{"id":1450,"date":"2004-03-23T11:37:13","date_gmt":"2004-03-23T16:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1450.html"},"modified":"2004-03-23T11:37:13","modified_gmt":"2004-03-23T16:37:13","slug":"a-positive-twist-in-the-alaska-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-positive-twist-in-the-alaska-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"A positive twist in the Alaska Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

This may seem unimportant to those of us outside of Alaska, but the state’s Senate race this year will likely play a critical role in determining which party controls the chamber next year.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to see a scenario in which the Dems can get to 51 without picking up this heretofore GOP seat. Fortunately, there’s word that the Dems’ job may be a little easier than expected.<\/p>\n

The Dem candidate will be former Gov. Tony Knowles, challenging incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) who was “given” the seat in 2002 when her father, Frank Murkowski (R), left the Senate to become governor.<\/p>\n

Alaska is generally a Republican state, but Knowles is a popular former governor. Recent polls show him with a narrow lead statewide.<\/p>\n

Murkowski will find it difficult, hopefully, fending off Knowles, but her job will be even more difficult if she has to endure a Republican primary challenge. And now it appears she might.
\n
\nThe Anchorage Daily News<\/a> is reporting that Mike Miller, the state Administration Commissioner and the former state Senate president, is preparing to take on Murkowski for the GOP nod. If he runs, he’ll be challenging Murkowski from the right.<\/p>\n

Miller said he is less than impressed and has trouble telling Sen. Murkowski from Knowles. <\/p>\n

“You listen to them, and they agree on most issues,” Miller said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve liked Knowles’ chances in this race, but if Murkowski has to endure a difficult and costly primary, as now appears likely, this will tilt the scales even more in the Dems’ favor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may seem unimportant to those of us outside of Alaska, but the state’s Senate race this year will likely play a critical role in determining which party controls the chamber next year. It’s hard to see a scenario in which the Dems can get to 51 without picking up this heretofore GOP seat. Fortunately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}