Joe Miller has claimed 51.09 percent of the vote in his fight against U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, according to the Alaska Division of Elections website, and that's with 97.9 percent of the precincts reporting. The unofficial numbers are current as of 3:56 a.m. Wednesday.

The Tea Party Express, a California-based group that said it spent over $550,000 on Miller's campaign, is "ecstatic" about its role in the close race. Bryan Shroyer, the group's political director, said "We thought all along that we had a shot in this race, and now we're up after counting pretty much every ballot." Miller was also endorsed by Sarah Palin, who ramped up her efforts to help Miller in the campaign's closing days.

In actual numbers, Miller is up only 1,960 votes, with 429 of 438 precincts reporting. The precincts still counting votes include a handful in areas like Fairbanks and the Mat-Su Valley, but there are even more uncounted precincts in rural areas like Dillingham and Nome. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Murkowski's staff was praying Bush Alaska would come through for the senator.

The race's final result won't be determined for at least a week because over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested, and as of Monday night only 7,600 had been returned, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The campaigns were up late Tuesday night. Wednesday morning Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto didn't answer his phone. Murkowski spokesman Steve Wackowski didn't pick up either, and his email inbox was full, likely crammed with messages from just about every political reporter in the country.

Update: Wackowski called back 20 minutes after this story ran. He said "We're going to hold that press conference this afternoon and then wait for the votes to come in." (After Wackowski called the presser was moved to 11 a.m.)

Shroyer, who traveled to Alaska in July to kick off the Tea Party Express' supporting role in the Miller campaign, attributed Miller's strong showing to two things. First, the continued building of momentum that "reached a pinnacle at exactly the right time." And second, the efforts of the Tea Party Express over the last week, which included two direct mail pieces that went to voters in Anchorage and Fairbanks over the weekend, statewide buys on cable television, and 10,000 phone calls made to voters over the last 72 hours of the campaign.

Still, Shroyer has worked enough campaigns, including Tea Party victories in Nevada and Utah, that he knows the fight isn't over. He expects the absentee ballots to favor Murkwoski, given when Miller peaked and when those ballots were mailed.

"It'll be closer than it is now, and it's pretty close right now," Shroyer said.

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul(at)alaskadispatch.com.

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