Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan has been a star at the Republican National Convention, appearing at events alongside grassroots Alaskans, dressed in a smart suit, with his wife Julie Fate Sullivan at his side. He has spent more time there than most other Republican senators or congressional representatives.
But Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been seen nowhere, not even in Alaska, according to reports from around the state. She’s done a deep dive into silence. And she has been largely absent from her social media account. That may be because she is a “never-Trumper,” with her well-known hatred of Donald Trump.
Neither senator is allowed to use their official social media accounts for political business, but Murkowski has been quiet for four days since her one social media post that spoke about the assassination attempt against Trump.
Today, her staff simply posted a congratulatory message to Alaska’s two Olympic athletes, Kristen Faulkner of Homer, on the U.S. Cycling Pursuit Team; and Alev Kelter of Eagle River, on the U.S. Rugby team. The message was from the entire congressional delegation.
Murkowski avoided being with the Alaska Republicans who are at the convention, and has said several times she is considering leaving the Republican Party, especially is Trump is elected. For her, Trump is a bridge too far.
She may now be realizing that, with Republicans on the rise and the likelihood that Trump will win in November, she could very well be odd-man-out in a new Republican majority in the Senate.
Murkowski has to pick her path carefully now, because she is in line to become a leading Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, should the Republicans regain majority rule in the Senate.
Murkowski was the only Republican senator facing re-election in 2021 who voted Trump guilty at his impeachment trial. Trump went on to endorse Kelly Tshibaka for Alaska’s Senate seat, but Murkowski’s minions outsmarted him by convincing Alaskans to adopt ranked-choice voting, which ensured her reelection.
“She is neither Republican in form or action. Everything she’s done to this point is about big-government — she just wants to grow government,” observed Michael Tavoliero, a Republican activist from Eagle River. “When you look at her record, she maintained that ‘you put legislation repealing Obamacare in front of it I’ll vote for it,’ but when it was in front of her she was a key vote to keep it in place. She voted for every big-money Biden bill we’ve seen.”
In addition to being on the outs with her own party, Murkowski has had other bad news this week that may contribute to her going into her bunker.
An applicant for U.S. District Court judgeship was outed by the Alaska Landmine as being involved in a sex-texting scandal with former federal District Court Judge Josh Kindred, who has recently and quite suddenly resigned under pressure, after an investigation by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Landmine disrobed the seedy scandal that involves lawyers in both the Justice Department of the Biden Administration, and the court system itself.
Although Michelle Nesbett applied, she was not among those who were actually considered, even as she lines up with Murkowski on many liberal issues. Nesbett was the Alaska attorney who led 120 women lawyers from Alaska to Washington, D.C. to meet with Murkowski and ask her to vote down the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Murkowski complied and voted against Kavanaugh, who was confirmed, nonetheless.
After receiving applicants for the open position created by the retirement of Judge Timothy Burgess, Sullivan last September set up a panel to help the delegation recommend a judge candidate. The nine-member panel helped him delay the appointment of a liberal to that seat. He and Murkowski don’t appear to agree on candidates for the job of federal judge.
Murkowski was hostile to the nominating council process Sullivan set in place, preferring to defer to the highly political Alaska Bar Association. Murkowski said the Sullivan judicial council process would delay filling a vacant Alaska U.S. District Court seat.
The application period for that judgeship ended in November, and 16 have applied. It’s the president who names the federal judges, but almost always with the advice of the state’s delegation. And that is where things get sticky.
With the rise of Donald Trump as a viable nominee, and the fall of President Joe Biden, who has gone from slightly addled to nearly decrepit, Murkowski is finding herself in a no-man’s land. She had probably hoped to put in a liberal pro-abortion judge to line up with U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, who is an appointee of President Barack Obama. But now, with Biden ailing and Trump in a position to win, she may lose this opportunity to make a liberal-dominated district court for Alaska.
Murkowski aligns with Democrats more than Republicans, yet if she becomes an actual registered “independent,” she may get no significant role in the leadership organization in the Senate that seems more and more likely to favor Republicans. And her hatred of Trump makes her less of an asset to Alaska.
