Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) Appointed Dec. 2002, 1st full term up 2010
Born:	May 22, 1957, Ketchikan
Home:	Anchorage
Education:	Willamette U., 1975-77, Georgetown U., B.A. 1980, Willamette U., J.D. 1985
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Verne Martell)
Elected  Office:	AK House of Reps., 1998-02.
Professional Career:	Anchorage Dist. Court Clerk's Office, atty., 1987-89; Practicing atty., 1989-98.
DC Office	709 HSOB20510, 202-224-6665; Fax: 202-224-5301; Web site: murkowski.senate.gov
State Offices	Anchorage, 907-271-3735; Bethel, 907-543-1639; Fairbanks, 907-456-0233; Juneau, 907-586-7400; Kenai, 907-283-5808; Ketchikan, 907-225-6880; Wasilla, 907-376-7665.
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Lisa Murkowski became Alaska's sixth U.S. senator when Governor Frank Murkowski, her father, appointed her in December 2002 to fill the vacancy caused by his own resignation. She grew up in Ketchikan in Alaska's Panhandle and in Fairbanks, the second of six children. In her senior year of high school she worked five weeks as an intern in Senator Ted Stevens's Washington office. She attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and graduated from Georgetown in 1980, the year her father was first elected to the Senate, and graduated from Willamette law school in 1985. She served as an Anchorage District Court attorney and worked for an Anchorage law firm for eight years, then established her own law practice. In 1998 she was elected to the state House from a north Anchorage district including her neighborhood of Government Hill.

Alaska's state government depends heavily on revenues from North Slope oil, and in early 2002 was facing a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion. Murkowski was one of the leaders of a bipartisan Fiscal Policy Caucus that sought tax increases-a position opposite to that of her father, who was running for governor on a platform of no new taxes. In March 2002 the House Finance Committee passed a package that included spending $900 million from the Permanent Fund, the first such spending since the Fund was created in 1977; that was eventually defeated. But Murkowski pushed hard for increasing the alcohol tax from 3 cents a drink to 10 cents. She fought fiercely--when another legislator proposed an amendment with a much smaller increase, she said, "I'm gonna kill somebody!"--and the tax was passed in May, giving Alaska the nation's highest alcohol tax. Some conservatives referred to her and her allies as RIMs, "Republican invertebrate moderates." She also angered conservatives when she was one of five Republicans to vote against a bill restricting publicly funded abortions. At the time she said, "I may have a very short-lived political future here. But you know, I've got great kids and a great husband, and I'm going to have a good heart, and I'm going to stand up for the women of the state of Alaska, and I'm going to vote no." But she has also said that abortion should be legal only when a mother's life is in danger or in cases of rape and incest, and in March 2003 said she was against partial-birth abortion. Nonetheless, Alaska Right to Life opposed her in 1998, claiming, "She is not pro-life."

Conservatives opposed her reelection in 2002, and against conservative Nancy Dahlstrom, who attacked her for favoring tax increases and tapping the Permanent Fund, she won by only 486-429-a margin of 57 votes. During this period she evidently stayed at arm's length from her father, who easily won the nomination for governor. "We have always maintained very separate identities at least for the time I have been in the legislature," Lisa Murkowski said. "I haven't called him for counseling and typically he doesn't offer." During and after the primary, she ran for House speaker. In November 2002, Republican House members chose the more conservative Pete Kott of Eagle River for that post and Murkowski for House majority leader.

That was just two days after Frank Murkowski had been elected governor. There were two years left in the Senate term to which he had been elected, and Republican legislators had seen to it that he, and not outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Knowles, would appoint his successor. Earlier in the year, they passed over Knowles's veto a law barring a governor from appointing a successor until five days after the vacancy occurred. Murkowski said he wanted to appoint someone who had legislative experience, was young enough and reelectable enough to serve for many years, who knew and shared his views on Alaska issues. On November 15 he unveiled a short list of 26 potential nominees, not all of whom met all his criteria. Many were experienced politicians, but some had different backgrounds-General Joseph Ralston, NATO Supreme Commander who had served in Alaska and was registered to vote there, as an Independent; retired General Mark Hamilton, President of the University of Alaska; Jerry Hood, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 959 and a former Democrat who had become a Republican (and supported Murkowski for governor in 2002); Francis Hurley, the retired Catholic Archbishop of Anchorage; John Troxel, an Anchorage plastic surgeon; incoming state Senate Majority Leader Ben Stevens, son of Ted Stevens. Also on the list was House Majority Leader Lisa Murkowski. As she later recalled, "We had a conversation and he said, 'Your name keeps coming up. Are you interested in going back to Washington?' I confirmed that that was one of those things that everyone in Alaska office would think to as kind of the highlight of a political career. So basically he asked if I wanted to have my name continue on the list, and I said yes." Frank Murkowski interviewed some of those on the short list and promised a decision by December 10. But he had not yet made up his mind when he left for a 10-day trip to Washington that day. On December 17, he said the short list had been narrowed down.

On December 20, Governor Murkowski appointed state Representative Murkowski as senator. "Above all, I felt the person I appoint to the remaining two years of my term should be someone who shares my basic philosophy, my values, but particularly one who shares on the issues of Alaska matters that are before us," he said. "Someone whose judgment I trust in representing the state and all of its people." This was the first time a governor had appointed his daughter, or for that matter his child, to the Senate. Most Republicans and many Democrats said nice things about the new senator. But there was some disapproval, even from the Republican side. Jim Whitaker, an ally of Murkowski in the Alaska House, said her appointment "is nepotism and therefore contrary to the democratic principles of representative government. An action of this type undermines the public trust and is therefore of great concern." All of which cast a shadow on her prospects for winning a full term in November 2004.

