In their first time sharing a debate stage, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka presented their visions for representing Alaska as Republicans. And the differences were just as pronounced in style as they were in policy.
Murkowski highlighted her 20-year tenure as a moderate dedicated to advancing resource development while maximizing federal funding for Alaska. For Tshibaka, it was a vision of resisting the Biden administration’s energy policies and federal largesse, epitomized by the infrastructure bill that Murkowski helped author.
Democratic candidate Pat Chesbro, the third and often odd candidate out in a race largely seen as a referendum on former President Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, emphasized the risks of climate change and the need to wean the world off fossil fuels.
The 90-minute Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference debate, the first of several planned Senate candidate forums, was held in front of oil and gas industry heavyweights, state legislators and lobbyists at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. It came after primary election results showed Murkowski leading the race with 45% of the vote, followed by Tshibaka with 39%. Chesbro was in third with 7% and Buzz Kelley, a virtually unknown Republican, is set to round out the top four on the general election ballot with 2%. Event organizers said that Kelley didn’t respond to an invitation to participate.
There was little to distinguish Murkowski and Tshibaka in terms of resource development goals. Both want to reform and speed up the federal permitting process for oil and gas projects, and both want to secure long-anticipated projects like the pending Willow project and to build the King Cove road, which is tied up in federal court. But with differing views on bringing federal infrastructure dollars to the state and working across the aisle to deliver policy wins, the two spoke about starkly different visions.
Chesbro struck an entirely different tone, saying she supports oil and gas, but with caveats: She believed the industry should develop its unused federal oil and gas leases before necessarily acquiring new ones. She indicated past support for levying higher taxes on the industry, and she said that it should pivot to investing more in renewables.
“I think we could be a laboratory for renewable energy in Alaska,” she said. “And I don’t think we’ve taken enough opportunity to do that.”
But Chesbro’s positions were largely an afterthought compared to the battle of philosophies between the two Republicans on stage.
Tshibaka was repeatedly scornful of Murkowski for not doing enough to push back against “Team Biden” and for confirming the Democratic president’s “radical nominees” who have “declared war on our energy industry.” She was particularly critical of Murkowski’s vote to confirm Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, but she also extended that criticism to U.S. Rep. Don Young, who supported Haaland’s nomination, and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who voted to confirm Haaland too.
“We should have gotten something else out of that deal,” Tshibaka said. “And our delegation could have done something better.”
Murkowski, who highlighted her record and ignored Tshibaka’s barbs, declined to say if she regretted voting for Haaland. But she noted that hers wasn’t the tie-breaking vote to advance Haaland from a legislative committee, as Tshibaka has previously alleged,…
Read More: Murkowski, Tshibaka meet in first U.S. Senate debate