Alaska Senator May Lose Seat for GOP

[RedEarth]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Opposed by a popular former governor and beset by nepotism charges, freshman Sen. Lisa Murkowski (news, bio, voting record) of Alaska is the Republican most in danger of losing her seat in the U.S. Senate, one she inherited from her father.

No single race in the GOP's effort to hold its 51-49 majority in the Senate is more tenuous than the one in Alaska, where Republicans outnumber Democrats almost 3 to 2 but represent only one-fourth of the state's 469,042 voters, who tend to register as independents or nonpartisans.


Many voters believe Murkowski, 47, didn't earn her seat, a point of view expressed in offices and coffee shops across the state and on bumper stickers that say: "Yo, Lisa! Who's yer daddy?"


In the final days before the election she is in a statistical dead heat with Democrat Tony Knowles, a two-term former governor, according to polls by both campaigns.


But if Knowles, 61, wins, he would be the first Democrat to hold an Alaska Senate seat in 24 years.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1988&e=2&u=/ap/20041021/ap_on_el_se/senate_alaska&sid=96395317

[flygal]

1. I NEVER understood why Alaska went Rep so much....

I guess it's been swamped with military and oil people.

[Ediacara]

5. WELCOME TO DU!

:hi:

Fellow Montanan! I never understood why Alaska was so GOP either, it always seemed rather bizarre.

[flygal]

15. Or for that matter - why MT is so Rep....

Oh yeah, the dems are going to take all the guns away!!

(thanks for the welcome!)

[study_war_no_more]

20. texas tea black gold

oil

[lumpy]

30. Because of GREED

It's about Oil you know.

[Ediacara]

2. What about Oklahoma? What about Colorado? What about Kentucky?

Aren't those seats equally as tenuous? Aren't those seats JUST AS LIKELY to go Dem? I know that part (or most in the case of Kentucky) of the reason they're leaning our way is because of the absolutely inept Republicans, but come on.... this article makes it sound like Alaska's our only chance. Honestly.... I think we can get between 50 and 53 seats without much problem...

[madrchsod]

4. if kentucky votes

for bunning-god help the rational people in that state. bunning is insane

[sadiesworld]

21. Unfortunately, Bunning showed up with some pork today...

$$$$$$$$$ for UofL and Jewish Hospital. I guess the RNC was getting nervous.

[Raiden]

23. Agreed!

I'm very optimistic that we'll get rid of Bunning.

[RedEarth]

10. Oklahoma is definitely in play

However, the repubs are pouring all kinds of cash into the state. Bush 41 was here a few days ago raising big money and getting air time. It's a race that will come down to the wire.

[deadmessengers]

16. OK and CO are open seats

... and KY is a lot closer than the race in Alaska. Right now, Mongiardo and Bunning are tied in KY - Knowles leads Murkowski by 5, last I saw.

[Lostnote03]

31. Louisville KY uses Diebold.......

.......This has been my fear for a few months.....KY becomes in play and voila Repugs pull out a victory.....of course a large enough of a margin to disallow a recount(as if that would actually matter since they would simply recount corrupted numbers).....

[Rowdyboy]

3. "Yo, Lisa, Who's Your Daddy?"-Gret bumpersticker

[theHandpuppet]

13. Damn!

I wish we West Virginians had a similar bumpersticker in our campaign to unseat Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, whose Daddy, the former Gov. Arch Moore, was one of the biggest damned crooks in the state's history. I hate that Bush-likking rubber stamp for the Bushreich!!!!!

[ReadTomPaine]

6. And the details of what happened 24 years ago are hair raising.

The seat that the GOP have held for 24 years was gained via a plane crash that is considered the mother of all suspicious political small aircraft accidents.

The crash killed the Democratic Majority leader Rep. Thomas Hale Boggs along with Rep. Nicholas Joseph Begich, who held a large lead in his race at the time. It hit the Democratic Party pretty hard, Boggs was a powerful figure in Washington and we lost Alaska.

