As U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski arrived back in Anchorage on Wednesday for her presumed victory declaration at 6 p.m., the Alaska Republican Party was already declaring her the winner in Alaska's U.S. Senate race. "At this point we are comfortable calling this race," Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich said in a press release. "Lisa has won. We congratulate Lisa on her victory." The Murkowski campaign will be making an "exciting announcement" at the Laborers Hall in Anchorage's Mountain View neighborhood at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The announcement is widely believed to be a declaration of victory. Joe Miller currently trails Murkowski by more than 10,000 votes. "We call on Joe Miller to respect the will of the voters and to end his campaign in a dignified manner," Ruedrich said in his statement. "We have every expectation that Joe will do the right thing."
But Miller wasn't ready to concede yet. In a statement Wednesday, Miller said, "Less than 1 percent of the vote now separates my and Lisa Murkowski's total. If there is a recount and a consistent standard is applied to all the ballots, who knows what the difference would be." He also told Fox News that his campaign may ask the Alaska Division of Elections for a hand count of ballots. "We'll wait and see when these numbers finally sort out here at the end of the week," he said. "The voters in the state of Alaska expect there to be integrity in the process; we are going to pursue that." But in a phone interview Wednesday, Ruedrich said the vote-counting process is "very precise" and that recounts rarely end up with a different result.
Ruedrich's comments come as the state GOP Party faces having to heal wounds resulting from two Republican candidates running against one another in a general election. During the Murkowski-Miller battle, Ruedrich found himself caught in the middle at times, having supported Murkowski over the years. Murkowski lost to Miller in the GOP primary, and Ruedrich stayed loyal to his party, supporting Miller as Murkowski launched a write-in campaign to hold on to her Senate seat. On top of that, Ruedrich hadn't always gotten along with Miller, who just two years ago was trying to oust the party chairman from the state GOP. (Read Joe Miller's paranoid attempt to overthrow the Alaska Republican Party.)