Murkowski Concedes to Miller
In the upset of the year, Tea Party candidate Joe Miller is the winner of the bruising Alaskan Republican senate primary.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) conceded Tuesday night upset after two-thirds of the 25,000 absentee votes were counted. The Washington Post reported that Murkowski gained barely any ground on Miller and remained about 1,600 votes short of winning her party’s nomination for another term.
“It’s been a long week,” Murkowski told reporters at her campaign headquarters in Anchorage. “I don’t see a scenario where we could win.”
With Murkowski’s concession, she joins two other Senate incumbents, Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) who have failed re-nomination bids. In addition, four House incumbents have lost their primaries.
Miller, although not well known and poorly financed, received valuable endorsements from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express.
