FILE - In this June 11, 2013 file photo, B. Todd Jones of Minnesota, President Barack Obama's nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate is ready for a showdown on President Barack Obama?s pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives in a battle that carries echoes of this year?s gun control fight. Democrats were forcing a vote Wednesday on ending Republican stalling tactics against B. Todd Jones? nomination to head the agency, which enforces federal firearms laws. They are hoping for a different outcome this time for Obama and his allies, who were defeated in April when the Senate refused to expand background check requirements for gun buyers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - In this June 11, 2013 file photo, B. Todd Jones of Minnesota, President Barack Obama's nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate is ready for a showdown on President Barack Obama?s pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives in a battle that carries echoes of this year?s gun control fight. Democrats were forcing a vote Wednesday on ending Republican stalling tactics against B. Todd Jones? nomination to head the agency, which enforces federal firearms laws. They are hoping for a different outcome this time for Obama and his allies, who were defeated in April when the Senate refused to expand background check requirements for gun buyers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. nominee Samantha Power testifies at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, Wednesday, July 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Unexpectedly short on a crucial showdown vote, Democrats struggled Wednesday to secure confirmation for a new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Tobacco but succeeded in dramatic fashion in getting one Republican senator to switch her vote and help them.
Democrats had seemed about to lose an effort to clear President Barack Obama's nominee to head the agency, B. Todd Jones, for a vote on final passage.
But after Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted to support GOP delaying tactics aimed at derailing the nomination, she was swarmed by Democratic senators urging her to switch her vote.
In a prolonged spectacle played out largely in full view on the Senate floor, the scrum around Murkowski was quickly enlarged when Republican senators joined the group, trying to persuade her not to switch.
More than a dozen lawmakers spent nearly an hour imploring Murkowski, first on the Senate floor and then in a private cloakroom. After about 20 minutes of talks in the cloakroom, Murkowski emerged and switched her vote.
That still left Democrats one short of the 60 votes needed to end filibusters.
Democrats were waiting for one of their members, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, to return to the Capitol and cast the decisive vote for Jones.
Heitkamp was on her way back to Washington from North Dakota, a Heitkamp aide said.
Another aide said Heitkamp was expected back around 6 p.m.
While most Senate roll calls take about 20 minutes, the Jones vote already had lasted more than two hours by late afternoon.
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