Lisa Murkowski is a Republican Senator for the state of Alaska. She is the first Alaskan born Senator from the state and is a third generation Alaskan. She was born in Ketchikan and raised in four different towns around the state. She claims she has helped the people of the state by working for the improvement of health care, education, energy, veterans’ affairs and infrastructure development.http://murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Biography

Senator Lisa Murkowski serves as the senior Republican member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=15841 She is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a member on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.http://murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Biography

Murkowski is leading the Alaskan Senate race with 41% of the votes. Her opponents, Republican, Joe Miller has received 34% and Democrat, Scott McAdams has received 24% of the votes. If Murkowski wins with her write-in campaign, she will be the first Senator since 1954 to do so.http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/politics/7374-in-alaska-write-ins-dominating-senate-returns

A victory will mean that the finalizing of the results will not be available for at least two weeks. If a write-in candidate wins, the votes have to be sent to the Division of Elections to be counted. The counting can not begin until all absentee and questionable votes are received. These have to be postmarked by November 2, 2010, so they may be trickling in for a couple of weeks.http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/politics/7374-in-alaska-write-ins-dominating-senate-returns

Senator Lisa Murkowki lost the 2010 Republican primary to Joe Miller.http://theweek.com/article/briefing_blog/198/lisa-Murkowski She is now a write-in candidate. A write-in candidate is a candidate for office whose name does not appear on the ballot. Voters may vote for a write-in candidate by writing his or her name down on the ballot. The Democratic opponent against both Miller and Murkowski is Scott McAdams.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20016886-503544.html In a poll released by Dittman research on September 2, 2010, 37% surveyed said they would vote for Senator Murkowski, 31% would vote for Joe Miller and 19% would vote for Democratic candidate Scott McAdams.http://www.andrewhalcro.com/murkowski_by_6_points_run_lisa_run

Senator Lisa Murkowski was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. She now resides in Anchorage, Alaska. She is married to Vern Martell and has two boys, Nicolas and Matthew. Murkowski attended the Georgetown University, Williamette University and the Williamette College of Law.http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=15841

Murkowski has worked as an attorney from 1985. She became a Senator at the United States Senate from 2002 to the present.http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=15841

Murkowski opposes prohibiting human embryonic stem cell research and supports federal abortion funding.http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Lisa_Murkowski.htm She says she regrets voting for TARP and would vote against it now. The Senator supports capital punishment for certain crimes and supports more severe penalties for Hate Crimes. She believes Federal tax cuts are a means to spur economic growth.http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Lisa_Murkowski.htm

"One thing that Alaskans clearly appreciate is seniority...If she were to kind of move me over, if you will, to run for national office again at the expense at this seniority that's been built, I don't know if Alaskans would look too favorably on that...I think they view the job that we have here in the Senate as a very, very critical one in a state like Alaska, where we always are battling the feds...You need to have this position being filled full time. And I think that's what Alaskans will be looking to."—Murkowski, on a potential Palin 2010 Senate challengehttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16112.html