Politics

Moving day for Murkowski: She scored Ted Stevens' old D.C. office

WASHINGTON — The president isn't the only one moving into a new office this week: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski boxed up her things and moved Tuesday to the office long held by former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Murkowski's Senate office and her more than two dozen staffers didn't go far — just down two floors in the Hart Senate Office Building. The office — larger, window-filled and with views of nearby Union Station — was most recently used (and vacated) by retired Nevada Sen. Harry Reid.

But it was the connection to Stevens that prompted Murkowski to make the move from an office she's occupied for more than a decade, she said Tuesday.

"Every year I look, I just go window shopping," when elections shuffle the office options, Murkowski said. "And I never found the office that was right." Two years ago a similar office, previously held by Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, opened up, but "I was outvoted by my staff," over the hassle of moving, Murkowski said.

But she didn't even have to tour the space to know she wanted Stevens' old spot, Murkowski said.

"I've got really good memories of being in that corner office … he had his surfboard in one corner, and his totem pole. There was just a lot of wisdom that emanated and a lot of passion that came from that office," Murkowski said.

Murkowski interned for Stevens, but his office was in a different building at the time — 1975. That was the same year that construction began on the Hart building. Senators began moving to the new offices in 1982.

Erica Martinson

Erica Martinson is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News based in Washington, D.C.

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