Showing the growing clout of Sarah Palin, the Alaska senate race went to the wire and saw Palin-backed newcomer Joe Miller defeat Lisa Murkowski.

An unheralded Republican minnow, conservative lawyer Joe Miller brought down Murkowski in the widespread anti-incumbency bug. This is being called THE upset political victory in this 2010 election year.

It is time for a Tea Party in a ballot count which saw a whopping number of voters playing truant absentees. Little-known Joe Miller is sure to be a favorite come  November in a predominantly Republican Alaska and the next scalp looks to be the one of Scott McAdams, the Democrat mayor of Sitka.

Even as Lisa Murkowski failed to make much headway, Senate Democrats were already looking ahead and rying to limit damage by saying that they would throw their weight behind Scott McAdams. Senator Robert Menendez, who is the campaign committee chairman for the Democrats, took up the Scott McAdams cause even before Murkowski was to concede. The anti- incumbent mood claimed Murkowski, as it was revelry time in the Tea Party Express-backed Joe Miller camp.

Murkowski became one in the series of senators who have lost this year amid Democrat doldrums and widespread discontent with Washington.

Joe Miller said that given the looming financial crisis, there will inevitably be a forced cut in funds given to the state, and to prepare for this, he would try to cut down the federal regulatory pressure on land so as to develop it at a modest cost.

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