Federal Supervision of State Election

Anchorage, Alaska. November 9, 2010 — The Joe Miller for US Senate Campaign has reviewed the Alaska Federation of Natives (“AFN”) request for federal observers during the vote count. Joe Miller agrees that the Department of Justice should have observers to prevent an unconstitutional usurpation of the Elections Clause and the public right to due process. “We have requested from the outset a fair and lawful electoral process,” said Joe Miller. “If the State needs to be supervised by the federal government because of violations of Federal Election Law, as AFN suggests, then it is unfortunate but apparently necessary,” said Miller.

The Miller Campaign disagrees, however, with the implicit and explicit assumptions fostered by the AFN that rural Alaskans, and Alaska Natives in particular, don’t know how to spell. Said Miller, “I think rural Alaskans deserve a lot more credit than the AFN is willing to give.”

In addition, Harold Rudolph, an Alaskan Native and military veteran stated “I find the AFN presumption about Alaska Natives to be condescending, paternalistic and just plain offensive. This group does not speak for me and thousands of Alaska Natives like me.” Fellow Native Phil Kugzruk added, “All Joe wants to do is make sure the ballots are counted according to the laws on the books. The AFN board subverted due process among the Native Alaska population a few weeks ago when the other two candidates, Miller and McAdams, were not given equal time at their annual convention. I believe that AFN is playing politics once again, as it did during the campaign, and acting like it speaks for all of Alaska’s natives. To imply that ‘their’ constituency does not know how to spell, and given that thousands of Murkowski wristbands detailing AFN’s chosen candidate were made available, all this amounts to a complete disrespect for me and my fellow Alaskans. AFN will do whatever it takes to get ‘their’ candidate elected!”