Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted to confirm 160 judges nominated by President Biden over the past four years. Sen. Dan Sullivan voted for two. There were six judges approved on so-called “voice vote,” meaning no individual tally was made. This American Constitutional Society chart records all senators as supporting those six.

The political chasm between Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan has been best illustrated over the last four years by their conflicting approach to the confirmation of federal judges for lifetime appointments.

Murkowski voted to confirm 160 district and circuit judges appointed by Biden, while Sullivan voted for 2. He found as many as 233 nominees objectionable.

(There were six judges approved on a voice vote, which means an individual tally of all senators did not take place, just a sounding of yeas and nays. In its listing of judicial votes, the American Constitutional Society shows all senators backing those six judges, which makes it appear the Sullivan supported 8 nominees, when it is not clear he supported any of them.)

The only two judges Sullivan found acceptable on roll call votes were Ann Marie McIff Allen in Utah and Sharad Desai of Arizona.

Allen was endorsed by Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney. Her nomination was approved on a 100-O vote last April, the first judge appointed by Biden to receive a unanimous vote.

Desai was confimed on a 82-12 vote. His sister, Roopali, is on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Sullivan voted against confirming her in 2022, while Murkowski voted for her.

Sullivan voted against 217 Biden nominees, while Murkowski opposed 58. Both senators voted for nearly every Trump nominee the last time he was president.

The Senate confirmed 235 Biden nominees to the federal courts, one more than President Trump did during his first term.

Sullivan refused to be interviewed by Alaska Public Media in November on his opposition to Biden’s picks, but his spokeswoman said “he meets with as many nominees as possible and gives them Alaska-relevant Supreme Court decisions in advance.”

"The senator determines his vote after his own meeting with them and how they have answered his questions about Alaska’s unique jurisprudence and their judicial philosophy," Amanda Coyne told Alaska Public Media.

Only two had a Sullivan-approved philosophy.

Meanwhile, a philosophical split between Murkowski and Sullivan has kept a judgeship in Alaska vacant for the past three years.

Two of the three federal judgeships in Alaska are vacant, putting a heavy load on Judge Sharon Gleason.

A second Alaska judgeship has been vacant since Josh Kindred resigned in disgrace on July 8.

In 2033, the Alaska Bar Association wrote about the long delay in filling the vacancy created when Judge Timothy Burgess retired at the end of 2021. Murkowski asked the bar association to submit a list of qualified candidates and recommendations.

The top four candidates in the bar poll were Anchorage Superior Court Judge Yvonne Lamoureux, U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker, Stoel Rives partner Tina Grovier, and Alaska Solicitor General Tamara DeLucia.

The fallout from the Kindred situation will likely keep Tucker from advancing.

Murkowski submitted names of potential nominees to the White House in 2023, but Sullivan created his own “council of Alaskans” to give him nominees that share Sullivan’s opinions.

Sullivan appointed former Gov. Sean Parnell to lead his council. The Sullivan committee met in secret, did not seek public comment and never released the results of its meetings.

Murkowski saw no need for the Sullivan committee and said more than a year ago it would only delay the filling of the court position. She was right.

Asked last summer where things stood on the judge front with Sullivan, Murkowski told Bloomberg, “You’re going to have to ask him.”

“I have done the interviews of all the candidates, I have made my selection. I have made clear to the White House where my selection is. And I’d like to get that resolved,” Murkowski told Bloomberg News in early July.

Sullivan submitted one name last January from his secret selection committee and a second in June, according to what a Sullivan spokesman told the Anchorage Daily News. I take that to mean that Sullivan had advance warning of the scandal that was to force Kindred out.

The Sullivan plan was to keep stalling, hoping that Trump would be elected, and that he could get Murkowski to sign off on a right-wing candidate in 2025. It remains to be seen what Murkowski will do.

Federal judges are appointed by the president, but there is a tradition of giving home-state senators the ability to block the confirmation of candidates they oppose.

On Sullivan’s list of questions for potential judges, he asked that candidates name their favorite judge and their favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision.

These vacancies are likely to be filled under Trump, but the senators should end their secrecy. They should reveal the names of the preferred candidates that will go to Trump, who will oppose anything that has Murkowski’s name on it.

The federal secrecy favored by the senators is in stark contrast to the transparency of the process in selecting state judges. The Alaska Judicial Council uses an approach that Murkowski and Sullivan should adopt.

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Sullivan opposed every Biden nominee for federal judgeships except two