Lisa Murkowski

Lisa Murkowski
Senior U.S. Senator from Alaska From: December 20, 2002 – present
Predecessor	Frank Murkowski
Successor	Incumbent (no successor)
Information
Party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Verne Martell
Religion	Roman Catholic (in name only)

Lisa Ann Murkowski, born May 22, 1957 (age 66), is the senior United States Senator from Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. She is Alaska's first female senator and the first U.S. Senator born in Alaska. In 1998, Murkowski was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives and had been elected the House Majority Leader for the 2003–2004 session. In December 2002, her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, appointed her to a vacant seat in the United States Senate, resulting in charges of nepotism. In her 2004 reelection she was considered the Democrats' best chance to pick up a seat from an incumbent Republican. Murkowski was elected to a full six-year term by a 49%-46% margin. She was re-elected in 2010 and 2016, never receiving a majority of the votes.

Murkowski was one of only five RINOs in late January 2021 to vote against an amendment by Rand Paul that would declare the second impeachment attempt against Donald Trump to be unconstitutional, joining all Senate Democrats.

2010 Midterm Elections

In a stunning upset, she was defeated for renomination in 2010 by Tea Party favorite and pro-life conservative Gulf War veteran Joe Miller. Murkowski ran a write-in candidacy, which was especially complicated due to the high rate of non-English speakers who supported her. Approximately 8,000 of the 100,000 write in votes cast for her were misspelled; the most common misspelling was Merkowski, but Murkowsky and Murcowski were also common. For comparison the last major write-in candidate, Robin Taylor, who was the Republican party nominee running against a withdrawn candidate and a Democrat had about 15% misspellings, though Robin Taylor is far easier to spell than Lisa Murkowski. The wording of legislation led readers to the conclusion that no misspelling is acceptable, but even without misspellings, Murkowski won the election. However, the Division of Elections and State and Federal courts chose to take voter intent into account and concluded that all votes that were phonetically identical to Murkowski should be counted for her. The legislation was rewritten early in the 2011 legislative session, with bipartisan support, in order to avoid repeat problems in the future.

Political views

Murkowski has earned a reputation as a "moderate Republican" (i.e. liberal); she is a RINO, Republican-in-name-only, according to Tea Party conservatives and Rush Limbaugh. Murkowski has said this of the Obama administration and President Obama in particular:

“

I will tell you, I am not one of those who wants Obama to fail.

”

While she voted to ban partial birth abortion and to make it a criminal penalty for harming an unborn child during other crimes, she is a member of several pro-abortion groups such as The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans For Choice and The Wish List. Murkowski has received a 14% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, and she describes herself as "pro-choice." Murkowski likewise is a strong advocate of taxpayer-funded human embryo experimentation.

She is one of ten Republican Senators who refused to commit to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's "nuclear option" to end judicial filibusters.

Murkowski supports oil exploration in her home state of Alaska, saying that recent technological developments have reduced the environmental risks of drilling in ANWR.

In September 2009, she authored legislation that would ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide, which is opposed by the Obama administration.

Murkowski uses her position as the ranking Republican on the Senate appropriations committee to gain pork expenditures for Alaska.

When Obamacare passed, most Republicans were talking repeal. Murkowski said repealing was not possible. Also, she disputed Sarah Palin's acknowledgment that there were death panel provisions in the bill.

Murkowski voted for TARP and the "Son of Stimulus"- the 2009 Obama Omnibus spending bill.

She supports homosexuals serving in the US military, and redefining the religious institution of marriage to include two men "marrying" each other and two women "marrying" each other.

Despite voting to repeal ObamaCare in 2015, when it was known the bill would be vetoed by Obama, Murkowski stated her opposition to repealing and replacing ObamaCare after Donald Trump became president and repealing the law became a real possibility.

A globalist, Murkowski joined eight Republican senators in late May 2020 calling for continuing H-2A, H-2B, and H-1B visas that allow workers from other countries to take American jobs. Note that this was during the CCP pandemic where millions of American workers had lost their jobs due to totalitarian lockdowns; angry economic nationalists including Tucker Carlson called for Murkowski and the eight other senators to be defeated in the nearest Republican primaries. Less than a week later, Donald Trump tweeted his offer to campaign for any conservative that will challenge Murkowski in the 2022 Republican primary where she is up for re-election; some have considered Sarah Palin to be a potential candidate.

Following President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Murkowski signaled opposition to confirming the highly qualified judge, and voted with Susan Collins against a motion to proceed towards a final Senate vote. However, Murkowski soon announced afterwards that she will confirm Barrett to the Court, which mostly will secure a successful nomination. Leftists responded with anger, spamming replies to her tweet on the matter with bitter meltdowns.

A liberal, Murkowski stated, on January 14, 2021, she disgracefully supported the Democrat-controlled U.S. House's unjustified second impeachment of President Donald Trump. She claimed, falsely, that Trump incited violence at the U.S. Capitol to support her contention that the U.S. House acted properly.

External links

• Official Website
• On the Issues
• Voting Record
• OpenCongress