Murkowski makes her second run through Valley

Frontiersman editorial board

Making her second round through the Valley during the primary campaign, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski grabbed a shovel at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Port MacKenzie deep-draft dock, dropped off a check to the city of Palmer and visited several other spots around the Mat-Su.

She spent some time at the Frontiersman, talking about everything from "No Child Left Behind," to gay marriage to campaign strategy. On the latter subject, Murkowski expressed surprise that Senate Democrats have taken up their campaign swords against her during the primaries.

Because she's involved in a contested primary, Murkowski said she would have expected the Democrats to see who emerged as the Republican candidate and focus their efforts against that person during the general-election phase. She acknowledged that her supporters fired the first salvo against Knowles. "That's different," Murkowski said. "He's not running in a contested primary, so it's obvious who the Democratic candidate will be."

Most pundits and armchair politicians agree that we really know who the Republican candidate will be, as well, and Murkowski agreed that it makes some political sense for Knowles supporters to strike while Mike Miller has the iron hot.

She admitted that Miller's campaign advertisements have been more venomous than Knowles', and said she's disappointed that Miller's strategy has been to attack what he sees as Murkowski's weaknesses rather than identify his own strengths.

"What I haven't heard from Mike is what he plans to do for Alaska," Murkowski said. "He hasn't told Alaskans his vision for the future." That is true enough. Miller has been making political hay of accusing Murkowski of liberalism, and he's used strong rhetorical words to attack her positions on abortion, guns and taxes.

In the meantime, Murkowski has garnered the endorsement of the National Rifle Association and supports the president's tax package. Murkowski said she supported the recent attempt to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages -- a social position that is closer to Miller's than to Knowles'.

Murkowski spends as much time talking about solutions as challenges. It's why she will likely walk out of the primary bruised but not beaten, and why the general-election campaign should be interesting.

Both she and Knowles are willing to wear their beliefs on their sleeves and they're both intelligent communicators. Alaskan voters will have a tough choice to make in November, and that's the best news we've heard all year.