Up for reelection this year in a red state and facing formidable competition for renomination by a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has no business voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
But that is what Alaska has wrought with a new system for electing candidates to state and federal office that eliminated closed-party primaries and head-to-head general elections featuring Democratic nominees in favor of all-party primaries and four-candidate general elections decided by ranked-choice voting.
<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1649277434942,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000179-379a-dbb2-a7fd-bfda8bfc0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1649277434942,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000179-379a-dbb2-a7fd-bfda8bfc0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_49088430", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"986257"} }); ","_id":"00000180-0075-db24-a7cc-8f7f75fd0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedSo, rather than Murkowski having to guard her Right flank against Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka, in a state that delivered 53% of its vote to Trump in 2020, she can prosecute a general election strategy from the outset to capitalize on strong bipartisan support cultivated in Alaska over 20 years.
In announcing support for President Joe Biden’s nominee to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Murkowski conceded she has not “and will not agree with all of Judge Jackson’s decisions and opinions.” But tellingly, the senator framed her confirmation vote as “my rejection of the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which … on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”
SARAH PALIN A FRONT-RUNNER IN ALASKA SPECIAL ELECTION, BUT PITFALLS ABOUND
Only Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a reliably blue state, and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who once contemplated putting forward Supreme Court nominees, joined Murkowski in breaking with the GOP to support Jackson’s confirmation. Tshibaka, who has the endorsement of the Alaska Republican Party, hopes to exploit Murkowski’s unique position on this issue to siphon GOP votes from her in the Aug. 16 all-party primary and Nov. 8 general election.
“Lisa Murkowski just decided she is a ‘Yes’ vote on Biden’s leftist nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Tshibaka said in a Twitter post. “This is after Murkowski put up more of a fight against the nominations of SCOTUS Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney [Barrett].”
At press time, the Murkowski campaign had not responded to an email requesting comment.
Alaska has not voted for a Democratic nominee for president since 1964. The Democrats last won a Senate race in Alaska in 2008, last won the governor’s mansion in 1998, and last won the state’s lone at-large House seat in 1970. But that generational Republican dominance masks an electorate that underneath can be unpredictable and independent.
In 2020, Trump defeated now-President Joe Biden in Alaska and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan held off Democratic Party-endorsed independent Al Gross by nearly 13 percentage points. In the same election, Alaskans approved a ballot initiative that dispensed with tradition and created an all-party primary and ranked-choice voting. Under the scheme, the top four finishers in the primary advance regardless of their party affiliation, with the general election decided by ranked-choice.
Murkowski, 64, was empowered in the process.
Maine is the only other state that uses ranked-choice voting in federal elections. It functions like a runoff to ensure the winner is elected with a minimum of 50% of the vote.
In 2018, Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who represents the Republican-leaning 2nd Congressional District, won because of ranked-choice voting. In the preliminary count, Golden trailed the first-place Republican incumbent by a couple of thousand votes. But Golden won the election after his total was bolstered by voters who had pulled the lever for losing independent candidates but marked the Democrat as their second or third choice.
With the broad support Murkowski enjoys in Alaska among centrist Democrats, independents, and pragmatic Republicans, she could win reelection this November in a similar fashion. Indeed, in a roundabout way, Murkowski has done it before.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In 2010, Murkowski lost renomination in a closed Republican primary to Joe Miller, a Tea Party challenger supported by key conservative groups in Washington, D.C. The natural assumption was that Murkowski’s Senate career was over. Instead, the incumbent ran an improbable write-in campaign and won a three-way race, defeating Miller and a credible Democratic nominee.
The final tally: Murkowski with 39.5% of the vote; Miller with 35.5%; and Democrat Scott McAdams with 23.5%.
