Posted on 08/25/2010 10:35:46 AM PDT by Signalman
Update 1: Turnout is extremely heavy for an off-year election. There will be twice as many voters in this primary as the presidential election year of 2010. GOP voters outnumber Democrat voters 3-1.
Update 2: Joe Miller wins Alaska primary in a political earthquake that will be discussed fully in the coming days. Right Pundits calls Miller the winner over Murkowski at 1:40am PT.
Update 3: There are about 16,000 absentee ballots that are not counted. Murkowski would need to win 60% of them to close the gap.
Update 4: With 429 of 438 precincts counted, Joe Miller is still winning 51.09% to 48.91%. 2,000 votes separate the candidates out of 90,000 cast. We expect that absentee ballots will favor Murkowski, but the gap will be too wide to close. Out of the 16,000 requested, only 8,000 were returned.
Joe Miller has been a heavy underdog in pre-election polls, trailing the senator by 20-30 points. Nobody thought this race would be close.
In fact, the mainstream media has been using the Alaska primary challenge from Miller as evidence that Sarah Palin’s endorsements are not all that useful. Palin endorsed Joe Miller several weeks ago. The press assumed that Lisa would beat Miller easily as the polls predicted, which fed a certain group-think that is comforting to liberals.
Even if the sitting senator manages to come back from the vote deficit, any victory for her will be razor thin. And that is appearing more and more unlikely as the evening progresses. In reality Palin is the most powerful voice in politics today. Her endorsements generate interest, campaign donations, grassroots support, and results at the ballot box.
The meme that Palin endorsements are irrelevant began surfacing in early August and became an oft repeated mantra by liberal television commentators in the mainstream media. If the Alaska senate results hold up for Joe Miller, the former governor of Alaska will have shut them up permanently.
Right Pundits will stay up late to give you the final Alaska primary results for Joe Miller just as soon as we can make an early call officially. We are almost there. Even as this brief piece was written, Joe Miller extended his lead slightly while more precincts in the state were counted. The winner of the Alaska primary appears to be Joe Miller, and Sarah Power will be undeniable even to her critics. We will make the call official soon, assuming it is warranted.
So what is known about Joe Miller’s biography? He has eight kids and a game wife named Kathleen Miller. He grew up in Kansas but moved west to Alaska at the age of 16. He holds a law degree and various positions of local authority in the judiciary, including that of U.S. Magistrate Judge in Fairbanks Alaska. He earned a Bronze Star for bravery in the Gulf War after graduating high in his class from West Point.
What an election result! Reader comments welcome.
it’s a huge state with lots of back country.
I have to go to digg and reddit and find all those “Sarah Palin is the Kiss of Death for GOP” threads ...
Awesome1 THAT fact alone should make libtard heads explode everywhere. In general, libtards love abortions and hate kids, except when they can use kids as props to extract more taxpayer funding for the teacher's unions.
Beautiful wife and family!
About 8,000 got returned. Murkowski has to win about 63 percent of the absentees to win this. She’ll probably close the gap a bit, but they are unlikely to tilt in her favor that heavily.
Folks the village vote is usually the last in here in Alaska, and the absentee votes are PRESUMED to mostly favor Murkowski. They are usually favorable to the CONSERVATIVE here in Alaska.
Which brings up a valid question, WHAT actual CONSERVATIVE could ever vote for Murkowski here in THIS race?
Murkowski is part of the PROBLEM not part of the SOLUTION.
Please pray that Joe is able to pull this out.
I pray that Alaska will have the honor of leading the Union back into taking back control of the feral gooberment.
Btw, Murkowski will NEVER concede, she thinks the office is HERS by blood. I also believe that there will be a recount and we will all get to watch “hanging chad” part two.
However, we use a paper ballot that you darken a circle on and which is then counted by a optical reader. We are also a state where even if you do NOT vote for some offices or ballot measures on a ballot ALL of the ones that you DID VOTE for count.
This ain’t Floriduh.
We expect that absentee ballots will favor MurkowskiWhy?
Agreed! Big families with the same mother and father generally don’t produce many libtards. I came from a large family myself and am probably the most leftwing of seven kids. My sister (from Texas) makes me look like a Kennedy by comparison, LOL!
BTW; the were reports yesterday also of people who were eligible to get the Republican ballot being incorrectly REFUSED in some polling stations.
IF you are registered as a Republican, undeclared or Independent you are supposed to be able to pick ANY of the three possible primary ballots, (the demonRAT, the Republican, or the one that only has the ballot measures on it.)
IF this thing goes down to the razor thin margin it has the possibility to do these allegations WILL be important. (well they are important now but you know what I mean).
If Murkowski was up 20 to 30 points until the final days, why would anyone make the effort to send in an absentee ballot for her if it was going to be a blow-out?
I think the absentees will actually open the gap for Miller. His supporters had motivation to vote absentee.
I think you are right. I will be surprised if the absentee vote shows a net gain for the Murky One.
Apparently, not all.
Did they adopt an Eskimo girl?
I live in one of those remote villages heavy with democrat votes and Lisa won this village but by a very tiny margine. It is nearly 50/50. So if this village is a trend and we are a pretty good microsim of an Alaska village, Lisa will get a tiny majority of the votes. So, it’s still a nail biter.
“You’re” the most leftwing? LOL.
Your parents raised GOOD children!
You mean the dark haired girl? I have no idea.
The party liners, and establishment “conservatives” are the ones who voted for Lisa. Conservatives voted for Miller. Still praying for the results to come out in favor of Joe!
The dark-haired girl looks exactly like the blonde-haired girl next to her mother. Could be twins. Guessing the dark-haired girl just dyed her hair to look different from her sister.
Yes, she is noticeably different looking than the other kids. It happens in families, but the other 7 all look very similar, and much different from her. It is a great looking family, I will say, I was just curious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.