We now can believe, as a result of her write-in general election victory, that Sen. Lisa Murkowski's primary election loss caused many Alaskans to pause and examine their innate moral values in addition to their political instincts. A fine, decent Alaskan was suddenly thrust aside and so many were surprised, chagrined and even heart sick. At that moment there was a shared sense that Alaskan political life was about to change for the worse and to a large number of Alaskan voters that was unacceptable.
The morning after the primary election will, for me, be one of those forever etched in memory. A sense of foreboding permeated that day. It was not about whether I agreed or disagreed with the political beliefs of those who had defeated Sen. Murkowski but whether the discourse and debate to follow was to be civil, open and positive in which all could feel invited and heard. I believed not, having for too long endured the vitriol and shallow analysis passing for policy debate being spewed in pretty much all of the media and seen the resulting despair, apathy or mean-spiritedness among too many Alaskans.
Among those Alaskans certain to be most negatively affected by the consequences of such meanness and lack of shared obligation and responsibility, there was a profound fear that the Alaska they aspired to would be moved further out of reach. It was this fear that moved Native Alaskans and their institutions to rise up and act.
Certainly for Native corporations there was a degree of economic calculation. But they could not have acted without the strong support of their owners, the Native peoples of Alaska, who were motivated by a larger sense of their place in Alaska suddenly being placed in jeopardy. Native corporations are not monoliths ruled from board rooms and executive suites. At their core they are manifestations of the values and aspirations of Alaska's Native peoples.
While Native corporations provided the majority of funding from the Native community, the Murkowski write-in campaign would not have been successful without grass-roots Native Alaskan support to which the corporations responded and which they led -- but did not cause. And of course Native Alaskans alone could not bring about Sen. Murkowski's victory. It took a broad coalition of like-minded and disparate, and, yes, even some desperate, Alaskans of every demographic to make it happen.
I will not agree with all of what Sen. Murkowski does in the U.S. Senate. I may even voice that disagreement from time to time. But I do know that in her Alaskans have someone who will work to bring Alaskans together and not drive them apart, who will listen and yes, even compromise for the good of Alaska and our country. She will reach out to try and make this fragile world a better place.
She will not be always successful and she will make choices that will make one or another of us wince or even curse, but we will know that she represents what is good about Alaska and that will get us all through and it is enough for me.
Byron I. Mallott was co-chair of the Murkowski Write-in Campaign and is a lifelong Alaskan. He is a director of Sealaska Corporation, the First Alaskans Institute and a former trustee and executive director and CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund among many other positions held in Alaska over the years.
By BYRON MALLOTT