Facing Tough Re-Election Fight, Begich Seeks Cover Under Murkowski’s Voting Record

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, might not want her Democratic colleague, Mark Begich, to win re-election in 2014, but her habit of breaking with the GOP on several key votes could give him some political cover ahead of 2014.

“As an Alaska delegation, we’ve got to be working on those issues that are important to our constituents,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News this week. “Sen. Begich has been keying in on the issues that I think Alaskans are worried about and doing what he was tasked to do.”

“I’m going to be working to get Republicans elected,” she later added.

Murkowski’s more moderate voting record could help Begich, given how much the two Alaskans overlap on some issues. Begich faces a tough re-election fight this year in a state that has traditionally elected Republicans to Congress. There’s a competitive GOP primary in August to determine his opponent.

Murkowski, once a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, has broken ranks several times since her 2010 re-election victory as a write-in candidate. Murkowski votes with her party only 61 percent of the time, according to data compiled by the Washington Post’s Congress Votes Database.

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