Incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was certified as the winner of the 2010 Alaska Senate race Thursday morning, 58 days after voters went to the polls.
Gov. Sean Parnell signed the certification of the election results in Juneau, with Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell as the witness.
Fairbanks attorney Joe Miller won the GOP primary on Aug. 24, prompting Murkowski to run a write-in campaign. After a recount that lasted days, the state Division of Elections said Murkowski had prevailed in the Nov. 2 general election. Her official vote count certified Thursday put her ahead of Miller by 10,252, according to an Associated Press report.
Murkowski is the first U.S. Senate candidate to win a seat by write-in since 1954, when Strom Thurmond won in South Carolina.
Kevin Sweeney, Murkowski's campaign manager, said in a prepared statement that "it feels great" to have the election finally over. He noted that it took longer -- eight weeks -- to get the results than to wage the write-in campaign, which only lasted six weeks. She is slated to be sworn in to her second full term on Jan. 5.
Miller plans a press conference for 2 p.m. Friday to discuss his plans regarding continuing a legal fight. He challenged the election results in both state and federal court but lost on all grounds, including his suggestion of widespread voter fraud. On Tuesday, a federal judge cleared the way for the election to be certified after the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against Miller's challenge.
Contact Patti Epler at patti(at)alaskadispatch.com.