Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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Tuesday marked the latest and possibly the oddest proof yet of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s unique talent for upsetting his fellow Republicans.
As first reported by the Washington Post, the Alaskan wing of the Republican Party has voted to censure McConnell for having supported longtime Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who fell out of favor with Republicans when she voted to convict former President Donald Trump during the second of his impeachment hearings.
The party’s central committee voted 49-8 to officially criticize McConnell for having operated, the committee said, “in direct contradiction” to the Republican Party. Last year, the Alaska GOP censured Murkowski for her anti-Trump impeachment vote.
McConnell is accused of having directed the Senate Leadership Fund, a super political action committee (PAC), to spend some $5 million on political ads that attacked Kelly Tshibaka, a Republican who is among three challengers seeking to unseat Murkowski on Nov. 8 and the candidate who has been endorsed by the Alaska GOP.
“[The] Alaska Republican Party State Central Committee condemns the divisive and misleading statements from the Senate Leadership Fund and the inappropriate use of millions of dollars from the Senate Leadership Fund to oppose our endorsed candidate, Kelly Tshibaka,” the resolution, which was posted on the Alaska GOP Facebook account, reads
Even among censures — which are slaps on the wrist when most damaging — this move was primarily ceremonial. McConnell is not a member of the Alaska GOP and is not answerable to Alaska voters. The resolution, however, contains an allegation that McConnell also violated tenets of Kentucky GOP policy.
“Senator McConnell’s inappropriate endorsement of censured Senator Murkowski does not support the Alaska Republican Party platform and violates the rules of the Republican Party of Kentucky, ‘Republican Integrity,’” the resolution reads.
The authors of the resolution cite Republican Party of Kentucky bylaw 12.05, which contains language that prohibits anyone who seeks to hold an office within the state party from endorsing the opponent of a Republican candidate, opposing the Republican nominee for president, or engaging in “excessively immoral or illegal behavior unbecoming of a representative of the Republican Party.”
While an official grievance process could produce any number of results, it is likely McConnell is safe. He is operating in the gray area of supporting one Republican over another.
McConnell is also not seeking an officership within the Republican Party of Kentucky and, even if he were, there is no indication that Kentuckians would rally to punish him.
However, to call the censure meaningless would be inaccurate. A vote in opposition to McConnell is evidence of a shift by the Republicans of Alaska, concurrently a critique of Murkowski’s leadership and a gesture of support toward Trump.
Tshibaka has promised to support stalwart Republican Senator McConnell if she is elected.