I’ve written about how Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had NORPAC backing her in her historic bid to be re-elected though write-in ballot.
Ben Chouake, NORPAC’s president, said he couldn’t abandon a longtime friend of the pro-Israel lobby.
It looks like Murkowski might have pulled it off — there are substantially more write-in ballots than there are votes for Joe Miller, the candidate who ousted her in the primaries with backing from the Tea Party and Murkowski’s longtime rival, Sarah Palin.
The presumption is, her name is on most of the write-ins. Miller might mount challenges based on voter intent (if her name was misspelled, if only her first or last name appears, etc.).
Murkowski campaigned saying she would caucus with Republicans — much as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) did when he ran as an independent after losing the Dem primaries in 2006.
The question is: Would the establishment back her, post-election? Establishment types begged her to beg off before the election, fearing she would split the GOP vote and throw the state to the Democrats. (Candidate Scott McAdamas has already conceded — to Murkowski.)
We may have an answer: Redoubtable GOP attack dog lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, is on Murkowski’s team, Alaska Public Radio reports.
Ginsberg, joined by Jim Baker, led the successful Bush team in the 2000 recount (and was memorably played by Bob Balaban in the HBO recounting, "Recount").
He’s as establishment as it gets.
It’s an interesting signal, considering the dust in the race has yet to fully settle. What does this portend for anticipated Tea Party-establishment tensions within the GOP?
(In my original post, I misspelled Ginsberg’s name, going with APR’s spelling. Should have checked!)
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