Another Dem Incumbent Defeated? Sullivan Leads Begich

After trying to distance himself from President Obama, Sen. Mark Begich (D) found Alaska wasn’t far enough away from the White House.

With 50 percent of the vote, former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan was on the road to unseating Begich, who had 44 percent of the vote with 78 percent of precincts reporting.

Begich went home and said he wouldn’t concede Tuesday night.

Sullivan emerged from a heated GOP primary to challenge Begich. The field included Joe Miller, who defeated Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the 2010 primary only to lose to the incumbent as she waged a write-in campaign in the general election.

Miller eventually endorsed Sullivan.

Begich angered Murkowski, though, by using her image in his campaign ads. She demanded that he remove the ads that made them look like voting buddies.

Begich said the disagreement was just about Murkowski not liking how she looked.

“She doesn’t dispute the facts that we vote 80 percent of the time on every single item,” he said. “…She shouldn’t be embarrassed about that. She didn’t like the photo.”

“This is not a situation where you want to make sure you got a pretty picture on the TV,” Murkowski shot back. “That was an offensive statement. And I don’t appreciate that.”