U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski reflected on her political career and the role of party politics in governance during her visit to UC Berkeley Friday, Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
Murkowski, who represents Alaska, joined the Goldman School of Public Policy Dean David Wilson at Hertz Hall for a talk on public service and bipartisanship. The event was part of the Goldman School\u2019s \u201cDemocracy Book Club\u201d series, following the publication of Murkowski\u2019s 2025 memoir.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe audience was over-the-top fabulous,\u201d Murkowski told The Daily Californian. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful in Berkeley. First visit, and so this is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before an audience of students and visitors, she detailed her path into public service, beginning with the parent-teacher association at her sons\u2019 school in Anchorage and later detailing how she joined the Alaska Legislature when the state was suffering from budget deficits.<\/p>\n
Murkowski recounted her support for reinstating income tax to address the shortfall. For her, losing office was a risk she was willing to take.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like everyone is afraid of a political shadow \u2014 that if I do something, if I say something, I\u2019m not going to be elected,\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cWe\u2019re so focused on staying in power, staying elected, we forget why we wanted to use this position \u2026 Why are the people in Alaska sending me here in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n
Although a registered Republican, Murkowski is commonly known as a centrist working to bridge the Senate\u2019s gap in bipartisanship.<\/p>\n
During the talk, she described party control over congressional issues as \u201cone of the most damaging things that (is) happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are unable to work constructively, to work on a bipartisan basis, in a way that I think most people assume is happening,\u201d Murkowski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think definitely there\u2019s some disagreements most Berkeley students could have with Senator Lisa Murkowski \u2026 especially when it comes to economic policies, tax policies, labor policies,\u201d said UC Berkeley student Brandon Maskey.<\/p>\n
Maskey praised Murkowski\u2019s ability to \u201chold out as one of the many swing votes\u201d in Congress and \u201cstake out different priorities,\u201d referencing her deciding vote to pass President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 after winning concessions for Alaska.<\/p>\n
Wilson said the Goldman school welcomes perspectives from across the political spectrum, despite Berkeley\u2019s left-leaning reputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may see Berkeley as historically progressive, liberal or Democratic, but we are not exclusively progressive, liberal or Democrat,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe are focused on solutions to public problems, no matter where they come from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campus student Zebi Juraeva, an international student from Uzbekistan, connected Murkowski\u2019s remarks to her own reasons for studying politics in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said that it\u2019s very important to realize why you\u2019re there in the first place. You\u2019re there to represent your people,\u201d Jeruva said. \u201cI think that was the biggest takeaway for me because it really resonates with me and why I\u2019m here at Berkeley \u2026 to learn more and bring it back to my people, to my country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski reflected on her political career and the role of party politics in governance during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4162,187685,152249,187686,1752,187683,536,8034,187684,26576,143,145,144,46452,18764,23221,149,435,187682,182477,187687],"class_list":["post-478229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alaska","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-anchorage","tag-brandon-maskey","tag-congress","tag-dean-david-wilson","tag-donald-trump","tag-goldman-school-of-public-policy","tag-hertz-hall-friday","tag-hr-1","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-one-big-beautiful-bill-act","tag-senate","tag-the-daily-californian","tag-uc-berkeley","tag-united-states","tag-us-senator-lisa-murkowski","tag-uzbekistan","tag-zebi-juraeva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}