Why Murkowski Can Win

In this week’s dead tree edition I have a story about Senator Lisa Murkowski and why not to count her out despite the fact that no one since Strum Thurmond in 1954 has won a write in election. As the most highly subsidized state, Alaskans are feeling the loss of Ted Stevens acutely; during his 49 years in the Senate he brought billions of federal dollars to the Last Frontier. Add to that losing another senior states(wo)man (remember, the more senior, the more pork) and the prospect of a guy — Joe Miller — who wants to ween Alaska off the federal tit is downright scary for a lot of folks. There are lots of reasons why thousands of Alaskans are learning how to spell M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I, but most of them take a green paper form and come from the Treasury.