Alaska’s senator conceded Tuesday night in her Republican primary race to Joe Miller, the Sarah Palin–endorsed Fairbanks lawyer who was a favorite of the tea party. Murkowski was trailing Miller — who recently slung an ill-chosen insult in Murkowski’s direction — by 1,469 votes when she decided to pull out of the race. Miller had trailed in local polls leading up to the election, but is said to have gotten a boost from a last-minute barrage of ads, mailings, and calls in what Palin called the “miracle on ice.” “I’m so proud of the campaign that we conducted,” Murkowski told reporters Tuesday night. “It was honest. It was upright. It was energetic. It was what a campaign in Alaska should be.”