RTP

[splat]

8. Cokie Roberts' daddy

She was Cokie Boggs.

[Norquist Nemesis]

9. Has anyone ever done a probability study

on the likelihood of being a Democrat vs a Republican and dieing in a plane crash?

That's just too bizarre the number of times this happens. :tinfoilhat:

[deadmessengers]

18. Interesting...

This list predates the Wellstone crash, but it does illustrate that
Dems are more likely to die in plane crashes than Repugs.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/25/politicians.plane.crashes/

[dolstein]

11. Actually, that was around 30 years ago

The article was referring to the last Democrat to hold a SENATE seat from Alaska. Begich was perhaps the last Democrat to hold a HOUSE seat from Alaska.

[ReadTomPaine]

12. Correction noted and appreciated! <n/t>

[Bandit]

17. The wreckage has never been found

They just dissappeared off the face of the earth. I am not nearly as optimistic as some around here about Alaska. I though Murkowski the dad would lose the election for governor because he was so clearly outmatched by Fran Ulmer but he won by a huge margin. I was astounded. He had no clear grasp of the states economy and was clearly the loser in their debates but :shrug: Alaska is a state full of retards IMO and I have lived here for over fifty years. It breaks my heart.

[xxqqqzme]

24. I share your heartbreak.

Never lived in Alaska but have visited - good god talk about taking your breath away! Alaska is THE most stunningly, beautiful place I have ever been.

[yardwork]

25. Some very strange plane crashes....

From the CNN list linked above (back when CNN reported news):

August 3, 1976: Missouri Rep. Jerry Litton (D). Litton was killed along with his family in a plane crash in the northwest part of the state on the evening he won the Missouri's Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He was en route to a victory celebration.

October 16, 1972: House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, D-Louisiana and Rep. Nick Begich, D-Alaska: Both were killed when their plane disappeared over Alaska.

[Cha]

27. Oh Wow, I never knew that...only getting

into politics in 2000 but I do remember that name..Thomas Hale Boggs ..so cokie was a DEm or grew up in Dem family until she turned mediawhore?

[GoSolar]

7. That's good news!

A Democratic Senate to go with the Democratic President! :D

[BenDavid]

14. Over-all The Democrats,

With 2 seats now held by them in S.C. and Ga. both Republicans will win those states... now it is 53 to 47.....We pick up the Illinois seat from the Republicans...now it is 52 to 48....We pick up the seat from the Republicans in Colorado.. now it is 51 to 49....We pick up the seat from the Republicans in Alaska, and now it is 50 to 50 ....It comes down to 3 states. North Carolina is now up for grabs because of the tobacco buy out passed by Republicans... Oklahoma is too close to call...Kentucky is too close as well....So election night I would first look how Kentucky and North Caolina went and if the Republicans take those two seats we will still have a Republican majority.....I hate it but I have hope but let me say if the Democrats do take control of the Senate, then elect a damn new majority leader as Daschle will be too damn compromising and weak to be effective..... I thank you and I approve this message.

[Cha]

29. Very good, Ben! You summed it up nicely

for me. I will definetly be looking at those two states on election night.

[sonias]

19. Yo, bush! Who's yer daddy?

Same issue nationally too. Poppy and friends pretty much appointed the bu$h boy. He inherited from his father as well. Neither one of them (bu$h or lisa) has done anything to prove they deserved the job.

Fire them both!

Sonia

[yardwork]

26. I hope that Alaskans notice the same nepotism and go Democrat

in their choice of a presidential candidate. It seems unlikely but stranger things have happened.

[w4rma]

22. So many of these stories are written from the point of view of the Repug.

They talk about how that other Party, the Democrats, are trying to take our Senate seat for their own.

[Snellius]

28. It's not just that she's Murkowski's daughter

She's an unbelievable doofus. She's like the Kathryn Harris of the Senate. Every time she gets up to speak, you have to ask "What's she doing here?"