Tim Carney: Murkowski's Alaska Mafia and the Public Dole

When Lisa Murkowski announced her futile write-in campaign for the Alaska Senate seat her daddy gave her, one of her justifications for the action was that Joe Miller's victory was illegitimate or something because some of his campaign funding originated from outside Alaska from groups such as the Tea Party Express. The fact that 88% of her own campaign funds came from outside Alaska was irrelevant, apparently. Murkowski didn't let that prevent her from claiming that Miller's outside funding was evidence that the primary election had been "hijacked" from poor Lisa, a well-known incumbent who had greatly outspent her hitherto unknown challenger. To compound the irony, an hour before her announcement, Murkowski's campaign sent out an email begging for money from, um, sources outside Alaska:Less than an hour before Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski planned to announce a write-in campaign to retain her seat, her top aide e-mailed scores of the most prominent lobbyists in Washington to ask them to join a Saturday conference call with the senator. In an excellent piece at the Washington Examiner, Timothy P. Carney explains just how desperate Murkowski and her cronies are to keep the Senate seat. Carney details how the corrupt relationship between K-Street and what he calls the "Alaska Mafia" (another name for the Corrupt Bastard's Club, perhaps?) will end abruptly when Joe Miller wins the election, and how the Alaska political class are frantic to prevent that from happening:Once insurgent conservative Joe Miller knocked off moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's Senate primary, almost all Beltway Republicans lined up behind Miller. But thanks to Alaska's unique political culture, there is a small cadre -- mostly former staffers for Murkowski and other Alaska lawmakers -- supporting her quixotic write-in race for re-election.Murkowski's bid has brought attention to a quiet but significant clique on K Street composed of former aides to Murkowksi, her father, Frank, former Sen. Ted Stevens, and Rep. Don Young, who specialize in lobbying for energy interests, Alaskan natives, and Alaska's towns and cities. The phrase "Alaska mafia" slips off the tongue of many Republican staffers, activists, and lobbyists who have dealt with this clique.[Click here for a partial diagram of the "Alaska mafia."] "They've done a very good job of looking out for each other," one Republican lobbyist told me. Stevens, Young and the Murkowskis have shared plenty of staff, and sent dozens of aides to lobby on K Street. These aides served as invisible middlemen in the earmark machine run by the venerable Alaska Republicans.Stevens was a champion porker who once bragged, "I am guilty of asking the Senate for pork and proud of the Senate for giving it to me." Young was chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Lisa Murkowski was put on the Appropriations Committee in her first full term, and her father chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Committee before becoming governor.Their aides grease the skids, cash in on K Street, and then donate to Murkowski and Young. Cordova, Alaska, population 2,500, boasts a former Lisa Murkowski staffer as a lobbyist. Another lobbyist, Jon DeVore, who worked for Ted Stevens, Frank Murkowski and Lisa Murkowski in the Senate, now represents a handful of Alaska Native Corporations -- government-created, for-profit entities owned by indigenous Alaskans. DeVore -- a Murkowski donor -- works at the lobbying firm Birch, Horton, a hub of the Alaska MafiaMuch more here. Governor Palin took the first steps toward dismantling the Alaska Mafia during her days on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and has been fighting them ever since. Her Gubernatorial victory in 2006 was a huge step toward this end. When Joe Miller wins the Senate seat in 26 days, another huge nail will have been driven into their coffin. We can help pound that nail in by following Governor Palin's lead and supporting Joe Miller's campaign here.(h/t Pat)Update: C4P reader RefudiateObama2012 notes that the link to the partial diagram of the Alaska Mafia which Carney has constructed is worth checking out. The shadowy relationship between the Alaska political class the lobbyists who pull their strings is as byzantine as...er...Obamacare.

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