Republicans searching to fill (Lisa)Murkowski's vacancy

Kenai Peninsula Clarion ^ | December 22, 2002 | Mike Chambers

[alaskanfan]

Republicans searching to fill Murkowski's vacancy

JUNEAU (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski had barely taken office when the search to fill the void in the state House began Friday.

The 45-year-old Anchorage lawmaker was named by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, to assume the seat he has held for 22 years.

Lisa Murkowski had been readying herself to return to Juneau after winning a third term in office and being picked by House Republicans as Majority leader.

''We're going to have to revisit the whole issue again,'' said House Speaker-elect Pete Kott, R-Eagle River. ''There are probably three or four people interested in it.''

Kott said the 27-member Republican majority will not pick a new leader until a replacement has been named for Murkowski's House District 18.

Some possible candidates for majority leader include Reps. John Coghill, R-North Pole; Jim Whitaker, R-Fairbanks; Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage; and Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said Kott.

McGuire said she is interested in the post. The other lawmakers could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Under state law and GOP rules, the District 18 Republican Committee will forward three names to Gov. Murkowski. The governor will then appoint a successor to his daughter's two-year term within 30 days.

The governor is not limited to the names on the list, said Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, but customarily chooses from it.

Ruedrich said he has already fielded phone calls on behalf of Anchorage Assemblyman Dan Kendall and Nancy Dahlstrom.

Dahlstrom, of Eagle River, narrowly lost to Murkowski in the August Republican Primary. Kott described Dahlstrom as a top contender for the unexpired term. Dahlstrom could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Other names mentioned by Kott included retiring House Finance co-chairman Eldon Mulder, a Republican from Muldoon who stepped down rather than run against Murkowski in the primary.

Mulder also could not be reached for comment. A staff aide said Mulder was traveling Friday.

The state Republican Party will advertise the vacancy in the newspaper to invite Republicans in House District 18 to step forward. The seven-member district committee will meet within two weeks, Ruedrich said.

House District 18 includes Birchwood, Chugiak, Eagle River, Elmendorf, Fort Richardson, Government Hill and Muldoon.

The governor's state House appointment must be confirmed by a majority of the House Republicans, Ruedrich said.

[alaskanfan]

Some possible candidates for majority leader include Reps. John Coghill, R-North Pole; Jim Whitaker, R-Fairbanks; Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage; and Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said Kott.

Huh!!!!

House District 18 includes Birchwood, Chugiak, Eagle River, Elmendorf, Fort Richardson, Government Hill and Muldoon.

How do people from Fairbanks and North Pole get considered for a state Senate seat from District 18?

This is starting to smell like last weeks bait.

[alaskanfan]

Sorry simple comprehension failure.It will be interesting to see who is selected to take her place as majority leader as well as the seat she was elected to in the Senate.

[Sonny M]

For those of you who don't know anything about Lisa Murkowski, here's a little info (not good), she is a pro-abortion and death penalty liberal republican slightly to the left of Lincon Chaffee.

[Sonny M]

sorry, I meant to say anti-death penalty.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I still can't believe Murkowski appointed his daughter to the U.S. Senate. He just painted a nice big target on that seat, and she seems sure to be a seat-warmer for Tony Knowles. Two people that SHOULD have been off that list of successors were Lisa Murkowski-Modell and Ben Stevens. It should've gone to Sarah Palin, period.

[Anchoragite]

So vote for Palin in less than two years, if she wants to run. At least we got someone who isn't going to be a radical change from the person we elected in the first place.

[spectre]

Hell, if they run true to form, does Ms Murkowski (sp?) have a son, daughter, family pet that can be appointed?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Shouldn't be hard to replace Lisa- there are plenty of lightweights in the Republican Party up here.

[ambrose]

Lisa M. is largely pro-life. She seems to pretty much mirror her father who is a tax and spend pork barrel Republican. Not really much of a change.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I second that. The one thing most of us NEVER want to see is a "Senator Tony Knowles". (Nightmare!)

I think he should have appointed Loren Leman, but then, he didn't ask me...

[alaskanfan]

It should be an interesting two years. I would like to see Jerry Ward run against her in the primary.

[ambrose]

http://murkowski.senate.gov/

So, she already has her website up, offices all setup with phone numbers, etc.

Yeah, daddy really agonized long and hard before deciding at the last moment to pick his daughter. LOL. What a sham. He knew he was going to pick her all along. Those 26 pols who were forced to go through the charade of being interviewed must be really ticked off...

[ambrose]

ping

[Brad C.]

Now to be fair, she actually gets to keep her daddy's office, and will also be living inthe family home in DC. All of those telephones were already connected, and websites, those are just easy to do. /sarcasm

The more I think about this the angrier I get. Is there a method of finding out the date a web page was actually created?

[Brad C.]

Never mind, the properties indicate a 12/22/02 creation date, and the pages are rather simple. She just inherited all of daddy's offices, staff and contacts. Hope she will put them to good use.

[ambrose]

She just inherited all of daddy's offices, staff and contacts.

When you put it that way, then maybe Alaska does benefit from this bit of nepotism.

[Brad C.]

Let's just hope she puts them to good use. I imagine that Frank is going to call in a lot of favors from old friends just to help Lisa get started. I wonder what he will give up in return.