Lisa Murkowski

Lisa Murkowski (born May 22, 1957) is the senior U.S. Senator from the State of Alaska. Murkowski is a Republican, the only woman ever elected to Congress from her state and is the first Senator born in Alaska.

Appointment to U.S. Senate
Murkowski, while a member of the Alaska House of Representatives, was appointed by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, to his own unexpired Senate seat in December 2002, which he had vacated after being elected governor. The appointment caused a furor in the state, and eventually resulted in a referendum which stripped the governor of his power to directly appoint replacement Senators.

Re-election to Senate
She was elected to a full six-year term against former Governor Tony Knowles in the 2004 election, by a extremely small-rasor thin margin. Near the end of the general election campaign, then-Senator Ted Stevens shot fear mongering ads for Murkowski warning the public that electing a Democrat to replace Murkowski would likely result in the state receiving fewer federal dollars.

As a Senator
In July 2007, Murkowski stated she would sell back land she bought from Anchorage businessman Bob Penney, a day after a Washington watchdog group filed a Senate ethics complaint against her, alleging that Penney sold the property well below market value. The Anchorage Daily News noted, "The transaction amounted to an illegal gift worth between $70,000 and $170,000, depending on how the property was valued, according to the complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center."