Alaska politics are kind of weird.
Never has that been more the case than now, with the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) still being batted around Congress, and never has an Alaskan politician been more determined to stay in the middle of the road - by that I mean, refusing to take an actual position and stick to it - than Princess Lisa Murkowski. We might note that she hitched her campaign to that of Democrat Mary Peltola in 2022 - or maybe it was the other way around. Mrs. Peltola was running for a full term (after a special-election victory) as Alaska's at-large representative in the House, and Princess Lisa, for her Senate seat. There were a lot of "Murkowski/Peltola" signs, blossoming all over parts of the Great Land like fireweed in the summer.
Now, the two seem to have had a falling out over the OBBB.
For Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the One Big Beautiful Bill is a hot potato she just tossed to the House. Now, she has called on House Republicans to send the “One Big Beautiful Bill” back to the Senate for further refinement because it’s not ready. This, even though Murkowski cast one of the decisive votes in favor of the sweeping Trump budget and priorities package.
“My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” Murkowski told reporters Tuesday, after the Senate passed the bill in dramatic fashion, ending a 28-hour vote-a-rama.
The legislation narrowly cleared the Senate with Murkowski emerging as a pivotal holdout whose support tipped the balance to a 50-50 split. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Murkowski’s decision came after last-minute negotiations secured her a provision doubling grant funding to rural hospitals, which will pour money into rural Alaska.
So, at this point, Princess Lisa favors an endless game of patty-cake, in which this bill keeps going back and forth until Hakeem Jeffries runs out of hot air. But this is where Mrs. Peltola, who Alaska Democrats are mentioning as a gubernatorial candidate, took a shot at her former campaign buddy.
Adding to the political firestorm, former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola weighed in on social media Tuesday, posting a sharp critique of her “former colleagues,” accusing them of being bought by billionaires. Though Peltola didn’t name names, her post was widely interpreted as a jab at both Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s two sitting senators.
The irony wasn’t lost on political observers: Peltola’s own 2024 congressional campaigns was among the most well-funded in Alaska history, with millions in support from out-of-state donors and progressive PACs. Despite the backing of billionaires like Reid Hoffman, Michael Bloomberg, and Dustin Moskovitz, she lost her re-election bid in 2024 to Republican Nick Begich III. Adding to the irony is that Murkowski was a supporter of Peltola when she first ran for office, and Murkowski opposed Begich. Her support was more private in 2024, but still detectable. Now, Peltola has tuned on her.
Mary Peltola, of course, ran again in 2024. You know, that same election in which President Trump coasted to an easy victory. The reason Mrs. Peltola is now a private citizen is that Alaska Republicans finally got their web-footed waterfowl arranged in a linear fashion and ran only one candidate in our ranked-choice voting system, which resulted in Republican Nick Begich III beating Mrs. Peltola like the adopted red-headed stepchild of a rented mule.
So it's unclear how much effect Mary Peltola's prodding will have on Princess Lisa.
See Also: Hakeem Jeffries Post Against the OBBB Is So Bad, It Has People Mocking Him Into Next Week
GOP Committee Chair Wrecks Maxwell Frost for Wild Remarks That Go 'Over the Cliff' on OBBB
Up here in the Great Land, we're a bit accustomed to our politics being a side-note on the national scale. We only have one representative. In presidential elections, we're pretty reliably Republican, but we only have three electoral votes. Our Congressional delegation consisted of Republican Nick Begich III in the House, while in the Senate we have Republican Dan Sullivan - and Princess Lisa. But from time to time, our delegation can have an impact all out of proportion. The OBBB may be one of those times.
If only it weren't Princess Lisa Murkowski standing in the middle of that road!
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