AP Declares Lisa Murkowski Winner in Alaska

Lisa Murkowski today became the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign, emerging victorious over her Tea Party rival following a painstaking, week-long count of hand-written votes. The victory completes a remarkable comeback for the Republican after her humiliating loss in the GOP primary to Joe Miller. It wasn't immediately clear whether Miller would proceed with a legal challenge.

Her victory became clear when Alaska election officials confirmed they had only about 700 votes left to count, putting Murkowski in safe territory to win re-election. She is flying from Washington to Alaska to make an "exciting announcement" to supporters, proclaiming in an e-mail that the campaign "made history." Murkowski has a lead of about 10,000 votes, a total that includes 8,153 ballots in which Miller observers challenged over things like misspellings, extra words, or legibility issues. (More Lisa Murkowski stories.)