“ she 's got the most valuable asset anybody can have in politics , and i doubt many alaskans share the normative cultural anxiety that recurs in her public statements .
but on the senate side , only five of her 12 choices were successful – with the most embarrassing stumble potentially being her home - state pick of joe miller , who is knotted with palin foe lisa murkowski in a tight battle that could end in a weeks - long recount .
michael grimm , who is pals with and was heavily promoted by sarah palin .
sarah palin endorsed 60 candidates this year , but when dust settled wednesday morning , the biggest beneficiary of the “ sarah palin effect ” was not necessarily the candidates themselves , but the palin brand .
“ i think the process has done enough , ” said ed rollins , republican primary , the murkowski brand does have a lot of baggage in alaska and , for pete 's sake , ms murkowski had to run as a write - in .
that her candidate lost is a measure of mrs palin 's own reduced standing in alaska .
gop strategists and observers , however , emphasize that palin did n’t necessarily choose whom to support based on electability – rather , she backed candidates who aligned with her philosophically .
the outcome wo n't be officially decided until later this month — officials have to go through all the ballots , smoothing out the grizzly - bear tooth - marks and brushing off stray eagle feathers — but as of this morning , it looks like lisa murkowski has accomplished the unlikely feat of being elected as a write - in candidate .
if there were any race in which mrs palin 's influence should have tipped the scales , it would have been this one .