Conservative PAC Blasts Lisa Murkowski's Alaska Write-in Campaign

Sen. Lisa Murkowski's attempt to save her Senate career via a last-ditch write-in campaign is coming under fire from a conservative political action committee.

The Alaska Republican launched the write-in effort after being defeated in the GOP primary by Joe Miller, who won the endorsements of the tea party movement and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

"We are calling on the Republican leadership to publicly denounce Murkowski's pathetic attempt to cling to high office and demand that she immediately abandon this outrageous attempt to subvert the will of Alaska voters," says Scott Wheeler, executive director of the National Republican Trust PAC. "Senator Murkowski lost the Republican Primary because her too liberal voting record did not sit well with the voters of Alaska. If you go to Washington to expand the power of the government and not the individual freedoms of the electorate you will be voted out of office."

Murkowski was first appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, to fill the vacancy created when he was elected governor. Lisa Murkowski was then elected to her first full term two years later. There is considerable bad blood between the Murkowski family and Palin, after Palin defeated the elder Murkowski for governor in the GOP primary in 2006.

Murkowski had risen to the post of ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and would take over as chairwoman should the GOP win a majority in the midterm elections.

"I'm disappointed but not surprised by Murkowski's actions. Professional politicians like Murkowski feel entitled to their position within the ruling class," Wheeler says. "Instead of listening to the will of the voters Murkowski will now try distort her record in a desperate attempt to cling to power."

Little-known before his primary win, newly minted GOP Senate nominee Miller is the odds-on favorite to win the general election in November, given the Republican tilt of Alaska. Also, just one senator has won via a write-in campaign, that being Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, in 1954.

Wheeler says that his PAC will fully support Miller's election in November.


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