JUNE – Republican officials in at least five districts of Alaska’s state houses have passed resolutions to censor U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski.
The resolutions are motivated at least in part by Murkowski’s support for President Donald Trump’s accusation, but several sponsors have expressed wider dissatisfaction with the senator.
The districts’ actions set up a collision course with the state organization Republican Party, where chairman Glenn Clary supported a ‘big tent’ approach to party membership.
“If we are going to win this match, if you will, or to win politics and uphold our freedoms … then we will have to team up and not splinter,” he said in a January 26 radio interview. said. .
Republican officials in other states have expressed their disapproval of elected Republicans supporting accusations, but the Alaska Republican organization has remained relatively quiet until recently.
“I think the party will do what he can. “We have seen this happen in other states, where my Republican colleagues who voted to convict have seen the setback within the party,” Murkowski said.
‘I stand my man. If I had to take that vote again, I would vote to uphold my oath of office. And if the party wants to censor me because they think I should support the party, they can make the statement, but I will make the statement again that my obligation is to support the Constitution that I have undertaken, and I will do, even if it means I have to oppose the direction of my state party. ”
Under Alaska’s Republican Party rules, a no-confidence motion is ‘official reprimand and disapproval,’ but it can also act as a political stocking, indicating a lack of support for a particular person.
In Homer, Republican District President Jon Faulkner said Murkowski’s support for the Trump indictment “is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back” for Republicans in his district.
He said local Republicans were disillusioned with Murkowski for a number of reasons, including her vote on Obamacare (which he said lacked support for small businesses), a lack of support for Trump, overspending at the federal level, and a spectrum of issues that we will call constitutional but also social. ”
“I think abortion is a big thing for a lot of people,” said North Pole district chairwoman Barbara Tyndall, who oversaw a no-confidence motion.
That resolution refers to a “pattern of contempt for core conservative principles.”
In the district that covers parts of Wasilla, Eagle River and Butte, a resolution approved on January 28 that Murkowski should be censored because registered Republicans must try in good faith to support other Republicans, such as the president.
Republicans in District 8, which covers Big Lake, and District 9, which includes Valdez, Delta Junction, and the eastern Matanuska-Susitna district, also passed motions of no confidence.
Murkowski could be re-elected in 2022. A disapproval would usually be bad news for the chance of a candidate in the nationwide primary, but Alaskans approved suffrage 2 last year, which changed the state’s electoral system.
Murkowski no longer has to go through a Republican primary like the one she lost in 2010 (in an almost unprecedented enrollment campaign, she was re-elected in November that year.)
Some Republicans are suspicious of the measure and believe Murkowski is behind it, citing the involvement of former officials and staff members of the Murkowski campaign who were deeply involved in the attempt to take measures.
“Everyone I talk to on the Republican side thinks it’s idiomatic. It means you follow A B, it’s about as proven as it should be,” Faulkner said. “I think if you report it, her fingerprints are over.”
Lead author of the ballot 2, a former Murkowski campaigner, denied that the measure was intended to benefit her.
Murkowski herself said on Tuesday that it was a mistake to think that she would act differently without ballot paper 2.
“I have not shied away from difficult or sometimes controversial statements or decisions,” she said. “I think I have a fair amount of evidence of independence and the party, and that certainly causes some problems within the party itself.”
According to political website FiveThirtyEight, Murkowski voted 72.6% of the time in line with Trump’s positions while in office. By comparison, Alaska’s Republican senator Dan Sullivan voted in line with Trump 88.6% of the time.
Among the Republican senators who have been for Trump’s entire tenure, only Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted in line with Trump’s positions as Murkowski.
State President Clary did not respond to numerous requests for an interview, but last month he called for a conservative radio talk show to defend Murkowski and ask the host to stop attacking fellow Republicans.
‘I wish, as party chairman, that the Republicans stop demonizing and categorizing each other and supporting each other … you may not vote for anyone, but that does not mean you should demonize someone and categorize someone in this category called RINO. , ”Clary said, referring to the term” Republican by name only. “
The presenter of the show, Dan Fagan, retorted: ‘You have to make a joke with me. Do not demonize such a person? Of course I’m going to demonize someone like that. ”
He said Murkowski’s support for abortion rights was unacceptable to a Republican.
‘The Republican Party is useless. It failed, and people like Glenn Clary, who wants to go along to take Lisa Murkowski along just because she’s powerful? It’s disgusting, “said Fagan.
Not all Alaska local Republican officials support the attempt to censor Murkowski. In House District 32, which stretches across the Gulf of Alaska coast from Kodiak to Cordova, chairman Duncan Fields said he supports Murkowski.
He compares her accusatory role to that of a jury member in a trial. A jury member hears all the evidence for and against a suspect, Fields said, and it is not appropriate for him to judge the jury member’s decision based on what he heard.
He believes there could be a silent majority of Republicans who support Murkowski, even if they disagree with every action she takes.
“I think there are a large number of Alaska Republicans who like her conservative principles, the kind of independent from Alaska – I’m going to vote my conscience – that’s the thing about Alaska,” he said.