Sarah Palin a central figure in Alaska Senate race
Published 10:34 pm Wednesday, August 25, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As Sen. Lisa Murkowski watched the shocking election returns come into her election headquarters on primary night, she became painfully aware of two powerful forces in American politics in 2010: anti-government rage and Sarah Palin.
The Republican senator trailed conservative lawyer Joe Miller by 1,668 votes Wednesday with all precincts reporting, despite being heavily favored to defeat the lesser-known candidate in the GOP primary. She is hoping that several thousand uncounted absentee ballots can swing the election in her favor, and both sides were bracing for a long count to determine the winner.
Regardless of the final outcome, the primary is an indication of the influence Palin wields in midterm elections as she looks ahead to a possible White House bid in 2012. She had been on a losing streak as of late in her role as “Mama Grizzly” kingmaker, but that seems to have changed with wins in other primaries Tuesday and the possibility of Murkowski losing.
The race is the latest chapter in a long-running political saga between Palin and the Murkowski family dating back to 2002, when then-Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter to the Senate and bypassed the up-and-coming Palin for the position. Palin routed Frank Murkowski four years later in the primary on the way to her becoming governor, and now she may have helped derail the career of his daughter.
The women have occasionally clashed since then on the issue of health care reform and Palin’s decision to resign as governor last summer. They have denied any bad blood, but that didn’t stop the potshots in this latest race, including attacks on Murkowski on health care that the senator said were horribly misleading and false.
Murkowski on Wednesday declined to discuss what kind of role Palin might have had on the race.
In an interview with Fox Business Network, Palin reflected on the Murkowski family tenure in the Senate.
“That put me on the outs of the Republican machine that is still in place today. And Joe Miller is going to have to deal with that too,” Palin said. “That dynasty of one family holding the Senate seat for three decades, and finally Alaskans said we are ready for some new blood, new ideas, a new face that will represent the will of the people here for constitutional conservative principles to be lived out.”
Pollster Marc Hellenthal, who often works with Republicans, lays the blame for Murkowski’s predicament on her failure to respond to the barrage of negative ads. “It was every 15 minutes, wasn’t it?” he asked of the airing of ads by the Tea Party Express. “And they literally accused her of almost everything imaginable.”
Murkowski focused on her record and experience for much of the campaign, but finally began fighting back near the end. But by then, it was “way too late in the ballgame,” Hellenthal said.
