It didn’t really happen did it? Did Lisa Murkowski really get beat by Joe Miller, the Tea Party guy? Mark Begich, who has been in office for two years, is now our senior Senator? You’re joking, right? Apparently, not. She acted like she was a sure thing. In today’s political world why would you assume that?
How strange of Alaskans to toss Lisa Murkowski who chairs the Natural Resources Committee and sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls over $200 billion annually. What were people thinking?
It’s one of those situations where everyone voted for Miller thinking that he didn’t have a shot, when in actuality, their votes put him over the top. We as a state will lose tens of millions of federal dollars with Murkowski out. Alaska will have the least amount of seniority in the U.S. Senate compared to any other state.
Did you ever think it would be like this? Senior Sen. Mark Begich, who has been there two years, better get on some big committees. The Armed Services Committee is nice but with John McCain chairing it and Palin being his buddy, I don’t know how much pull Begich really has. We need a Senate Finance committee type of position. Senator Begich better start working overtime to sell himself. We need this guy to step up. I’ve disagreed with him on a number of issues, but he’s with the majority party and our senior Senator. I just hope he’s up to the task.
Joe has won because of the anti-establishment feeling going around the country. All of the unemployed Tea Party people really don’t know a thing about him. Do you know what he wants out of government? I do. He wants to talk to Sarah the quitter Palin and decide what’s best for your lives. You have no idea what these people are capable of. Other then telling you what to do with your bodies and your souls, they don’t give a damn about you. It’s all about their agenda and you just fill in the gaps. It’s all about them.
Scott McAdams will be facing Joe Miller in the election in November. Murkowski can be a write-in candidate and that can only help McAdams. I hope so. A no name from Sitka is ten times better than the hard-line Christian right that is starting to grow like ivy around America’s house. Plus, Scott seems like a really nice guy. In today’s world, that just might be enough, at least for me.
Scott McAdams is having a big party down in Sitka. I would too if I were him. Miller will lose a valuable percentage of votes with people writing in Murkowski’s name while the democratic machine floods money into McAdams campaign, garnering more votes to defeat him. He has a real shot of Alaska having two democratic Senators for the first time since Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening were there when Alaska was admitted to the Union Jan. 3, 1959. That was the first and only time that happened. Wow!
Lisa Murkowski and her campaign manager, Joe Bitney, blew it. Nepotism is a killer in this game, and, in the long run, dad didn’t help the cause. How absolutely pathetic to allow Miller and his Evangelical Christian Right movement to get their foot in the door of Alaska politics. We are now at the very bottom of the totem poll as far as political seniority is concerned. My father told me that all incumbents would be defeated this year. I thought he was semi-joking. I understand that most people are very disgruntled. I just can’t believe that Alaska kissed off all of that federal money.
Lisa Murkowski decided not to run commercials that she had taped with Ted Stevens. She thought it would be in bad taste. That makes absolutely no sense. Sure, cancel the ads with the most powerful man this state has ever seen. Who wants to have a commercial with a deceased man who is defined as ‘Mr. Alaska?’ That would be like Al Gore having Bill Clinton campaign with him when he ran against Bush. George Bush’s campaign said, “If Bill were on the campaign trail with Al, we wouldn’t be in the White House.” A big mistake.
Didn’t Murkowski learn from the Massachusetts election where Scott Brown, a no name Republican, took Ted Kennedy’s seat? Kennedy held it for 40 years and Democrats were assured of victory. Guess what? They lost. You never, ever assume victory. Most of all, you make sure that you have a campaign manager that is doing his job.
Why wouldn’t you run an ad with Ted Stevens by your side? He was a leader and an Alaskan icon. Also, why didn’t Lisa talk about all of the money that she brought in? Murkowski conceded the election. Maybe she lost because of poor planning within her campaign. Maybe she lost because people resented her father giving her the seat as a birthright when he became governor. Whatever the case, it’s a monumental loss in an election year that incumbents are likely to suffer many more such defeats.
