Murkowski promises to sell out to K Street

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Timothy Carney:

Now that she has apparently won re-election without the backing of the Republican Party, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is in debt to nobody -- besides the revolving-door K Street lobbyists and government contractors who financed her write-in campaign.

As her write-in votes surpassed the votes for Republican nominee Joe Miller this week, Murkowski asserted her independence from the party.

Murkowski told the press she feels liberated because she won "not because I came as my party's nominee but because a very, very wide range of Alaskans of all political stripes have stepped up and said 'you're the person we want to represent us in Washington.' " The Hill newspaper reported, "Murkowski said her 'backbone is stiffer, straighter' " from winning as a write-in.

And how is Murkowski standing up to the GOP bosses? By rejecting the party's earmark ban and promising to pork up spending bills with parochial, unauthorized pet projects that, no doubt, will help her political allies.

Murkowski has repeatedly said this week she will continue to request earmarks, justifying them because Alaska is a "young" state (a "young state" that takes five dollars in spending for every dollar in taxes it sends to Washington, according to the Cato Institute).

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But Murkowski's earmarking shows us that pork isn't about helping out the home state as much as it's about rewarding political donors and greasing the gears of the political patronage machine.

The "Alaska Mafia," as it's known on Capitol Hill, K Street, and in the 49th state, is a network of former aides to Murkowksi, her father, Frank, the late Sen. Ted Stevens, and Rep. Don Young -- all Republicans. The aides now populate K Street firms like Van Ness Feldman, BlueWater Strategies, and Birch & Horton, winning earmarks and special favors for their clients -- Alaska towns and privileged Alaska Native Corporations.

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He has much more on how they helped her finance her campaign.

I have certainly lost respect for her after the campaign she ran and how she has reacted to her win. I would vote against bills she attaches earmarks to.