Salon.com > Becky Bohrer

Palin shoots down reports she’s canceling bus tour

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:48:00 +0000

Sarah Palin is disputing online reports that she has canceled her bus tour of historic American sites, saying in a Facebook posting that her schedule will be tight the next few weeks because she's been called for jury duty.

Palin said Wednesday that her "One Nation" bus tour would resume "when the time comes." She added that she's looking forward "to hitting the open road again."

The 2008 vice presidential candidate traveled from Washington, D.C. to New England by bus in May in a trip that generated intense interest and fueled speculation about her national ambitions.

Palin is among the top tier of potential 2012 presidential candidates in polls of Republican voters. She has said she plans to visit Iowa, where the state's caucuses begin the nominating season next year.

Joe Miller lifts opposition to certifying Alaska election

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:05:00 +0000

Republican Joe Miller has formally declared that he no longer opposes state officials certifying Alaska's U.S. Senate election.

In papers filed in federal court Monday, Miller says he doesn't object to state certification of the November election results, which show his rival, fellow Republican Lisa Murkowski, winning.

But Miller isn't entirely giving up. His attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline to keep alive his options -- including a possible recount or election contest -- once "all appeals have been exhausted."

Beistline barred the state from certifying the race until issues raised by Miller were addressed. Last week the state Supreme Court refused to overturn results favoring Murkowski and said it found "no remaining issues" that precluded certification.

Miller reiterated his claims the state erred in how it counted write-in ballots.

Alaska Supreme Court dismisses Joe Miller case

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:30:00 +0000

The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision in the disputed U.S. Senate race, saying the state correctly counted write-in votes for Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The decision Wednesday followed a hearing on Republican Joe Miller's appeal of a state judge's decision to toss out his challenge to the state's counting of ballots for Murkowski, his election rival.

The state says it relied on case law to use discretion in determining voter intent, allowing ballots with misspellings to be counted toward Murkowski's tally.

Murkowski lost to Miller in the Republican primary, but led by more than 10,000 votes as a write-in candidate in last month's general election. She leads by 2,169 votes when ballots challenged by Miller's campaign are excluded.

Miller has said he would evaluate his legal options.

Murkowski wins Alaska Senate race

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:06:00 +0000

Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Wednesday became the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign, emerging victorious over her tea party rival following a painstaking, week-long count of hand-written votes.

The victory completes a remarkable comeback for the Republican after her humiliating loss in the GOP primary to Joe Miller.

Her victory became clear when Alaska election officials confirmed they had only about 700 votes left to count, putting Murkowski in safe territory to win re-election. Murkowski is flying back from Washington to Alaska to make an "exciting announcement" to supporters Wednesday, proclaiming in an e-mail that the campaign "made history."

Murkowski has a lead of about 10,000 votes, a total that includes 8,153 ballots in which Miller observers challenged over things like misspellings, extra words or legibility issues.

It was not immediately clear how Miller will proceed. He and his advisers have vowed to take legal action over what they contend is an unfair tally in Murkowski's favor, but Miller has maintained he'll stop fighting if the math doesn't work in his favor.

Alaska ballot count could extend into next week

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:11:00 +0000

Officials now say it could be well into next week before they finish counting write-in ballots in Alaska's Senate race.

They first thought the work could be done in five days and a clear winner would emerge.

But the count has been plodding, and a federal lawsuit over the state's interpretation of ballots could delay a final result even longer.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski mounted a write-in campaign after losing the GOP primary to Joe Miller. Write-in candidates got more votes than Miller, but thousands of absentee and questioned ballots must be tallied to determine if voters wrote in Murkowski or other candidates.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign declared she's headed for re-election, saying rival Joe Miller's unverified voter fraud claims and frivolous challenges of write-in ballots are pointing to his desperation.

Murkowski, whose hopes for another term hinge on her winning a write-in effort, undisputedly held 89.8 percent of that vote with 45,132 ballots counted so far. That's enough for her campaign to feel she's poised to win, in spite of thousands of outstanding ballots yet to be uncounted and a pending legal case.

Write-in ballot count begins in Alaska Senate race

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Teams of trained ballot counters began poring over more than 92,000 write-in ballots as the fate of Alaska's Senate race hung in the balance.

Observers from the campaigns of Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller looked on Wednesday as the election workers sorted ballots into five boxes in an old building on the outskirts of Juneau.

Murkowski attorney Ben Ginsberg, part of the Bush-Cheney legal team during the 2000 Florida recount, also was overseeing the process.

The count began as Miller sought a federal order preventing counters from using discretion in determining voter intent on individual ballots.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Election officials planned to begin poring over more than 92,500 write-in ballots in the Alaska Senate race on Wednesday, in spite of a federal lawsuit that's challenging the way the count was to be conducted.

