The Daily Beast reports that “sources” close to Murkowski say she’s considering a third party run in light of her not-quite-yet loss to challenger Joe Miller in Alaska’s Republican Senate Primary now that all of the precincts are in and she’s waiting for the absentee ballots. Even then the path will be difficult as she will need to win 60% of the absentee vote. Shushannah Walshe writing for The Daily Beast writes:
The ongoing battle for who won the Republican primary in the Alaska Senate race will come down to the absentee ballots, but in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, a source within the Murkowski campaign says they know of one possible legal option to pursue a third-party run. If Murkowski is not victorious when the absentee ballots are counted and decides to wage an Independent party bid, they might consider using this option, which the source wouldn’t describe, but did confirm they were seriously looking at.
"We are going to take a look at them and see whether the option is there or not, but it’s a decision she (Murkowski) has to make," the Murkowski camp source said. "There is an option I know of."
Murkowski is not a secessionist, which Alaskans know, and an aggressive PR campaign promoting her independence rather than the AIP may be her only route back to Washington this fall.
In a general election, Murkowski would be hard to beat. The camp said it would also be a message to their supporters who didn’t bother going to the polls Tuesday.
Gee, where have we seen this before? That’s going oh so well for the other NRSC-backed candidate who made such a move. I don’t think she would win. She would have to not only keep all her support, but peal off Democrat voters from oh, what’s his name? That’s right, Scott McAdams. I don’t see it happening, but I suppose some Democrats could decide they’d rather have Democrat Light rather than a conservative represent them.
Update: She’s too late for an independent run, she’d have to run with a third party, and ADN is reporting that her only option is to run as a Libertarian.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think hell would freeze over first, but stranger things have happened. I have to love having my posts become irrelevant a couple of minutes after posting. Should have done a little more reading.