Lisa Murkowski to Run as Write in Candidate in Alaska

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has decided to run as a write-in candidate in the Alaska Senate race, according to a person briefed on her plans, throwing what had expected to be an easy race for Republicans into turmoil.

She plans to announce the run at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. local) in Anchorage.

In an email in advance of the announcement, Bonnie Jack, a Murkowski elections observer, asked supporters to "Join us at the Kick-off of Senator Lisa's campaign --with a theme of 'write in her name in and fill in the oval.'"

Murkowski narrowly lost the Republican primary to the Tea Party- and Sarah Palin-backed Joe Miller, and Republicans have promised to put their money and support behind Miller in the race regardless of what Murkowski does. She will now likely step down from her position in the Republican leadership, and the next two months could be tense between her and her colleagues.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20016886-503544.html?tag=stack

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Go Lisa! Split the Repuke vote!

Nate Silver says she has a chance of winning.

The Hotline reports that Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was defeated in the Republican primary last month by Joe Miller, will run for the Senate as a write-in candidate against Mr. Miller and the Democratic candidate, Scott McAdams.

The move is not entirely unexpected: Ms. Murkowski had not endorsed Mr. Miller, and instead had reportedly been in discussions with the Libertarian Party to appear on their ballot line. The Libertarians having refused her overtures, the only option remaining for Ms. Murkowski was to run as a write-in (Alaska, like most states, does not permit candidates to file for the ballot as independents after the party primaries have taken place).

Can Ms. Murkowski win? Sure she can. There is plenty of precedent for write-ins being elected to the Congress, although fewer have done so successfully in recent years. Meanwhile, a poll by Public Policy Polling found Ms. Murkowski getting 34 percent of the vote against Mr. Miller’s 38 percent and Mr. McAdams’ 22 percent. Private polling has also shown Ms. Murkowski running closely with Mr. Miller, according to The Hotline.

These polls must be approached with some caution. The survey from Public Policy Polling, for instance, asked voters to contemplate what they would do if Ms. Murkowski’s name appeared on the ballot as a Libertarian — rather than as a write-in.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/murkowski-can-win-as-write-in/?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Cognitive_Resonance]

1. Scott McAdams (D) has a shot. Link:

http://www.scottmcadams.org/

[earthside]

2. Sure, he has a shot.

Theoretically ...

If the undeclareds split into thirds; the Repuglicans split in half, and the Democrats stick with McAdams, then sure, he could win.

Alaska voter affiliation: (July 2010)

36.3% -- Undeclared -- no party affiliation declared

25.9% -- Republicans

16% -- Nonpartisan -- no party affiliation

15.4% -- Democrats

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

3. thank you, sore looser woman = we may get a D out of this

[Hepburn]

4. There is a gawd and...

...he must love us Dems! :evilgrin:

[Blue_In_AK]

6. No, no, no.

See my post below. This is NOT good for the Dems here.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Do not believe conventional wisdom

when you're dealing with politics in Alaska. Lisa getting back in is not good for Scott McAdams, and means we will have to work much harder to get Scott elected. With just Miller and McAdams in the race, the choice is clear-cut between teabagger crazy and moderate, reasonable-sounding Alaskan. Lisa only muddies the waters, because she does have a reputation here as being moderate.

Don't forget that the majority, over 60%, of Alaskan voters are not registered with either major party. We thought we had a lock on the people in the middle. Now we're afraid that many of those will vote for Lisa in an effort to keep Miller out, which could guarantee his win. He'll only need 34% of the vote to pull it off, and he just might do it.

Lisa is a spoiler and selfish, and that's the tack we're going to take.

[quakerboy]

11. So, what was the polling looking like

or was there any real polling to see if the undeclared mass were breaking for McAddams? I thought I saw a few go by indicating that Alaskans were chosing Teabagger crazy over reasonable Alaskan.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. Right after the primary election,

Scott was down from Miller by only 6 points, which we thought was pretty good considering he had very little statewide name recognition at that time, and Miller had been all over the airwaves going after Lisa. If Lisa had been able to get on the ticket as Libertarian or something, she had the lead, but with her being a write-in, that's less certain.

Scott was on the news tonight after Lisa's announcement sounding update and saying that basically it was anyone's race at this point. He's getting good support from the Alaska Democrats and said that they made over 3,000 calls over the weekend, which is quite a few considering Alaska's small population.

One thing is for sure, Lisa and Miller will be tearing each other's throats out and it will be bloody, so if Scott doesn't get lost in the melee, he may come out looking really good by comparison. It'll be interesting.

[customerserviceguy]

7. One thing's for sure

If Murkowski and whoever doesn't come up in third place are anywhere near close, this election might take even longer than Al Franken's to settle. Write-in votes always take longer to count than any other kind, and are the ones most subject to court challenges as to what the voter's true intent was, especially if there are spelling errors.

[Change Happens]

8. More power to the gentle lady from Alaska!

I am loving it...

[wisteria]

9. Good for her! n/t

[Arkana]

10. Hmmmm! This gives McAdams an opening, it seems.

Can she campaign?

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Oh, yes, she can campaign.

She has over a million dollars in her war chest, and her announcement tonight was like a stump speech with cheering fans.

[JNelson6563]

12. Fabulous news!

This election season just keeps looking better and better for us! :toast:

Julie

[onehandle]

15. Murkowski supporters: come to "campaign kickoff" tonight

Source: Anchorage Daily News

Lisa Murkowski supporters are urging people to come out tonight for what’s being called a “campaign kick off,” although her campaign manager isn’t ready to say that she’s decided to run.

Bonnie Jack, who was a Murkowski campaign elections observer for the count of absentee votes, sent out an email this morning. “Join us at the Kick-off of Senator Lisa's campaign -- with a theme of "write in her name in and fill in the oval."

"Denai'na Convention Center, third floor and hopefully out on the sunny deck, 5 pm. Bring your family including children, friends and business associates. We plan to make history!”

Jack confirmed to me that she sent the email, and indicated that obviously the conclusion to be drawn from it is that Murkowski is running.

Read more: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/153185

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Whatever keeps that teabagging fake lumberjack out of the Senate.

[joeybee12]

16. Will this help or hurt Joe "I Have a Brain as small as Sarah Palin's" Miller?

Any polling done on this? My first thought is it will help McAdams, but Murkowski might get the indies who really hate Miller and who would have voted for Scott.

[bigworld]

17. So the Dem has a fighting chance here?

super!

[denverbill]

18. Good luck with the write-in Murkowski. Republicans are notoriously bad spellers.n/t

[life_long_dem]

20. Good point.

Edit- removed a stupid idea.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

19. Hopefully Miller and Murkowski will tear each other apart, and siphon resources from the GOP. Link:

http://www.scottmcadams.org/