Alaska Dispatch

More than seven years after her father appointed her to fill his Senate seat, Lisa Murkowski has cemented her role as Alaska's senior U.S. senator, leaving her virtually unchallenged in her run for re-election in November.

A canvass of state politicians and party leaders turned up no serious challenger to Murkowski except for a perennial candidate who has never gained much traction.

A strong candidate is "not going to want to go into a buzz saw against Lisa," said Ralph Samuels, a Republican running for governor.

Patti Higgins, state chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said that while she's confident her party will find somebody to run against Murkowski, the role of the candidate would mostly be to keep Murkowski "honest."

In early 2009, Murkowski supporters were nervous that then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would run for her Senate seat, but those fears were allayed when Palin announced she would raise money for Murkowski's re-election campaign. Last year Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, donated $4,800 to Murkowski's campaign, the maximum allowed under federal election rules.

A list of 2010 candidates on the Alaska Republican Party's Web site includes four names for governor (current Gov. Sean Parnell, Bill Walker, Ralph Samuels, and Gerald Heikes), two for lieutenant governor (Craig Campbell and Jay Ramras) and three for U.S. House (Don Young, Andrew Halcro, and Sheldon Fisher). Only Murkowski stands alone.

Barring any major surprises, it would seem Murkowski is now looking at a clear path to another term. But her ascent hasn't always been easy. From the start, Murkowski was criticized over how she got the job in the first place.

Murkowski was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, to finish out his term after he was elected governor. In 2004, Lisa Murkowski successfully defended the seat against former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, winning by a margin of 9,500 votes. At the time, Murkowski was still battling charges of nepotism over her original appointment.

Today, as she nears the end of her first full term, that complaint seems to have faded into the background.

"Her service has been so strong that Alaskans are not so concerned now as they were several years ago with the manner of her appointment," Mary Hughes, chief administrator for Murkowski's re-election campaign, said.

Murkowski hasn't filed to run with state election officials, Hughes said, but her federal filing was completed in 2005, a routine practice that allows politicians to raise money while in office.

Murkowski's second run at the Senate comes in the wake of the downfall of Ted Stevens, Alaska's former senior senator and a dominant politician for 40 years. After being convicted of seven felony counts for failing to report gifts on his Senate disclosure forms in 2008, Stevens narrowly lost his re-election bid to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat. A judge tossed his conviction after the election due to apparent misconduct by federal prosecutors during the trial.

Begich is the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate since Mike Gravel, who was succeeded by Frank Murkowski in 1980. (Begich's father, Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, disappeared and was presumed dead in a plane crash in October 1972; Don Young was later elected to fill his seat, although not until after Begich won re-election posthumously.)

Randy Ruedrich, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, said he didn't know of any Republican who would challenge Murkowski in the primary. Ruedrich added that it's already late in the game for an opponent to announce. A candidate with a lot of name recognition or money could make a go of it, he said, but anyone else would have difficulty starting a campaign now.

Samuels, a Holland America executive, is in the midst of a much more competitive Republican primary challenge to Parnell, who inherited his job when Palin resigned in July. Samuels said politicians have a limited number of election years in which they can run for office and that no one is likely to waste time running against a proven incumbent like Murkowski.

"They can't win, whoever they put up," Samuels said.

And so for now, Murkowski's sole declared opponent is Frank Vondersaar, a Homer Democrat who said he's run for either the Senate or House every year since 1992. While this year's anti-incumbent sentiment might help him, Vondersaar said, he believes he lacks the financial backing to have much of a shot.

"It'll probably be the way it was with (Ted) Stevens," Vondersaar said. "She's senior enough that I don't expect a lot of help from the Democratic Party."

Contact Joshua Saul at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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