Former three-term Senator and one-term governor Frank Murkowski got an ignominious boot out the door by Alaska Republicans yesterday, losing his gubernatorial reelection bid in the GOP primary – the latest incumbent to bite the dust this election season. For the 73-year-old Murkowski it was the likely end to a political career that started in 1980, when the Fairbanks banker was first elected senator.

I remember that first election quite well, even though I was outside Alaska at the time. (I spent 15 years in Alaska, much of it as a journalist covering politics.)