Lisa Murkowski Quotes

What is the purpose of public service? It's to solve problems for the people you represent and certainly in the United States Senate, thinking about your state and thinking about your country as well.

If 'extreme' means that I am unwilling to go to Washington, D.C., and do what President Obama tells me, then so be it. But I am certainly not going to Washington, D.C. to represent the interests of D.C. I'm going there to represent Colorado values.

Elections ought to be equal. Elections are equal, when a given number of citizens, in one part of the State, choose as many representatives, as are chosen by the same number of citizens, in any other part of the state.

The job of a diplomat is to be the eyes and the ears of the country he or she is representing.

I love representing Minnesota in the Senate.

I want to fight hard for the values and priorities of my district.

My staff in Washington and in the state will be dedicated to constituent services and the best representation for our state.

It's our duty in Congress to bring the voices of our communities to Washington.

The Knesset members - Jews and Arabs - don't represent the state of Israel. The government is the one that represents the state of Israel officially.

Spend a while listening to people in your district to make sure you understand how they are served well in government and how they could be served better.

My priorities in Congress are shaped by the needs and concerns of our community, and I value the opportunity to hear directly from my constituents about the issues that matter most to them.

I love my district, the 37th Legislative District in Washington State, where I have lived for more than 20 years.

Many agricultural counties are far more important in the life of the State than their population bears to the entire population of the State. It is for this reason that I have never been in favor of restricting their representation in our State Senate to a strictly population basis. It is the same reason that the founding fathers of our country gave balanced representation to the States of the Union, equal representation in one House and proportionate representation based upon population in the other.

The electors see their representative not only as a legislator for the state but also as the natural protector of local interests in the legislature; indeed, they almost seem to think that he has a power of attorney to represent each constituent, and they trust him to be as eager in their private interests as in those of the country.

True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent.

The elections are the greatest symbol of participation and political reform.

India is a democratic country & anyone can become a PM.

I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent the people there, so I certainly wouldn't imitate it.

There are a lot of idiots in this country, and they deserve representation as much as the next man.

Democracy is messy. It is messy whether you've been doing it since 1789 or whether you're going to do it for the first time in 2005. The trouble with Democracy is, you hold elections. The trouble with dictatorships is...you don't.

In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to believe in that principle or promises to achieve that state. We don't want a man, we want a condition of peace and plenty-- or, it may be, war and want-- but we must vote for a man.

This is exactly why the Electoral College is set up the way it is, so that one state would not elect the president.

Did you ever get to wondering if taxation without representation might have been cheaper?

Representative democracy frequently manifests a disconnect between parliamentarians and the people, so that parliamentarians have agendas that do not correspond with the wishes of the electorate. This has led in many countries to apathy, cynicism and large-scale absenteeism in elections. What is needed is not only parliaments, but parliamentarians who genuinely represent the wishes of the electorate.

Take it from me: Elections matter.