Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who lost her state’s Republican primary last month to a Tea-Party-backed conservative, will run as a write-in candidate in the general election, a campaign spokesman said Friday.
Steve Wackowski, the spokesman, acknowledged that the senator appeared to face steep odds. “But if there’s anyplace it can be done, it’s Alaska,” he said. “She’s had a huge outpouring of support from everyday Alaskans.”
A last-minute rush of advertisements and automated calls helped Joe Miller, a lawyer from Fairbanks who has proposed sharp cuts in federal spending, defeat Ms. Murkowski by about 2,000 votes out of about 100,000 cast. Sarah Palin was among the top conservatives who made calls on Mr. Miller’s behalf.
The Tea Party Express spent $600,000 on the campaign in support of Mr. Miller. Since the primary, Ms. Murkowski has called the Tea Party Express “an outside extremist group,” saying it had “hijacked” the Alaska Republican Party. But in the weeks since the primary, Mr. Miller has been endorsed by top Senate Republican leaders in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/us/politics/18murkowski.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print