Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) “said Tuesday that she would announce by Friday whether she will run for re-election as a write-in candidate,” the New York Times reports.
Ms. Murkowski lost the state’s Republican primary last month by about 2,000 votes to Joe Miller, a conservative lawyer from Fairbanks who was endorsed by Tea Party activists and Sarah Palin. Ms. Murkowski, stunned by her defeat, later met with members of the Alaska Libertarian Party about the possibility of running on their ballot position, but both sides said later they disagreed on too many issues. On Tuesday, Ms. Murkowski sought to portray the decision as hers.
“As disappointed as I am in the outcome of the primary and my belief that the Alaska Republican Party was hijacked by the Tea Party Express, an outside extremist group, I am not going to quit my party,” Ms. Murkowski said in campaign release. “I will not wrap myself in the flag of another political party for the sake of election at any cost.”
Ms. Murkowski “has wide name recognition and about $1 million left in her campaign account but it is unclear how she would fare as a write-in candidate.”
(credit image – zimbio/getty)
Congress in Your Pocket
