The Civil War for the Soul of the Alaska Republican Party

Stung by election defeats and continual ground lost to encroaching socialism, the Republican Party in Alaska and elsewhere is going through its largest internal values inventory in a generation. In this process two disparate groups have come roaring to the surface revealing a wider chasm than ever. A civil war has erupted.

At the 2012 State Republican Convention the state delegates broke with party machinist tradition and elected Russ Millette as the chair of the Alaskan Republican Party and Debbie Brown as the vice-chair. The election represented a tremendous values shift toward the grass roots constitutional liberty wing of our party which Russ Millette represents.

The chagrined State Executive Committee (SEC) subsequently decided to undo the election results and purge the newly elected officers from office by filing spurious charges against them. On January 31st- Just two hours before he was scheduled to take office – Russ Millette was charged for failure to raise money for the Republican Party and removed as the chair elect. Debbie Brown then advanced to party chair. Now the same charge of failure to raise money has been leveled against her. Despite the fact the Chair Debbie Brown rescinded the April 8th SEC meeting, they plan to meet in Anchorage on April 8th at 5:30pm in order to purge her, retake the chairmanship, and protect their appointed positions.

I can’t tell you how disturbing this precedent is. When they nullified Russ Millette’s election to keep their leadership cabal in power indefinitely they didn’t just sin against our Republic. They committed THE sin against our Republic. The respect of succession of political power by popular vote is the very foundation our entire system of self-governance is built on.

Russ Millette is planning to vigorously appeal his removal from office at the next scheduled State Central Committee (SCC) meeting in Homer on May 25th. If chair Debbie Brown is purged prior to then, then the new chair can refuse to hear Millette’s appeal and the coup will be complete.

Millette is also raising legal funds from grass roots Republicans so he can file a fiduciary harm lawsuit against certain party members to force an audit of the ARP finances as required by party rules, and to get to the bottom of alleged financial mismanagement such as when APR funds were transferred out of the bank account in a scorched earth policy back in January. If you would like to support Russ’s legal campaign to force honesty and transparency in the ARP finances, you can donate electronically via his website and designate it for his legal fund. George Washington once said, “Truth will ultimately prevail where there are pains taken to bring it to light.”

The Republican Party is in a war for its very spirit. Will a small cabal of political machinists continue to run the party for personal interest while continuing to lose ground to the conquering socialists like the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek did before Mao Zedong? Or will the party be returned back to its grass roots supporters? Your action or inaction will be the deciding factor for the future of unborn millions. Grass roots Republicans have a once in a generation chance to let light shine out of the darkness. The Republican Party must once again wield the torch of freedom that guided the footsteps of our Founding Fathers.

Please vote, get involved in your local political districts, and give money to Russ Millettes’s legal fund to give transparency to party finances. Plato once said, “The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.” The eyes of the world are on America and the Republican Party because, “The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.”- Thomas Paine