Jumping in a bit late since I've been out of town...
It was noted on Monday that the independent investigator cleared Palin of any wrongdoing [as opposed to the mixed findings of the very partisan legislative investigation].
Coming from the state that elected the dead guy 8 years ago, I would imagine that it wasn't so much that he was reelected as whatever Republican will replace him [without knowing who that would be] was better than the Democratic contender. Is it mandatory that his replacement be Republican? No, of course not, but the governor will appoint someone for the next two years [at which point someone will be elected to fill out the remaining 4 years for the term]. Since Palin is governor, there are two likely options should he end up out of office:
a. She appoints a Republican.
b. She resigns and the Lt. Governor becomes Governor and appoints her Senator. This has happened before and will happen again and nothing about her character or whatever should be read into it - it's not all that uncommon for a governor with appointment power to at least consider it.
Carol
