Lisa Murkowski

Alaska Native issues were front and center at a U.S. Senate candidates’ forum in Anchorage Thursday. A crowd of more than 300 people packed into the ChangePoint Church in South Anchorage to hear from Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski and Scott McAdams. From education to jobs to health, Alaska Natives feel the impact of federal policies in their daily lives -- perhaps more so than anyone else in Alaska. In political campaigns, many of these issues take a back seat -- but not at Thursday’s forum.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski celebrated a Washington, D.C. victory Wednesday, as the Tea Party Express made plans to back Republican U.S. Senate nominee Joe Miller. Meanwhile, Democratic challenger Scott McAdams is hoping it all works to his benefit. Senate Republicans opted not to strip Murkowski of her Energy Committee seat Wednesday morning, despite some of her fellow caucus members being upset about her staying in the race as a write-in candidate. In a live interview on Channel 2 Wednesday, Murkowski spoke about keeping her seat as the top Republican on the Energy Committee.

As the three-way race for U.S. Senate enters its first full week, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski and Scott McAdams are trying to build support for the November election. A change has been announced in the Murkowski campaign, a new campaign director. According to the Murkowski campaign, Kevin Sweeney will take over for John Bitney, who will be involved in community outreach until November. Monday night, the Murkowski campaign said the change reflects the entirely different campaign they'll be running.

Channel 2 has received complaints Friday night about live coverage of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s announcement of her write-in campaign for the U.S. Senate being unbalanced against Republican nominee Joe Miller. Murkowski’s statement was scheduled for 6 p.m., but we interrupted broadcasting early when Murkowski approached the podium and continued live coverage awaiting her announcement. Joe Miller had been offered a chance to respond to Murkowski immediately after our live coverage.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is on her way back to Alaska, and plans to announce at Anchorage's Dena'ina Center at 5 p.m. Friday whether she's getting back into the U.S. Senate race -- but Alaskans are already weighing in on her political future. There are certainly many opinions, but most seem to think Murkowski should run a write-in campaign. “I think she should try to stay in the race if she can -- I think longtime Republicans have done a lot for this state,” said Anchorage resident Landon Lockhard.

Lisa Murkowski says she's not a quitter. Murkowski met with members of the Alaska Libertarian Party this morning as she carefully decides what's next for her career. Alaska Libertarian Senate candidate David Haase and other party leaders met with Lisa Murkowski for about an hour. They talked issues and at the end of it all both Murkowski and the Libertarian party agreed not to make a decision on her candidacy right away. “I think her supporters, more or less, put her into this meeting with me. I couldn't say that Lisa sought out to talk to me, but we had a very nice conversation,” said Haase.

A new poll shows Alaskans might be interested in Sen. Lisa Murkowski staying in the race for U.S. Senate. Murkowski's friend, Andrew Halcro, commissioned a poll showing that in a three-way Senate race Murkowski comes out on top. The current Libertarian candidate, David Haase, says he's willing to sit down with Murkowski and talk with her about switching parties to stay in the race. Haase's platform, called the “People's Bailout,” is a financial plan he created -- and he wants to know what Murkowski thinks about it. Just days ago, Murkowski conceded the Republican U.S. Senate primary to challenger Joe Miller.

On Tuesday, the state will finally see who has won the hearts and minds of Alaskans during the Republican primary for U.S. Senate: incumbent Lisa Murkowski or challenger Joe Miller. Victory on Tuesday is a sweet sound for the Miller campaign. Backed by anti-incumbent sentiment and support from former Gov. Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, Miller supporters want Murkowski out of office. “We’re at an unsustainable position, and it’s because our concept of government is entirely wrong,” Miller said.

Incumbents in Alaska's U.S. House and Senate races continue to rake in the cash -- and spend it. In her second-quarter federal elections report, Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign says it spent just over $215,000 -- more than twice what her Republican primary challenger Joe Miller did. Miller, widely considered Murkowski's strongest opponent, only has about $125,000 cash on hand. Murkowski's campaign war chest remains over $2 million. Federal records show Rep. Don Young has spent more than $500,000 so far. His Democratic challenger, Harry Crawford, has spent less than one-fifth of that.

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, July 15, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's U.S. senators were split on Thursday's vote for financial reform. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 60 to 39. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was a no vote, while Sen. Mark Begich voted yes on the legislation. The 2,300-page document is expected to end the concept of banks being too big to fail, and adds new protections for millions of consumers. Murkowski says the legislation isn't what Alaskans expect from Wall Street reform.