In the Senate, Lisa Murkowski had a moderate voting record, considerably closer to the middle of the road than her father. She got seats on the Energy, Environment, Veterans and Indian Affairs Committees. In March 2003 she was disappointed when the Senate voted down oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was more upbeat in November 2003, when the Senate unanimously passed the Healthy Forests Act, authorizing fuel reduction treatment-cutting down disease- or insect-infested trees-in national forests; she worked to make sure that it included the Kenai peninsula forests infested by the spruce bark beetle. Her biggest success came in October 2004, when she sponsored the inclusion in the must-pass military construction appropriation of provisions from the stalled energy bill authorizing an Alaska gas pipeline; but the real mover was Ted Stevens, in his last months as Appropriations Chairman. This included 80% loan guarantees, accelerated depreciation, expedited permitting and judicial review, but did not include the price floor protecting the operators from a fall in gas prices. Like many Alaskans, she was critical of the Patriot Act and called for greater judicial discretion in deciding whether federal officers could obtain "any tangible thing." She opposed driver's license standards in the 2004 intelligence bill as a prelude to a national identity card. She worked, with Stevens's help, to get 200 seasonal visas for Japanese experts to evaluate Alaska salmon eggs, needed to keep one salmon fishery economically viable.

No Alaska Republican senator had ever been defeated, but Murkowski entered the 2004 campaign in weak condition. She had primary opposition from conservative former legislator Mike Miller, who attacked her stands on abortion, the Second Amendment and the income tax; Miller was even supported by her father's lieutenant governor, Loren Leman. Murkowski was much better financed and had the support of Stevens and Congressman-at-Large Don Young, but she won the primary by only a 58%-37% margin-not a strong performance for an incumbent senator.

Her opponent in the general election was former Governor Tony Knowles, the most successful Alaska Democrat in recent times. A Vietnam veteran and Yale classmate and friend of George W. Bush, Knowles ran a restaurant in Anchorage and was twice elected the city's mayor in the 1980s. In 1994 he was elected governor in a multi-candidate field with 41% of the vote; in 1998 he won a second term, again against divided opposition, with 51%. Knowles strongly supported oil drilling in ANWR and the gas pipeline; he criticized Murkowski for not including the price floor and said that, as a Democrat, he would have a better chance of attracting votes on ANWR. National Republicans responded with an ad featuring John Kerry and saying he "wouldn't know a caribou if it dropped in for a bowl of Boston clam chowder," and Murkowski offered him space in her office to lobby for ANWR oil drilling. Knowles criticized Murkowski for not supporting full funding--that is, appropriating as much as was authorized--for veterans' health care and spotlighted a 49-48 vote (actually, on that occasion a 60-vote supermajority was needed). Stevens responded by saying that Murkowski supported $1.2 billion for veterans' health in committee. In October 2004 he said that, knowing what he did now, he would not have voted for war in Iraq; Murkowski said she would have.

Looming over the campaign was the issue of nepotism. Knowles's pollster said that 54% found it a convincing reason to vote against Murkowski, and she trailed, usually by narrow margins, during most polls conducted during the campaign. Frank Murkowski's job rating as governor suffered after his 2003 budget cuts; particularly grating was his cutting of the $250 per month Longevity Bonus for seniors. Organizers obtained 50,000 signatures for Ballot Measure No. 4, to ban governors from appointing new senators; it passed in November with 56% of the vote. Against this Republicans raised the issue of party and seniority. Stevens said Alaska would be hurt if Democrats gained a majority in the Senate, and Young said, "I do believe there's a lot of merit to Lisa being elected for the benefit of the state. Everybody says, 'Ted can work with the minority,' and, yes, he can. But there's a difference between working with the minority as a minority member and working in the majority and being chairman." They also made the point that Murkowski, at 47, would have a chance of amassing much more seniority than Knowles, at 61, would.

This was one of the national Democrats' best chances of picking up a Republican seat, but this Republican state ended up giving its Republican junior senator a full term, by a 49%-46% margin. Like her father in the 2002 governor's race, Murkowski ran behind by a wide margin in the Bush and a lesser margin in the Panhandle. In historically Republican Anchorage and Fairbanks, Murkowski ran only narrowly ahead. Her winning margins came in south central Alaska, in the fast-growing arc around Anchorage.

Committees

• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy; Public Lands & Forests; Water & Power (Chmn.).
• Environment & Public Works: Fisheries, Wildlife & Water; Transportation & Infrastructure.
• Foreign Relations: African Affairs; East Asian & Pacific Affairs (Chmn.); European Affairs; International Economic Policy, Export & Trade Promotion.
• Indian Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	35	0	43	0	92	59	94	74	88	83	--
2003	20	--	22	11	--	71	86	70	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	43%	--	56%		43%	--	55%
Social	47%	--	52%		37%	--	62%
Foreign	39%	--	54%		0%	--	67%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Ban Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. Energy Bill Y 6. Support Roe v. Wade Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Assault Weapons Ban N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb N 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Lisa Murkowski (R)	149,773	49%	$5,465,098
	Tony Knowles (D)	140,424	46%	$5,768,963
	Other	18,118	6%
2004 primary	Lisa Murkowski (R)	45,710	58%
	Mike Miller (R)	29,313	37%
	Wev Shea (R)	2,857	4%
	Other	748	1%
1998 general	Frank Murkowski (R)	165,227	74%	$911,926
	Joseph Sonneman (D)	43,743	20%	$26,091
	Other	12,837	6%