Lisa Murkowski is confident none of her colleagues in the U.S. Senate spent the weeklong break that ends Monday quite the way she did.
Sure, many of them used the time to return home and talk to constituents about hot-button issues like No Child Left Behind. But chances are good that only Murkowski had that conversation in the context of a parent-teacher conference, with a constituent who also happens to be her son's teacher.
Murkowski, 47, is one of 14 women in the 100-member U.S. Senate. She's one of just three who is the mother of school-age children -- a soccer mom who really goes to soccer practice. And that gives her a perspective, and a lifestyle, far different from other senators.
"I can almost guarantee they didn't get off the plane and go to a parent-teacher conference and then go home and bake a cake,'' she said last week during a break from politicking and mothering.
You read that right. She baked a cake. Took a break from championing ANWR, escaped the battle over judicial nominations and baked a cake for her son's birthday.
And she didn't just bake a cake. She decorated it. The occasion was son Nic's 14th birthday, and the birthday boy was a bit bummed because his wish -- to spend the weekend skiing at Alyeska -- couldn't be granted because Alyeska was temporarily closed for maintenance.
So his mom frosted a chocolate cake, clipped pictures of ski racers from magazines and stuck toothpicks atop the cake to make it look like the skiers were in a slalom race.
"I thought it was so clever,'' Murkowski said.
Nic didn't. "You put the skiers on dirt,'' he told her. And he was right: The skiers were racing on chocolate frosting. The senator saved the day by dusting the cake with powdered sugar.
Murkowski brings that nurturing touch to work every day as a senator. The beauty of diversity, the point of diversity, is it gives voice to a variety of people and experiences. John McCain knows what it's like to be a prisoner of war. Lisa Murkowski knows what it's like to make sack lunches.
"I'm a mom, and I think that perspective is there in just about everything I'm doing,'' she said. "I'm talking about ANWR, yeah, but when I'm talking about ANWR, I see opportunities for jobs for my kids and my kids' friends. I'm thinking about things through the eyes of either my children or as a parent.''
Murkowski was particularly attuned to seeing things through her children's eyes during her election campaign last year. Her first two years in the Senate came through an appointment by her dad, Frank Murkowski, a U.S. senator for 22 years who handed his seat to his daughter when he became governor. She lived with charges of nepotism during those years, and the attacks grew louder during her campaign.
During that time the family's television was off-limits for Nic and Matt, age 12, because attack ads targeted not only their mother but their grandfather. "I was very sensitive to what they went through,'' she said. "They might not say it publicly, but they love their mother and they want to protect her when people are saying mean things.''
Voters decided to return her to Washington for six more years, a tremendous affirmation for a woman whose worthiness was sometimes questioned, or dismissed, because of her family ties.
Soon, she'll have her family with her again. Murkowski and her husband, Verne Martell, decided not to uproot their sons from their Government Hill home unless Murkowski won a full term. Martell and the boys stayed in Anchorage during Murkowski's first two years in Washington, with Murkowski flying home on as many weekends as possible.
This is a woman who got her start in politics by joining the PTA, so naturally she's eager to have the family together again. She's conflicted about taking the boys out of Alaska -- "I know there is no better place that you can raise a family'' -- but she's committed to giving the boys a normal life.
"I want them to know that what goes on in their life is just as important as what I'm doing in Washington, D.C., which it is,'' she said.
Should she ever forget that, Nic and Matt no doubt will remind her, simply by being kids. You can't be the mother of two boys without getting sucked into their lives. Last Tuesday as Murkowski was about to hit the Glenn Highway for a visit with Valley constituents, one of her sons called from school.
"I forgot my baritone. Can you bring the baritone?''
The senator delivered the baritone.
Beth Bragg's opinion column appears Friday and Sunday. Her e-mail address is bbragg@adn.com.
