US News

Murkowski defeats Palin candidate in Alaska

Nov 18, 2010, 4:27 GMT

San Francisco - In a major reversal for Sarah Palin, Lisa Murkowski has won a write-in election campaign to the US senate, defeating a hand-picked Tea Party candidate in the home state of the former vice-presidential hopeful.

The election victory made Murkowski the first person to be elected to the Senate in 56 years in a write-in bid, where the candidate's name is not printed on the ballot, and voters must write the name in for themselves.

Murkowski is the incumbent Republican senator for the northern state and is scion to a powerful Alaskan political dynasty. But she was beaten in the Republican primaries by a garrulous Tea Party candidate backed by Palin and then supported by the national Republican Party.

Murkowski declared victory on the same day that Palin said explicitly that she was considering a run for President in 2012 and that she believed she could beat US President Barack Obama. The senator said she had deliberated long and hard about whether to run a write-in campaign after she lost to Miller in a primary. Murkowski declared victory after election officials said a final tally showed her with a 10,000-vote lead, more than the 8,252 ballots that Miller has challenged.

'If you want something done, go out and tell an Alaskan they can't do it,' Murkowski said. 'Can you imagine over 100,000 people who wrote in the same name. Think about what that means ... Alaskans knew exactly what they were doing and they showed their intent with every letter they put on on that ballot.'

Murkowski said the win feels a bit 'mind-boggling,' but said that Alaskans chose the 'commonsense path.'

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