Members of Alaska’s Libertarian Party voted unanimously to rebuff any attempt from Sen. Lisa Murkowski to run on the fall ballot as a libertarian should she lose the Republican primary.
As we have reported, Murkowski’s allies have been exploring her options for remaining in the race.
A new weekend poll showed she’d make a race between Republican Joe Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams competitive if she were on the Libertarian ticket.
But the “Libertarian Republican” blog reports that the party voted 5-0 on Sunday to make sure that doesn’t happen.
From the blog’s post on the Libertarians’ emergency meeting:
On Sunday morning, over coffee and donuts, the ExComm voted unanimously, 5 to 0 to deny the Senator the ballot line. There was no malice intended. ALP Chair Kohlhaas has repeatedly stated that she is a nice lady, and the ALP was flattered by the offer.
The meeting was contentious at first. Two board members who were clearly on the Tea Party friendly Joe Miller side were combative before they realized that the other three board members agreed with them on the essentials. At a number of points the meeting even digressed into name-calling. The ‘F’ bomb was even tossed around a number of times. One board member was hellbent on holding an immediate statewide meeting open to full membership or registered Libertarians to decide the matter. That idea was shot down 4 to 1.
The vote on Murkowski was taken at about halfway through the meeting which lasted a total of 3 hours. After the result was clear, tempers calmed down, and the 5 member board moved forward with plans on how to announce the results to the media.
