On August 31, when Sen. Lisa Murkowski, “trailing in her bid for renomination in the Alaska GOP primary count (concluded) there were not enough unattributed votes out there to propel her to victory”, she graciously conceded defeat to her Tea-Party-supported challenger, Joe Miller.

Like Miller, she had already previously pledged that, if she lost the election, she would respect the will of the voters:

Miller said Sunday he expects Murkowski will stick to her promise, made at a mid-August chamber of commerce forum on the Kenai Peninsula, to follow the will of Republican primary voters and bow out following the loss.

“We both said that. We expect she’d keep her word, we think she will,” Miller told the News-Miner by phone.

So this announcement by the Alaska Libertarian Party on August 30 seemed to be not just premature, but also redundant:

The Alaska Libertarian Party said today that it would not name Sen. Lisa Murkowski their Senate nominee if she loses her Republican primary bid to Tea Party-backed challenger Joe Miller, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Last week’s primary is still too close to call; Miller currently leads by nearly 1,700 votes, but more than 23,000 ballots remain to be counted, according to the Associated Press.

The Libertarian Party’s decision leaves Murkowski with one less way to proceed with her re-election bid, if she were to lose the Republican primary. The Libertarian Party is the only third party in the Senate race, meaning Murkowski could still run as a write-in candidate but is now left with no chance at a third-party bid.

After all, “Neither Murkowski nor her campaign staffers ever approached the Libertarian Party about joining their ticket, the Daily News reports…”

But Murkowski has apparently decided not to go gentle into that good night after all:

Now, in an interview with the Associated Press, she “says she’s not a quitter and ‘still in this game.’” She’s been swamped with calls and e-mails from supporters, reports the AP‘s Becky Bohrer, “asking her not to leave the race. She says she’s been humbled, and is listening — and weighing her options.”

The second surprise is that the Alaska Libertarian Party nomination remains an open possibility after all:

Apparently one of the options is the Libertarian nomination. She met with David Haase, the Libertarian nominee, earlier today, but no resolution has been reached. The AP report quotes her as saying “she had an interesting discussion” with Haase “but made clear she’s not interested in changing her ‘political stripes.’”

Haase would have to withdraw by Sept. 15 for Murkowski, or anyone else, to replace him on the ballot.

The Alaska Libertarian Party chairman has confirmed that discussions are ongoing:

The state party’s leadership earlier voted to not take on Murkowski, but Alaska Libertarian Party Chairman Scott Kohlhaas told the Anchorage Daily News recently that discussions have occurred since then.

Stay tuned, I guess. The end-game approacheth.