It looks like Lisa Murkowski has won her write-in campaign to return to the Senate, despite the refusal of her Tea Party- and Sarah Palin-backed opponent to concede, and the Alaska Republican isn’t happy with some of her GOP colleagues, Alexander Burns says in Politico. She’s been particularly critical of Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, another Tea Party favorite who backed Joe Miller, the party nominee in Alaska.
She’s also been conciliatory toward Democrats, saying in one interview that she was heartened by “good, strong showings of support, not only from my Republican colleagues but from my colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle.”
“I’m working for all Alaskans,” she added. “I’ve got to be working with everybody in the United States Senate.”
Does that mean she might join Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman in a small group of party-straddling centrists? That’s not clear, but she did say in the right circumstances she could back repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay service members–an action on which Lieberman is leading the fight.