Murkowski Says She May Not Support GOP Senate Nominee in 2014

photo credit: usarmyalaskaRepublicans who don’t want to witness GOP-on-GOP primary warfare in 2014 may want to keep their eyes trained on the Lower 48. Alaska could be messy.

Joe Miller, the tea party favorite who was backed by Sarah Palin when he roiled GOP politics in the 2010 midterm elections, is seriously considering another bid at an Alaska Senate seat, a campaign that could prompt a bare-knuckled effort against a candidate pushed by the party establishment.

The 45-year-old Miller has been testing the waters in meetings with influential social conservative activists and gun-rights groups in Washington. He’s quietly met with tea party senators, such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, as well as former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, the leader of The Heritage Foundation. Miller also told Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran — the new head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — that he was weighing a run in 2014.

The Miller situation provides an early test for Republicans in Washington, who are trying to avoid the internecine battles of the past two elections that damaged GOP chances of taking back the Senate. Karl Rove and his new spinoff group, the Conservative Victory Project, are now trying to defeat GOP candidates in Senate primaries whom they worry will lose in general election battles.

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