Murkowski Concedes to Miller in Alaska Race
Politico reports that Lisa Murkowski has officially conceded to Joe Miller:
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded the GOP nomination to attorney Joe Miller on Tuesday evening, becoming the third senator to lose renomination this cycle.
After a day of tallied outstanding ballots left her with a 1,630-vote deficit, Murkowski told reporters at a press conference outside her Anchorage campaign headquarters that she was dropping her reelection bid.
Miller, who had the backing of former Gov. Sarah Palin, defeated Murkowski in what will likely be remembered as one of the biggest upsets in Alaska's political history – and one of the most stunning defeats of the entire cycle. Just a couple weeks before the primary, polls showed Murkowski coasting to victory over Miller.
Murkowski ended her official reelection campaign after a disappointing day of ballot tallying, during which the senator could not substantially cut into Miller's lead. Although state election officials have at least 7,000 ballots left to process, Murkowski would have to win an overwhelming majority of them in order to win the nomination – a statistical impossibility that even Murkowski acknowledged.
Murkowski trailed Miller by 1,668 votes after the Aug. 24 primary, but at the time she told reporters she would wait for all the remaining ballots – about 24,000 – to be processed.
