How Murkowski Trumped Palin

Written by Max Strong on Tuesday February 22, 2011

Sarah Palin may grab today's headlines, but by quietly moving to the center her longtime rival Sen. Lisa Murkowski holds a brighter political future.

It could be said that Alaska has three lucrative exports: oil, fish and Sarah Palin. But while America’s most famous hockey mom has been soaking up time on the biggest network television shows, another Alaskan woman has been making splashes if not waves in the American political system: Senator Lisa Murkowski, Palin’s rival long before socialism, Obama and death panels.

Lisa’s father, Frank Murkowski was elected governor of Alaska in 2002. Having moved to the governorship from the Senate, Frank Murkowski was now empowered to pick his senatorial successor. After looking at several possible candidates for the job, including former Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin, Murkowski chose his daughter -- then state Representative Lisa Murkowski. The governor suffered permanent political damage from the ensuing criticism.

Yet the new Senator Murkowski, called “Princess Lisa” by her critics, proved surprisingly effective. With legendary Senator “Uncle” Ted Stevens as her guide, Princess Lisa worked to earn her crown. Lisa Murkowski wooed Alaskans by focusing on local issues: federal jobs for Alaskan natives; federal support for the salmon fishery; and obtaining the National Veterans Wheelchair Games for Anchorage.  In 2004, Alaskans elected Lisa to her full term. At the same time, Alaskans voted overwhelmingly to strip future governors of the ability to appoint senators.

Meanwhile, Palin plotted her next political move. She resigned from the state oil and gas conservation commission in January 2004 and became one of Frank Murkowski’s most prominent critics within the GOP. In 2006, Palin challenged Governor Frank Murkowski for the GOP nomination and defeated him easily.

Governor Palin proclaimed a new era of reform within the state and the state Republican Party. Her rhetoric and heated political thought could be felt several thousand miles away in Washington. In 2008, longtime Congressman Don Young came within a few hundred votes of losing his seat in the Republican Party primary to Palin’s then lieutenant governor Sean Parnell. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator in history and the leader of the party’s moderate branch, came under fire for supposed corruption and was later indicted. Then there was August 29th, 2008, the day that forever changed the dynamics of Alaskan politics. Governor Palin was plucked out of obscurity and put onto the world stage as the first female vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

With the possibility of Palin taking up residence at Number One Observatory Circle, Senator Murkowski’s role as Alaska’s number one woman in Washington was threatened. But two things happened in 2008 that stabilized Murkowski’s prospects. First, Obama won. Second, Murkowski became more moderate. In December 2003, NARAL gave the senator a fourteen percent grade, indicating that she had a pro-life voting record. Just three years later however, the NRLC gave her a fifty percent grade, indicating a more mixed record on the issue. Additionally, although she originally voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in 2006, she voted for hate crime prevention and would eventually support the overturning of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2010. Lisa’s ideological transformation was not only limited to social issues. In the wake of 2006 and 2008, she became a more active supporter of earmarks, a greater champion of environmental issues and more willing to work with Democrats on meaningful legislation.

Around this time, Sarah Palin was looking for change herself. Bogged down by corruption investigations and bored by state policy debates, Palin quit the governorship. While Palin stepped forward to lead the Tea Party movement, Murkowski headed in the opposite direction.

Murkowski’s shift challenged the new right.  Sarah Palin, having previously agreed to support Murkowski, threw her support to conservative attorney Joe Miller in the Alaska senate contest. Yet as a write-in candidate, Murkowski won the general election by ten thousand votes.

2010 was the last clash of Alaska’s two top female politicians on local ground. The senior senator is not up for reelection again until 2016 and the former governor, whose approval ratings continued to slide, is turning her attention more and more to the national electorate. For now, Murkowski seems content with her post as ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But as her old nemesis ramps up her political machine for a go on the national scene, Alaska’s very own princess may see the merit in doing the same.

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