Alaska Republican fights back against tea party-backed candidate
Becky Bohrer
Associated Press via MSNBC
9/17/2010
JUNEAU, Alaska — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lost Alaska’s GOP primary last month in a stunning upset to a tea-party backed rival, announced Friday that she’ll mount a write-in candidacy in a bid to hold onto her job.
“The campaign for Alaska’s future begins,” Murkowski told an Anchorage rally while surrounded by supporters chanting: “Run, Lisa, Run!”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Murkowski on Twitter Friday afternoon to recognize that the state’s primary voters demonstrated their support for Joe Miller in last month’s election.
“Listen to the people, respect their will,” said Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. “Voters chose Joe instead.”…
…In running, Murkowski would face long odds. Historians and election officials can think of no Alaska candidate who has successfully run as a write-in.
She also has lost support from within the Republican establishment with some leaders urging her either to wait to challenge Alaska’s Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in 2014 or to join them in supporting Miller, the self-described “constitutional conservative” who also has been endorsed by Sarah Palin. Murkowski also would have just has over six weeks to gear up a campaign and turn out the vote.
But she also enjoys widespread name recognition, and her campaign estimates she has about $1 million left in the bank…
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