Surprise: sitting Republican Senator comes out in support of Democratic House candidate
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says she’s voting for House Democrat Mary Peltola in the midterms. Murkowski usually isn’t good for much, but this is helpful. She’s influential in Alaska, and crossing party lines with her own midterm vote will carry weight with voters there.
Remember, it’s not about whether Murkowski is “good” or “bad” or “can be trusted.” Those are theoretical questions that have nothing to do with winning and losing. What matters is that Murkowski is being useful in this instance. Even though she only does these things to further her own agenda, it happens to help us, so we’ve got to gladly take the help.
Why is Murkowski doing this? She likes to pick her spots and appear bipartisan, because people in Alaska like that stuff. And it lets her score points with Alaska Republicans who dislike Palin. Murkowski is pretty shrewd at making this stuff work in her own favor.
But really, who cares why Murkowski is doing it? In the process of carrying out her own personal agenda, she happens to be handing us a gift. We have to take it and run with it, not waste time sitting around debating whether Murkowski is “good” or “bad” or whatever.
So how do we run with it? Peltola can use this messaging big time, but she’ll need funds to run last minute TV ads about it and such. You can donate to Peltola here.
