Here’s hoping there are many, many more this year:

Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski lost his bid for a second term on Tuesday, making him the first incumbent Alaska governor in 20 years to be unseated in his party’s primary election.

Murkowski conceded the race to former Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin about two hours after the polls closed and pledged to support her. Palin, running a campaign that portrayed her as a reformer bucking the state’s Republican establishment, will now face former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in November’s general election. With over two-thirds of the precincts reporting, Palin had 51.1 percent of the total. John Binkley, a Fairbanks businessman and former state senator, was in second place with 29.5 percent, and Murkowski trailed with about 19 percent.

Murkowski was a corrupt, stubborn, unapologetic member of the political class, who thought taxpayer-funded luxury airliners and nepotism were part and parcel of his birthright spot at the public trough. And he was openly contempuous of anyone who dared to challenge, for example, appointing his daughter to replace him in the U.S. senate, or upping the value of property his family ownedon Gravina Island by pushing the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.”

See ya’, Frank. Up next: Don Young and Ted Stevens.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 2:08 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.