ANCHORAGE, Alaska At 74, Carroll Knutson has seen Alaska go through a lot of changes. She lived here before it was even a state. She remembers when most Alaskans were Democrats. She remembers when the oil industry came in and with it, lots of money and turned the Republican Party, her party, into really crazy right-wing nuts.

But if theres been one constant, its that people here pride themselves on being fiercely independent. And for Knutson, who lives on a homestead near the tiny town of Soldotna, theres one Alaskan in particular whos been embodying that spirit lately: Lisa Murkowski.

Out of 100 members in the Senate, shes the only one thats really wearing the balls right now, said Knutson, in between bites of salmon at a 70-year-olds birthday party in Anchorage that HuffPost crashed. I dont know if you can put that in your story.

Murkowski caught everyones attention last month when she helped kill her partys effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She was one of three Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona were the others who voted with Democrats to sink a bill that would have gutted President Barack Obama s signature health care law.

Most of the buzz about that vote centered on McCain, who returned to the Senate after a brain cancer diagnosis to cast a dramatic, last-minute vote against the bill. But it was Murkowski who stuck her neck out more than anyone.