Lisa Murkowski in CNN political race coverage


On Principles & Values: Not conservative enough for Tea Party, but I am for Alaska

Q: Senator Lisa Murkowski is one of many victims of the anti-incumbency wave this election season. The freshman senator lost to Tea Party favorite Joe Miller in a contentious primary battle. The Republican establishment has made it clear they won't support Murkowski this time around. [To Murkowski]: When you decided to become a write-in candidate, Senator Jim DeMint called you a big-tent hypocrite, saying these people all talk about how they want people in the Republican Party, and then the minute they lose, they go on out and run as independents. Your response?

MURKOWSKI: Well, let me tell you, Jim DeMint or the Tea Party Express, far be it for them to determine whether or not the senator representing the people of Alaska is conservative enough for them. I'm trying to do is represent the people of my state. Maybe from Jim DeMint's perspective, you know, I'm not conservative enough for him. But the question is, do I represent the values of the people of the state that I represent?

Source: CNN "State of the Union" coverage: 2010 Alaska Senate debate Sep 19, 2010

On Principles & Values: Running against Tea Party to give Alaskans a choice

Q: In the Alaska Republican primary, they voted you out; doesn't it look like sore loser to now launch this write-in campaign?

MURKOWSKI: What happened in my particular race, you had the Tea Party Express, this California-based group, come in at the last minute in a mudslinging, smear campaign, with lies and fabrications and mischaracterization. They dumped $600,000 into a small market here in Alaska, and they clearly influenced the outcome of that election. But you have a process here where so many Alaskans did not have an opportunity to speak up and vote for the person that they wanted to.

Q: But isn't that how the process works? And you're now kind of undermining the Republican Party?

MURKOWSKI: It's not about undermining the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. It's about representing the people of the state of Alaska. And if the people of the state of Alaska are going to stand up and say, Lisa, you've got to give us an opportunity to participate, to give us a choice.

Source: CNN "State of the Union" coverage: 2010 Alaska Senate debate Sep 19, 2010

The above quotations are from CNN political race coverage.
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