Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann Murkowski ( May 22nd, 1957 in Ketchikan, Alaska) is an American politician ( Republican) and since December 2002 U.S. Senator for the State of Alaska.
Life and work
Lisa Murkowski attended the public schools in Fairbanks and then from 1975 to 1977, first the Willamette University in Salem. She graduated in 1980 her business degree from Georgetown University with a BA from five years later she received the J. D. at the College of Law at Willamette University. As a result, she was admitted to the Bar of Alaska and practiced from 1987 to 1996 as a lawyer in Anchorage.
First political experiences collected Murkowski 1990-1991 as a member of a set up by the Mayor of Anchorage Working Group, which dealt with the issue of homelessness. From 1997 to 1998 she worked in this city in the Equality Commission. In 1998 she was elected to the House of Representatives from Alaska, this Mandate gave up, however, when her father, the newly elected Governor Frank Murkowski, appointed her as his successor in the Senate of the United States, to which it belongs since 20 December 2002. In 2004 she won the regular election to the Senate seat with three percentage points ahead of the former governor Tony Knowles of the Democratic Party. In the Senate, she sits in the foreign policy committee. In their partisan applies - particularly in light of the recent success significantly more conservative members - as representative of the moderate wing; among other things, it assumes in relation to abortion a pro-choice position.
Prior to the 2010 Senate elections she was defeated in the primary of their party narrowly supported by the Tea Party movement and the former Governor Sarah Palin lawyer Joe Miller. However, they announced to compete in the general election in November as a write-in candidate against him and the Democratic candidate Scott McAdams. This meant that her name was not at on the ballots, but this could be entered by the voters hand. After counting the ballots, it stood at the 2010 election seven percentage points ahead of Miller. She was thus the first write-in candidate since 1954, was elected to the Senate. Joe Miller had applied for the recount of the write-in votes cast, it should be checked whether also can be counted such write- ins, in which the name " Lisa Murkowski " was not written correctly. This application was rejected by the Alaska Supreme Court on December 10, 2010 in a 4-0 decision. Against Miller brought proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Alaska; the appeal was dismissed but on December 28, 2010. On December 30, Murkowski was officially declared by Gov. Sean Parnell to the winner, after which she was able to take another term in the Senate on January 3, 2011. There continues to be one of the Republican faction.