Name Recognition No Help in Alaska Race

She wants to be known simply as Lisa. A smart, direct, down-to-earth neighbor who happens to be a U.S. senator.

Lisa is running for a second term in this land of the midnight sun, and at the moment is on the campaign trail. The aides shuttling her from event to event wear buttons that display her first name in bold capital letters. Her last name, Murkowski, is reduced almost to fine print. The same is true of her lawn signs and posters all over the state.

It’s part of the strategy: to distinguish and distance herself from the other, better-known member of the family -- her father, Gov. Frank H. Murkowski -- who, according to some polls, has become the least-liked governor in Alaska’s history.

His descent began when, after being elected governor in 2002, the Republican stalwart vacated the Senate seat he had held for 22 years and appointed his Republican daughter to finish his fourth term.

Alaskans were indignant. Cries of “nepotistic monarchy” hounded both father and daughter. And now, as Lisa Murkowski fights to keep her seat, the issue has become all-important -- both in Alaska and in Washington. The outcome of the race could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Political analysts say there’s little difference between Lisa Murkowski and her Democratic challenger, former Gov. Tony Knowles, on the issues that matter most to Alaskans: the economy and the development of natural resources.

The Republican-dominated state has consistently had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. In July, Alaska posted a jobless rate of 7.2%, compared with the national average of 5.5%.

Both Murkowski and Knowles are in lock step with voters who overwhelmingly support oil drilling in the Arctic coastal plain, construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope and logging in roadless areas of national forests -- all of which, it is believed, would create jobs and generate revenue.

Statewide polls show Knowles holding a slight lead, but both sides consider the race a statistical dead heat. Inevitably, the political discourse comes back to how Murkowski got her job.

“It’s certainly been made an issue by my opponents who want to continue to fan that flame,” says Murkowski during a car ride to North Pole, a small town outside Fairbanks. “I haven’t asked anybody to like it. What I’m asking is that people judge me on my performance.”

Her most vocal opponents have been three Democratic state legislators who succeeded, despite legal challenges, in placing an initiative on the November ballot that would repeal the governor’s ability to fill Senate vacancies.

The initiative is widely seen as a partisan castigation.

But censure has also come from Republicans. Murkowski’s chief opponent in the Aug. 24 GOP primary, Mike Miller, whom she defeated handily, repeatedly called her appointment “a scandal.”

Murkowski, 47, an attorney, was a relatively obscure two-term state legislator with a reputation as a thoughtful and independent politician who was unafraid to go against her party. She supported tax increases, backed limited gun control and proclaimed herself in favor of abortion rights “with qualifications.”

As a U.S. senator, she has put in long hours. Three times a month, she traveled home to Anchorage to meet with constituents and spend time with her husband, a small-business owner, and two young sons.

“She’s worked hard,” said Gerald A. McBeath, political science professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. But he said that in her 20 months in office, “she hasn’t delivered any huge victory for Alaska. Not yet.”

She has steered some social-service and healthcare dollars to her state, but she hasn’t made any progress in opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, or in getting the natural gas pipeline approved.

McBeath said bringing those projects to fruition would be a tall order for any junior senator, especially one tainted by an unpopular father.

Gov. Murkowski, because of his daughter’s appointment and a series of budget cuts, has seen his approval rating drop from 70% to as low as 29% in some polls. Sen. Murkowski acknowledges the fallout from her father’s standing.

Her Democratic opponent faces a similar quandary, a sort of “guilt by association,” said Matt McKenna, spokesman for Knowles.

The Murkowski campaign has frequently aligned Knowles with Democratic Party leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and presidential nominee John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts senator who opposes logging in national forests and drilling in ANWR.

“John Kerry has made a position on ANWR. I disagree with him, and I publicly disagree with him,” Knowles said in a phone interview. “You’ve got to look above partisanship. Sometimes you have to vote against your party.”

Knowles, a Vietnam veteran and former restaurant owner, has a reputation within his party as a centrist, someone with liberal positions on many social issues but who is staunchly pro-business and pro-development. He is generally recognized as the state’s most successful Democratic politician in the last decade.

A former two-term mayor of Anchorage, Knowles was elected governor in 1994 and again in 1998. During those eight years, unemployment decreased, oil production increased and overall crime rates dropped. Term limits prevented him from running in 2002.

Knowles argues that, as a senator, he stands a better chance than Murkowski of persuading his Democratic colleagues in Washington of the virtues of drilling in ANWR, which contains an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil.

Murkowski’s people, however, say Knowles couldn’t persuade his colleagues as governor, and isn’t likely to be more convincing as senator. National Democrats see Knowles as having one of the best chances to topple a Republican incumbent. Close Senate races are expected in seven other states, among them Illinois, Colorado and both Carolinas.

Republicans hold a 51-48 majority over Democrats in the Senate, with one independent who usually votes with Democrats.

The Republican trio of Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank H. Murkowski and Rep. Don Young -- together in Washington since 1980 -- made up one of the longest-serving delegations in congressional history.

Stevens’ post as chairman of the Appropriations Committee is credited with giving Alaska more federal dollars per capita -- $11,746 -- than any other state in the country. By comparison, the per capita amount for California is about half that number, according to census figures.

Alaska has a population of 640,000, about half that of San Diego. It is, in terms of population, a small state, and to compensate, Alaskans like their congressional delegation aggressive and long-lived.

Lisa Murkowski suggests her age is an advantage, saying she’d be willing to represent Alaska “for the next 25 to 35 years.”

Mike Doogan, a former columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, said gender could be more of an issue than age. The nation’s so-called Last Frontier, he said, still clings to some unenlightened ways. Alaska has never elected a woman to a statewide office. At least four have tried and failed.

“Alaska is still very chauvinistic, at least electorally,” Doogan said.

“They’ve seen me going toe-to-toe with these guys who’ve been in the Senate for 25 years,” Murkowski says as the car pulls into a parking lot of a small motel on the outskirts of North Pole. “They’ve seen me hold my own.”

Inside the motel, a couple dozen supporters gather around the candidate. One woman, Mary Havens, sits to one side talking about the nepotism issue. She believes, as many Murkowski supporters do, that the issue will backfire on the Democrats.

“It’s not a reasonable focus,” Havens said. “We’re not going to judge her because of her name, or because of something her father has done. The people who keep bringing it up are the ones who’ll be hurt. They look more and more -- what’s the word? Petty.”