Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) added her name to a growing list of legislators who are supporting a proposal for members of Congress to avoid the traditionally divided seating by party affiliation during President Obama's State of the Union address later this month.

Murkowski announced on Friday that she is co-leading a bipartisan effort with Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) to encourage lawmakers to sit together, regardless of party, during Obama's speech on Jan. 25.

"The choreographed standing and clapping of one side of the room - while the other side sits - is unbecoming of a serious institution," Murkowski and Udall wrote in an open letter to their colleagues. "And the message that it sends is that even on a night when the President is addressing the entire nation, we in Congress cannot sit as one, but must be divided as two."

Murkowski spokesman Michael Brumas said that Udall first approached the Alaska senator about joining him in the effort.

Murkowski won reelection as a write-in candidate and did not enjoy the official support of the national Republican Party in her general election battle against Fairbanks attorney Joe Miller, who defeated her in the Republican primary. Murkowski has indicated that her write-in victory has freed her to take a more independent line in the Senate, although she remains a member of the Republican caucus.

But Brumas said that Murkowski's newfound political independence was not the reason why she decided to get behind the State of the Union seating effort, which has already received the public backing of at least six of her Senate colleagues.

"I think it's more that the State of the Union has perhaps gotten a little out of hand with the sharp partisanship in recent years, and she sees this as a way to dial that back," Brumas said.

The seating plan was initially put forward by the Washington-based think tank Third Way in the wake of the mass murder and attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tucson, Arizona.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy came out in support of the plan on Friday and told reporters that he planned to sit next to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) during Obama's speech.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Thursday that the plan should be given "serious consideration." House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have not yet spoken publicly about the proposal.

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