According to a long report from the Anchorage Daily News, things are getting tense between incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her Republican primary opponent, Joe Miller. Miller has the backing of national tea party cash, and the endorsement of former Gov. Sarah Palin. Todd Palin, the former First Dude, appeared at a recent fundraiser for Miller and summed up the Miller campaign's main criticism of Murkowski to the ADN: "We know that Murkowski sees this as a competitive campaign, based upon the actions that she's taking. We've certainly seen how she's moving to the right." (Keep an eye on that last part, Republican primary voters, because you're likely to hear it a million times between now and the voting booth.) "I'm not running because she's a liberal," Miller told the crowd at his fundraiser. "I'm running because the nation is in crisis. But she is a liberal." For her part, Sen. Murkowski dismisses Miller's claim she's flip-flopping to appeal to conservative voters and says he's conveniently leaving out facts about her stances on various federal policy matters. "I do expect that there's a level of integrity and intellectual honesty in any kind of campaign, and I am hopeful that my opponent will honor that," she said. Read much more, including a morsel about how Miller's antipathy toward federal spending might play in a state seriously dependent on federal dollars, here.