Her re-election quest suddenly in jeopardy, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski struggled to avoid becoming the latest incumbent lawmaker to be fired. She fought against a political novice with the backing of Sarah Palin and tea party activists in a stunningly tight Republican primary race.
With more than half of the precincts counted, little-known attorney Joe Miller, a decorated Gulf war veteran and self-described "constitutional conservative," led 51 percent to 49 percent in contest that, in the end, amounted to an Alaska-sized GOP family feud.
Murkowski would be the seventh incumbent — and fourth Republican — to lose in a year in which the tea party has scored huge victories in GOP Senate primaries and voters have shown a willingness to punish Republican and Democratic candidates with ties to Washington and party leadership.
It also was an outsider's night in Florida's GOP primary for governor, with big-spending upstart Rick Scott toppling veteran insider Bill McCollum, the state's attorney general who had the support of national party chiefs.
Five states — Arizona, Vermont and Oklahoma also voted — held nominating contests Tuesday, 10 weeks before the general election. The races highlighted dominant themes of this volatile election year, including anti-establishment anger and tea party challenges from the right.
Elsewhere, the establishment prevailed.
Veteran GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona easily cinched his party's renomination — and likely re-election this fall — by dispatching an opponent with tea party support. Rep. Kendrick Meek cruised to the Democratic Senate nod in Florida against a wealthy political newcomer. And a slew of Republican and Democratic members of Congress withstood primary challenges.
But Murkowski's unexpectedly tough battle and Scott's victory underscored the unpredictability of this election year ahead of November, when control of both houses of Congress will be at stake.
The 2010 midterm elections already have seen six incumbents lose. Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) was ousted by his party. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Parker Griffith (R-AL), Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) failed in primary bids.
Now Murkowski might.
Appointed in 2002, she is seeking her second full term and was expected to coast to re-election.
Miller initially looked like a long shot, but he started to gain steam as the primary approached. He drew the backing of the Tea Party Express, a California-based group that's run ads, held rallies and questioned Murkowski's conservative credentials. Also, Palin, the former Alaska governor, and her husband, Todd, rallied behind Miller in the final days, lending their name to get-out-the-vote efforts.
The race also had personal overtones.
Palin trounced Murkowski's father, Frank Murkowski, in a 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary that launched the 2008 vice presidential nominee's national political career. And when Palin abruptly resigned her governor's post last summer, Lisa Murkowski said she was "deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded."
Alaska, with a sparse population over the largest land area of any state by far, is difficult to poll, making for an unexpected primary night and unpredictable outcome. The GOP primary winner will be favored in November over Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams, who won the Democratic nomination.
In Florida, Scott's financial might and criticism of his opponent as a typical tax-raising politician proved too much for McCollum, a former congressman, in the bitter GOP gubernatorial race.
Scott, who made a fortune in the health care industry and spent $39 million of it blanketing the state with TV ads, resonated with GOP voters as a "conservative outsider" who could run state government like an efficient business and reduce taxes. He overcame accusations that he was in charge when his former hospital conglomerate paid $1.7 billion to settle federal Medicare fraud charges.
That issue is likely to come up again as he faces Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, who sailed to the Democratic nomination.
The peril establishment candidates face was not lost on McCain, who was at the pinnacle of the GOP hierarchy just two years ago as the Republican presidential nominee.
"I promise you, I take nothing for granted and will fight with every ounce of strength and conviction I possess to make the case for my continued service in the Senate," McCain told supporters in Arizona, quickly focusing on the fall campaign in his bid for a fifth term.
In the toughest Senate primary of his career, he spent more than $20 million. He aggressively cast former talk radio host and ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth in a negative light while countering the challenger's efforts to capitalize on early tea party backing and anti-Washington sentiment among voters.
Also in Arizona, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle won the Republican primary for an Arizona congressional seat. Ben Quayle emerged from a crowded field in the fight for an open seat in a Republican-leaning district in the Phoenix area.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, first elected in 1974, coasted to renomination for what is likely to be a new term in November.
In Florida's Democratic Senate race, Meek defeated Greene, a real estate tycoon whose links to boxer Mike Tyson and former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss drew headlines. The four-term congressman now faces Republican Marco Rubio, who easily secured the GOP nod, and Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican who is running as an independent.
The general election campaign got under way immediately — and it promised to be ugly.
"Floridians want leaders who will fight for them all the time, not just when it helps their own political career or advances an extreme philosophy," Meek said after his victory, poking both Crist and Rubio without naming them.
Crist ridiculed "the same old partisan politicians who have brought the people's work to a halt." It was a not-so-subtle suggestion that his opponents were just that.
And the tea party-supported Rubio slapped at his rivals, saying, "If you like the direction that America is headed, if you think Washington is doing the right things, then there are two other people that are going to be on the ballot, and you should vote for one of them."
