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Republican Dan Sullivan claimed victory Wednesday in a tight race for the U.S. Senate in Alaska, a week after elections gave Republicans control of the Senate and strengthened their grip on the House of Representatives.

Sullivan, a 49-year-old former state attorney general and natural resources commissioner, was leading his Democrat opponent, Senator Mark Begich, by 7,911 votes Tuesday night, before announcing victory early Wednesday morning.

"From Day One we told our supporters that we would run a campaign that Alaskans could be proud of and that's what we did," Sullivan said.

Begich could not be immediately reached for comment.

Alaska election officials tallied thousands of ballots Tuesday cast by absentee and early voters, as well as people who voted at the wrong polling places. More votes will be counted in coming days, and officials said they hoped to certify the results by Nov. 28.

Begich campaign spokesman Max Croes said Tuesday that "Every Alaskan deserves to have their vote counted and their voice heard in this election."

Begich, a former Anchorage mayor, had been slipping in polls since mid-summer. His campaign touted his deep Alaska roots, where he was born and raised, while portraying Sullivan, who was born in Ohio, as an outsider.

Begich was narrowly elected in 2008 a few weeks after a jury convicted former Republican Senator Ted Stevens on federal corruption charges, a conviction that was later set aside by a federal judge who cited prosecutorial misconduct.

Reuters

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Republican claims victory in Senate race in Alaska

A group of House and Senate Republicans propose using U.S. spending legislation to block President Barack Obama from easing immigration policies through an executive order.

Obama has said he will use executive orders to revise immigration policy by the end of the year.

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, in line to become Budget Committee chairman, said he wants a short-term bill to finance the government when current funding expires Dec. 11. Then once Republicans take full control of Congress in January, they could try to use the next spending bill to bar the government from carrying out the presidents order.

Representative Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican, is gathering signatures among House members for a similar proposal barring federal funds for work permits and residency cards under a presidential executive order. His office said more than 50 lawmakers have signed his letter.

Sessions and Salmon are seeking support from other Republicans. Some including Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama and Susan Collins of Maine said they prefer a long-term spending measure.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers said its premature to talk about adding immigration language to spending legislation.

We are making good progress on the bill, said Rogers, a Kentucky Republican.

Republicans won the Senate majority in the Nov. 4 election. The next day, Obama said he wouldnt back off from plans to issue an executive order on immigration.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is poised to be majority leader starting in January, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio have said unilateral action by Obama would poison relations and make compromise on immigration policy impossible.

A drive to use spending bills to thwart presidential orders on immigration may prevent Boehner and McConnell from resolving government funding so they can focus on other issues in 2015. Republican leaders say they want to vote on items that could gain bipartisan support, including trade promotion authority and repeal of a medical device tax that helps fund Obamacare.

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Republican Senator Seeks to Block Obama on Immigration

A Republican lawmaker called the Obama administrations response to the Ebola outbreak confused and contradictory as the Senate considered $6.2 billion in emergency cash to combat the spread of the deadly virus.

Americans have been frustrated by the lack of clarity and consistency, Republican Senator Richard Shelby told officials led by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. Given the size of the request, the slow progress in detailing plans for how the money will be spent and some of the missteps made so far, I think it deserves our careful oversight and scrutiny.

While targeting their criticisms at the administration, no Republicans at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing today said they would block the administrations request. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the panels Democratic chairwoman, said she supports providing cash on an emergency basis, which avoids cuts to other programs. Mikulski said she hoped to have a bill with the Ebola money passed before the end of the year.

Shelby faulted the administration for what he called contradictions in the policy for people exposed to Ebola. President Barack Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is leading the U.S. response, oppose quarantines for health workers who treated Ebola patients, while soldiers returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be quarantined, the Alabama lawmaker said.

A major reason the American public is concerned is because CDC seemed to be reacting to events instead of acting in advance, Maine Republican Susan Collins said. Its not surprising that the American public is concerned about whether the response from Washington is correct.

Illinois Republican Mark Kirk said the U.S. should cancel visas from those three nations, and criticized the administration for not doing so.

Other Senate Republicans offered praise for the response.

I want to commend all of you for your work, Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran said. It is an enormous enormous responsibility.

Senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican, said: There has been some positive news here, despite some early fumbles and bumbles.

More than 14,000 people have been infected with Ebola, mostly in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea this year, and more than 5,100 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

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Republican Faults Ebola Response, Vow Funding Scrutiny

Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, center, speaks during a campaign rally in Anchorage, Nov. 4. Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as assistant secretary of state in former President George W. Bushs administration, led by about 8,100 votes on Nov. 4. Close

Republicans extended their control of the U.S. Senate as Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Begich in Alaska, a race that was too close to call on election night.

Sullivan, 49, a former Alaska attorney general and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as assistant secretary of state in former President George W. Bushs administration, led by about 8,100 votes on Nov. 4. Under Alaska law, elections workers had to wait a week before counting the 20,000 absentee ballots.

The Associated Press called the vote late yesterday.

The race was once seen as crucial to the Republicans regaining control of the Senate for the first time since 2006. In the end, the party won enough races on election day to achieve its goal. Louisiana holds a run-off next month.

Sullivan said in a posting on Twitter and Facebook that hes deeply humbled and honored to have been chosen to represent Alaska in the Senate. There was no reaction from Begich, 52, who was seeking a second term.

Begich won his seat in 2008, defeating 40-year incumbent Republican Ted Stevens by less than 5,000 votes. He was the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate since Mike Gravel lost a re-election bid in 1980.

The state, home to 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is traditionally Republican. Mitt Romney won Alaska in the 2012 presidential election with 55 percent of the vote, and John McCain and Palin won it in 2008 with 59 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net Alan Crawford, Kevin Costelloe

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Republican Sullivan Unseats Democratic Senator Begich in Alaska

Republican Dan Sullivan has won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich, officials said.

Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on election night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday, the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead.

The Alaska seat was initially considered key to Republicans' hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate, but that was accomplished election night with GOP victories in other states.

Sullivan, a first-time candidate, ran a confident campaign, ignoring the debate schedule Begich released during the primary and setting his own agenda. He also attracted some star power to the state, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party favorite, and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney rallying support for Sullivan in the waning days of the hotly contested race.

Sullivan pledged to fight federal overreach, talked about the need for an energy renaissance in the U.S. and, at seemingly every opportunity, sought to tie Begich to President Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who are unpopular in Alaska.

Begich complained that Sullivan offered little in the way of proposals for what he would do as senator. Begich also tried to paint sharp contrasts between himself and Sullivan in areas such as women's health, education and Alaska issues.

Begich, for example, was born and raised in Alaska. He cast Sullivan, who grew up in Ohio, as an outsider, and many of the early attacks by pro-Begich groups keyed in to that theme. That perception of Sullivan made for an at-times uncomfortable debate on fisheries issues, in which questioners grilled Sullivan about his knowledge of one of Alaska's most important industries.

On several occasions, Sullivan's wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, an Alaska native and frequent companion on the campaign trail, appeared in ads defending her husband's ties to the state and his positions on women's issues.

Sullivan has roots in Alaska dating to the 1990s but was gone for nearly seven years for military service and work in Washington that included working as an assistant secretary of State. He returned to Alaska in 2009, when he was appointed attorney general by then-Gov. Sarah Palin.

He most recently served as Alaska's natural resources commissioner, a post he left in September 2013, to make his first run for public office.

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Republican Dan Sullivan wins Senate race in Alaska