It’s a historical victory for a politician defending her seat — and a political embarrassment for a perceived candidate for the 2012 Republican nomination all rolled into one. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has declared victory in her rocky-roaded election bid: historical because she’s the first write in Senate candidate victor in 50 years. And the Republican’s win is seen as an embarrassment for her political nemesis, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who backed Tea Party movement candidate Joe Miller against her.
Miller did win the Republican nomination, but proved to be a highly deficient candidate with so much baggage that any minute you expected TSA to do a body scan of him.
Murkowski’s win is like a rock thrown in Palin’s path: not quite a huge boulder, but it breaks a major narrative — along with the defeats of Palin-backed Tea Party movement candidate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Sharon Angle in Nevada:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Wednesday declared victory after apparently becoming the first U.S. Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign, defeating her Tea Party rival after a painstaking, week-long count of hand-written votes.
The victory completes a remarkable comeback for the Republican incumbent after her loss in the party primary to Joe Miller.
“If you want something done go out and tell an Alaskan they can’t do it,” Murkowski said in her victory speech on Wednesday evening. “Can you imagine over 100,000 people who wrote in the same name. Think about what that means … Alaskans knew exactly what they were doing and they showed their intent with every letter they put on on that ballot.”
She said the win feels a bit “mind-boggling.” But she says Alaskans chose the “commonsense path.”
It was a path Sarah Palin sought to direct in a different direction.
The state GOP, which backed Miller, on Wednesday called the race for Murkowski and asked Miller to withdraw “end his campaign in a dignified manner.”
Miller has ceded nothing, saying he hasn’t decided whether to seek a re-count. His campaign posted on its website what it called five “myths” to get people to believe Miller had lost. In one of those, the campaign cites an outdated vote tally that puts Miller on top, when Murkowski surpassed Miller on Tuesday.
Miller may challenge Murkowski in court but it’ll most likely end up with Miller not going to the Senate (and perhaps finding time now to buy a razor blade).
Murkowski’s victory says several things. It suggests that despite a growing belief that the center is dead or ailing there is a center in American politics — one that Miller, O’Donnell and Angle could not find and they paid the consequences. It suggests that Palin may not quite have the golden touch. There had also been reports in recent months that some state Republicans had been rooting for Murkowski — an indication that Miller strayed far from the state party’s perceived center.
But, mostly, it suggests that a write in candidate’s victory is indeed possible — particularly if an opponent from the same party chases away many independents, moderates or other voters who just simply felt he was a lousy candidate who should not be sent to the Senate. One lesson? In the future Palin could help herself by exercising better quality control in her endorsements. Second fact: Murkowski remains a powerful figure in Alaska.
You can read more blog commentary HERE.
UPDATE: Was one of Miller’s problems overconfidence?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.