Lisa Murkowski’s people, though not Senator Murkowski herself, are making noises about her trying to run for reelection on the Libertarian ticket:

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has received significant support since narrowly losing to Joe Miller in the August GOP primary, a spokesman said Sunday.

Murkowski has yet to endorse her Republican rival, leading to widespread speculation that she is evaluating options for a possible re-entry into the race. She has two options if she wants to re-enter: to be invited to run under the banner of the Alaska Libertarian Party or to mount a write-in campaign.

“She has received a huge outpouring of support from Alaskans, both individuals and groups,” Murkowski spokesman Steve Wackowski wrote Sunday in an e-mail to the Daily News-Miner. He cited support from Alaska Native groups and the fishing and energy industries.

I don’t think that she is going to run, and if she does, it is not clear who she would draw more votes from, though my money is on pulling more from Miller than from Democrat Scott McAdams.

Additionally, the Libertarian Party has already been cool to the idea of putting her on the ticket.

I don’t think that she will run, but that this will freeze Miller’s campaign in place, and not do so for McAdams, because Miller’s campaign is very different with Murkowski in the race, and Mcadams’ isn’t.

With Worldwide Wrestling doyenne Linda McMahon polling well behind Democrat, along with her being dogged by real evidence of complicity in steroid abuse, Rob Simmons has reentered the Republican primary, he suspended his campaign in the face of the millions that McMahon was spending on herself, and was promptly endorsed in the primary by the Hartford Courant.

Pass the popcorn.

New Hampshire is not a particularly liberal place, but they do place a value on a modicum of sanity, so it is no surprise that when Sarah Palin endorsed Kelly Ayotte for Senate, her numbers fell, particularly among self declared moderates.

I guess that the whole “Mama Grizzly” thing is more of an Albatross around ms Ayotte’s neck.

Heh.

He loses the primary, even when his opponent is a Puerto Rican by birth, which, in the Republican party makes him a despised minority:

State Rep. Raul Labrador handily defeated Vaughn Ward 48%-39% in Tuesday’s Idaho primary, and will go on to challenge Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick this November.

Ward, the establishment favorite, had a six-to-one money advantage over Labrador, and had a heavy television presence while Labrador ran only radio spots. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also campaigned for Ward in the closing days of the race.

(emphasis mine)

And I really love the fact that another of Sister Sarah’s anointed got pasted.

………

Ward also faced plagiarism allegations on his campaign Web site and in his speeches. Politico reported that Ward’s kick-off campaign speech in January closely mirrored that of President Barack Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention.

He was also dinged by the Pentagon for appearing in uniform in a campaign ad, and was forced to take down the ad.

Truth be told, I’m not sure if Palin would have endorsed Ward but for the fact that his opponent was Hispanic.

There have been enough reports of Sarah Palin’s disdain for minorities, particularly Alaskan Eskimos and Indians to make one wonder about how she feels about non-whites.

Still, heh.

Bob Wexler retired, and there was a special election in Florida’s 19^th district to replace him last night.

The results? Democrat Ted Deutch trounced Republican Ed Lynch, 62%-36%.

This is very much in line with the district’s PVI D +19, but that’s the point: there was no movement from the existing trends.

So much for “voter backlash” against the HCR bill.

I think that the Republicans may have seen the outrage of their base at losing when they thought that they had won, and thought that it was some sort of mass anger at the bill.