Republican nominee Joe Miller sued Tuesday to prevent the state from using discretion in determining voter intent on write-in ballots. But Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, the Republican overseer of Alaska elections, said the count would go forward on Wednesday as planned.

Alaska write-in count starts Nov. 10

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski began a drawn-out battle Wednesday for every ballot with her handwritten name on it in her bid to come back from a primary defeat that forced Alaskans to choose between Sarah Palin's tea party and the state's GOP establishment.

Meanwhile, the overseer of Alaska's elections told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the counting of write-in ballots will begin Nov. 10, with the hope of having a clear winner by late next week.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday morning, write-in votes represented 41 percent of the vote. GOP nominee Joe Miller had 34 percent; Democrat Scott McAdams, who all but conceded Tuesday night, had 24 percent.

While Murkowski celebrated the fact she was still in the race, it remained to be seen whether the write-in votes would keep her in office.

She was one of 160 candidates following conservative calls urging Alaskans to sign up to disrupt her campaign. Though she focused heavily on educating voters on how to cast a vote for her properly, it's not clear how many did so, filling in the ballot oval and writing "Murkowski" or "Lisa Murkowski." And while election officials plan to be lenient in deciphering voter intent in determining whether a ballot for Murkowski counts, they've provided no set standard for what would be allowable.

Murkowski to air ads with Ted Stevens

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:26:00 +0000

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she plans to air television ads featuring the late-Sen. Ted Stevens.

Stevens filmed ads for Murkowski before the primary but she decided not to air them following his death in a plane crash two weeks before the August contest, which she lost to Republican Joe Miller.

Murkowski is now running a write-in campaign.

Murkowski told The Associated Press on Thursday that she has been in contact with Stevens' family and wants to ensure anything that airs is tasteful. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, and Murkowski considered him a mentor.

She often invokes his name and legacy of bringing home billions of dollars in federal aid and projects.

Murkowski wouldn't describe the ads, but told The AP they will air soon.

Tea party group on defensive over blog about NAACP

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:22:00 +0000

An official with the Tea Party Express on Monday blasted its expulsion from a national coalition over its refusal to oust a former chairman who satirized the NAACP in a controversial blog posting.

The political action committee that raises money for Republican candidates was booted from the National Tea Party Federation for refusing to rebuke spokesman Mark Williams, whose posting referred to NAACP president Benjamin Jealous as "Tom's nephew and NAACP head colored person."

Tea Party Express coordinator Joe Wierzbicki said it was "arrogant and preposterous" for the federation to expel his group.

"Circular firing squads of groups within the tea party movement attacking one another accomplish nothing, and on this issue the Tea Party Federation is wrong," he said in a statement.

The friction highlights fault lines within the loosely jointed tea party movement, which has no central organization or bylaws. Internal squabbling could weaken its political clout, and it comes at a time when the NAACP and other have sought to discredit the movement.

The tea party -- thousands of community groups that promote limited government, free markets and other conservative and Libertarian principles -- has resisted any notion of centralized leadership

Palin’s moderate picking raises 2012 questions

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:23:00 +0000

Sarah Palin the political pragmatist? Go figure. With a few surprising endorsements in recent Republican primaries, the self-styled rogue of GOP politics has reaped an angry response from some of her own supporters and a fresh round of speculation about her own presidential ambitions in 2012.

"Man, what a terrible choice in Iowa, Sarah," Meghan Swella wrote on Palin's Facebook wall after the former Alaska governor announced her support for Terry Branstad in last week's gubernatorial primary.

"I guess you got co-oped by the milk toast moderates. I thought you were better than that," she scolded.

In choosing Branstad, Palin skipped over businessman Bob Vander Plaats, a tea party favorite, in favor of a former governor with a strong chance of returning to office -- and wielding political power when the Iowa presidential caucuses roll around.

"She's playing her cards, and trying to set herself up" for making a push, should she run, said Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who is watching to see who, or whether, Palin endorses in his state.

Bracing for Ida

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Sunday as the Gulf Coast braced for the arrival of Hurricane Ida, which was making its way across the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm.

A hurricane watch was in effect from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, meaning hurricane conditions were possible in the next day and a half.

The emergency declaration is a precaution that frees up state resources for any emergency situations. The National Guard and state agencies have been put on high alert so personnel and vehicles are available if needed.

Coastal stretches of southeast Louisiana, particularly areas outside levee protection, are the main concern. Forecasts indicate those areas could see winds, rains and high tides that could create localized flooding.

Officials in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama were also keeping a close eye on the storm's track, though no emergency declarations or other measures had yet been issued.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ida's winds are now near 100 mph (160 kph), and Ida could get stronger later Sunday.

The hurricane was moving to the northwest near 10 mph (17 kph), and Ida was expected to pick up steam as it moved over open waters in the Gulf of Mexico.