Daily Sitka Sentinel

Murkowski’s Choice: Not Trump or Hillary

By BRIELLE SCHAEFFER

Sentinel Staff Writer

Alaska’s Republican U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, said she’s received some heat for her decision to denounce Donald Trump as her party’s presidential nominee. But she also doesn’t support Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Lisa Murkowski (Sentinel Photo)

“I have made my decision as one Alaskan and I hope Alaskans will respect that,” Murkowski said in an interview with the Sentinel Tuesday while she was in town for Alaska Day.

Murkowski announced her decision about Trump last week after a video with his comments about women became public.

“I have gotten a great deal of support from Alaskans – Republicans, Democrats, independents – Alaskans who have said, ‘thank you for speaking up and saying it is not appropriate to engage in words or conduct that brags about sexual assault, predatory behavior.’ It’s an important reminder that character does count,” Murkowski said.

She’s not sure who she’ll be voting for in the Nov. 8 election, but it won’t be Trump or Clinton. Murkowski said she would spend the final few weeks leading up to the election deciding on another candidate. 

“One thing I do know is the minute I think this election can’t get any crazier it gets crazier,” she commented.

Murkowski braved the rain to march in Tuesday’s parade and speak at the transfer ceremony re-enactment atop Castle Hill. She attended the Pioneers Home open house afterward.

Murkowski said this was the first time she has been in Sitka for the parade, although she has attended the Alaska Day Ball in the past.

“This is true Alaska, with a wet soggy parade and you’ve got hundreds of people out there, all the kids are out there diving for the candy,” she said. “This is an opportunity to remind us of our very rich and diverse culture.”

In her campaign for re-election Murkowski is facing Democrat Ray Metcalfe and four third-party candidates, Libertarian Joe Miller,  independent Margaret Stock and non-affiliated candidates Breck Craig and Ted Gianoutsos. Miller defeated Murkowski for the Republican nomination in 2010, but lost to her in her organized write-in campaign in the general election. 

“It’s really kind of a mixed bag when you look at the individuals running in the Senate race right now,” Murkowski said. “While Margaret Stock is running as an independent she’s a former Republican that is being endorsed by the Democrats. You have Joe Miller, who is kind of a back and forth Republican who has picked up a flag of convenience with the Libertarian ticket right now. Then you have Democrat Ray Metcalfe who is a former Republican legislator.”

She scoffed at Miller’s allegations that she’s afraid to debate him.

“The first big debate we had he chose not to attend,” she said, referring to a scheduled debate about fisheries in Kodiak. “It’s pretty important to speak to Alaskans about the no. 1 industry that holds the most amount of jobs in the state. ... We set the schedule early on and I think it’s a fair one.”

Murkowski has been in the U.S. Senate for 14 years. She was appointed to the seat in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, who had resigned from the Senate to become governor. She wants to remain in the Senate to bring certainty to Alaska at the federal level in a time of financial uncertainty, she said.

“Every day, every week that passes is a reminder to me the issues, the challenges, the opportunities we face as a state,” Murkowski said. “They don’t get any easier but I’ve become more of an able and effective advocate for our state.”

Murkowski is in a position of seniority in the Senate. She said she’s built strong relationships with politicians and learned to work with those across the aisle.

“I was not a supporter of President Obama when he first ran but I figured out how to work with his administration,” she said. 

She said one of her priorities before the end of the year is to sew up a deal to make timber available for industry near Ketchikan while also protecting a popular recreation area, Deer Mountain. The Alaska Mental Health Trust has said it will sell parcels of the trust’s land on Deer Mountain for logging if a Murkowski bill releasing national forest timber for Southeast mills is not passed by Jan. 15.

Murkowski is proposing an exchange of more isolated federal land for Mental Health Trust land on Deer Mountain.

“I was born in Ketchikan,” she said. “I understand all too well that none of us want to log Deer Mountain.” She plans to move the exchange as part of a package of bills in November or December. 

“There is an imperative because the trust is looking to try to provide resources for their constituency. They kind of feel like they have few options,” she said. “This will give options. This is actually a win for the Mental Health Trust. It’s a win for the communities, because they’re able to conserve and preserve the area they want and it’s a win for the small, struggling timber industry.”

But before then, everyone has to get through an election, Murkowski included.

“We’ve got three weeks and we’re encouraging people to get out and vote,” Murkowski said.