Murkowski not taking Senate re-election bid for granted

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is taking nothing for granted in her latest re-election bid, raking in fundraising cash, peppering the air waves with ads and filling Alaska mailboxes with campaign fliers.

While she is expected to win her Republican primary against little-known candidates Tuesday, her loss in the 2010 primary, and her improbable comeback with a successful general election write-in campaign, remain fresh in her mind.

Vying for the Democratic nomination in the race are University of Alaska Anchorage professor Edgar Blatchford and Ray Metcalfe, a former state legislator and anti-corruption crusader who has butted heads with party leaders.

[...] part, Murkowski, who has a reputation as a moderate, is casting herself as a pragmatist willing to work across party lines to get things done, noting as an example her work with Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell on an energy bill.

Murkowski is the only Republican to sign on as a co-sponsor to voting rights legislation, and she believes she has held true to the expectation — heightened after her 2010 win — that she put Alaska's interests before those of her party, a characterization that Blatchford disputes.