"There are three elements in successful political campaigns: money, organization and voter participation. The historic re-election of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, had all three … generated by Alaska Natives.

The story started with the defeat of Murkowski during the Republican primary by Joe Miller. In most years, in most elections, that would have been the end of the story. The senator would have thanked her supporters and gone on to do other things.

But 2010 was no ordinary year for a lot of reasons. The first one being a change in the election laws because of a Supreme Court decision. That decision meant that a third-party group could spend money on behalf of a candidate. .”… in Alaska, one independent group fully immersed itself in the new age of campaign spending, nearly doubling the amount of money marshaled in support of Murkowski's re-election bid: the "super PAC" called Alaskans Standing Together, created, managed and supported by Alaska's regional Native corporations,” wrote the Anchorage Daily News.

How much money? The News reported that Alaska Standing Together spent some $1.2 million in the three weeks before the election."

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So goes Alaska ... goes Indian Country (Mark Trahant 11/22)

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