Another Incumbent Falls

The governor of the "last frontier", Alaska, will not be returning for a second term after losing his primary yesterday:

Former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin knocked embattled incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski out of office in the Republican primary race for governor Tuesday, setting the stage for a general election showdown with former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles and for a potential shake-up in her own party.

Palin’s advantage looked insurmountable while Knowles walloped lesser-known challenger Eric Croft, an Anchorage state representative, after a wild election day marked by flooding in the soggy Mat-Su Valley, downpours in Anchorage and a Murkowski campaign volunteer falling victim to stray gunfire.

Wow, they play tough up there. The political media has been talking about this race for a few days and really playing up the "anti-incumbent mood" angle because Murkowski makes four incumbents to lose their primary races so far this year. I don't think it's that simple when you look at the individual races.

The previous incumbent losers were Joe Lieberman in Connecticut, Cynthia McKinney in Georgia, and Joe Schwarz in Michigan. Lieberman was beaten by the wacky anti-war lefties, despite the fact that he's a lefty on every other issue but the war. My guess is Lieberman will live to pontificate in the Senate again. McKinney was a stark raving loon, so her loss is very understandable. And in Michigan, Schwarz was a moderate to liberal Republican in a conservative district and was beaten by a more conservative candidate. None of these three examples smack of the "throw the bums out" mentality that the media is hoping for.

In Alaska, Murkowski just wasn't as popular as he'd hoped he was, and when he left the Senate to become governor he appointed his daughter to take his place. Although Alaskans at the time cried foul, they still re-elected Lisa Murkowski to the Senate in 2004. They apparently just didn't like him.

This is not to say that many incumbents will be facing tough races this fall, but I still don't see any signs of a general mood in the electorate to toss anyone with "incumbent" on the ballot by their name.