife and then lying about it under oath. And I think the President can give us another progressive administration as productive as was Bill's minus the hanky panky and perjury bit. By the way, I would be as glad to have voted for Bill for his third term if he'd been allowed as I did for his re-election, he was a good moderate Republican. His fault was that some of the erosion of personal privacy started under Bill. And remember that that 90% of W's assault on the Bill of Rights was supported by then Sen Clinton.

[Winterblues]

21. She voted more than ninty percent of the time with the Republican leadership

Perhaps you could list a couple of her "Blue Dog" votes that would benefit the American people rather than the Corporations? She is every bit as rabid as Miller, just hides it better...

[Winterblues]

20. They don't even start counting write in votes until the 10th

Pretty misleading headline if you ask me..

[Arkana]

30. I suppose anything's better than Joe the Thug.