Murkowski cruises to third term in U.S. Senate

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski sailed into a third term Tuesday, more than 10 points ahead of her next closest challenger with nearly half of the precincts reporting.

This is reported by Alaska Dispatch News.

Murkowski faced a bevy of challengers: Democrat Ray Metcalfe, independent Margaret Stock and conservative Joe Miller, running on the Libertarian ticket.

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With just under 42 percent of precincts reporting, Miller held 29 percent of the vote. Independent candidate Stock held 15 percent of the vote and Democrat Metcalfe had 12 percent.

From the start this year, Murkowski's campaign had an internal mantra: "2010 never again." She wanted nothing close to a repeat of 2010, when she ran — and won — as a write-in candidate after a surprise loss in the Republican primary to Miller.

Murkowski crisscrossed the state this summer before the Republican primary. By the eve of Election Day, her campaign workers had knocked on 57,000 doors, according to campaign manager Steve Wackowski. He described a highly technical "get out the vote" operation ready to be deployed to make sure likely Murkowski voters made it to the polls Nov. 8.

Click here to read the full-length article in Alaska Dispatch.