Posted on 09/08/2010 8:04:08 PM PDT by freespirited
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will likely be forced out of her party leadership position should she decide to launch a write-in or third-party candidacy, a Senate Republican said Wednesday.
Murkowski, who conceded the GOP primary last month to Fairbanks lawyer Joe Miller, could announce as soon as Thursday whether she will continue her campaign for re-election as a write-in candidate. She has also held talks with the state’s Libertarian Party leaders about running under their flag.
Although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other GOP leaders have not yet formally discussed what to do if Murkowski does run, the Senate Republican said there is likely no scenario in which she would be allowed to remain Republican Conference vice chairwoman.
According to this source, Murkowski could simply resign her position, or McConnell and other leaders could press her to resign. The conference could also formally vote to strip Murkowski of her leadership mantle.
Assuming she does stay in the race and is stripped of her title, Republicans would be forced to wait until after the November elections to vote to install a new member in her position.
Republicans, however, said they hope Murkowski drops the idea of continuing her re-election efforts. “She’s an adult. She lost the race,” one senior GOP Senate aide said.
Even as Murkowski has flirted with the possibility of continuing to campaign, Republicans have quickly fallen behind Miller, who upset Murkowski thanks to the support of members of the tea party movement.
For instance, McConnell has contributed $5,000 to Miller’s campaign through his Bluegrass political action committee, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee has donated $42,600.
Murkowski was traveling in rural Alaska and could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lame duck session will tell us a great deal about what we can expect from the GOP elites in the next full session. If McConnell can't hold them together and make a serious effort to thwart the garbage the Dems are going to try ramming through, don't expect much in the way of spine in January.
After Nov 3 Mitch will have been given the message about what we expect. If he can't start fighting for our agenda on 11/3, he won't be worth much in January.
Besides the perks, retirement and health plan(s) are well worth a try.
There’s been too much talk about third party runs for me to remember...lol.
I think a write-in is all right, but it’s never effective.
She will just be trying to play the spoiler.
Blue Moose will know.
Just the ruling class trying to teach us a lesson. They gave us two choices to pick from, and they will brook no dissension.
Well, lame ducks have nothing to lose, save for their reputations.
The others, like McCain and his pal Graham should want to act like conservatives, but who knows.
I think Mitch needs to be replaced when the new senators are seated, and preferably replaced by Senator DeMint.
How does that sound to you?
Sounds good to me.
Think they’ll listen to us? /sarc
Apparently the sore loser law doesnt prevent her from running as a write-in.
The stupid hack somehow has convinced herself that she can somehow win again under a 3rd party banner or as a write-in candidate when she can’t even win her own party’s primary. Someone up in Alaska is feeding her mucho peyote, so I’m glad that the Senate GOP is firing this shot across her ugly bow.
What possible benefit does she think running would gain her?
She thinks she can win, and failing that, at least deny Sarah the pleasure of having Joe Miller win.
I think Mitch needs to be replaced when the new senators are seated,...”
Our Rep spoke at our local meeting last night and I brought up the issue of replacing Boner and Mitch - for instance with Bachmann and DeMint. He spent 10 minutes telling us all the reasons why they will keep their present positions and did not respond when I commented that apparently those not up for election this year apparently hadn’t been paying attention to their constituents and appeared not to have learned anything about the kind of leaders that we need in Congress.
I think if I were her I would withdraw and try to get n the good side of conservatives and then maybe she could run against Begich in 4 years.
darn good advice.
If she were to continue her campaign in any way it would not be in expectation of winning this race. Her intent at this point is to make sure Miller loses. If miller loses then her future prospects improve. It would be best for her, of course, if Miller loses without her finger prints on the weapon.
“She thinks she can win, and failing that, at least deny Sarah the pleasure of having Joe Miller win.”
She won’t be able to do either. Miller will win easily as Murkowski and MacAdams split the minority of Democrat votes.
This is a non story. It is only interesting because it casts Murkowski as Gollum obsessed with “the Precious”.
Long before Miller was on the radar screen, I said (and I repeat) Lisa Murkowski is not a good candidate. Her feeble write in attempt will garner (at most) 5% of the vote. ANd that 5% will come from Anchorage, right out of MacAdams’ hide.
The election will go something like this:
Miller: 60
MacAdams: 35
Murk: 5
One thing it does do is to make Christine O’Donnell’s and John Raese (West Virginia) election even more imperative.
Murkowski may give the Dems the vote to break a filibuster during the lame duck session and help them jam through cap and tax. O’Donnell and Raese would be seated immediately and would push the GOP caucus above the filibuster threshhold even with Murk’s defection.
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