Conservative Joe Miller Challenges Most Liberal GOP Senator up for Re-Election

The rematch for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska six years in the making is on.

Joe Miller, the 2010 Republican nominee for the position, announced on Tuesday that he will oppose incumbent Lisa Murkowski running as a Libertarian, though pledging to caucus with the Republicans if he prevails in November.

“Alaskans deserve a real choice,” Miller said in a release. “The choice between a Democrat, a Democrat-backed independent, and a Republican-In-Name-Only – who has been one of Barack Obama’s chief enablers – is no choice at all.”

The statement noted that while Murkowski billed herself as “the Conservative Voice for Alaska” during the Republican primary season (a slogan that has since been taken down from her website), the political branding does not match the record.

“Murkowski is the most liberal ‘Republican’ up for re-election having voted with Pres. Obama 72 percent of the time during the last session of Congress, second only to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine,” Miller related.

The candidate also cites an “F” grade on the Conservative Review’s scorecard of votes and a 34 percent lifetime voting record with Heritage Action. The average for Republican senators is currently 58 percent, with conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, earning 97 and 100 percent, respectively.

Miller shocked the political world in 2010 when he pulled off perhaps the greatest upset victory of the entire federal election primary season, defeating Murkowski.

Fairbanks Assemblyman Lance Roberts looks back at what Miller was able to accomplish with a sense of wonder. “It is amazing to me that he did it in a short time, and he had not had a political office before,” he said. “He did a yeoman’s job.”

The former federal magistrate judge and West Point graduate announced just four months before Election Day, with no statewide name recognition and just $100,000 in his campaign coffers, which he put up himself. Murkowski had over $3 million on hand.

Miller garnered the support during the primary of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and many other prominent conservatives.

After her loss in late August, Murkowski went back on her campaign pledge to support the Republican primary winner and announced a write-in bid to hold on to a seat her family has held since the early 1980s.

A raucous campaign followed, which included some missteps by the green Miller and his campaign staff.

Though the tea party favorite and his team appeared to regain their footing by late October, based on polling showing a tight race going into Election Day, Murkowski edged out Miller, 39 to 35 percent, with the Democrat candidate, Scott McAdams, taking 23 percent.

As reported by Western Journalism, there is a strong conservative base within the Last Frontier’s GOP, as evidenced in the presidential primary results earlier this spring. Cruz won the state in a upset, taking 36 percent of the vote, followed by Donald Trump with 33.5 percent, Rubio with 15 percent and Dr. Ben Carson with 11 percent. In other words, non-establishment Republicans accounted for at least 80 percent of the primary vote total in the state.

“People have been really grumbling about Murkowski,” since the 2010 race, said Bill Keller, who was co-chairman of Cruz’s campaign in Alaska.

In 2016, similar dynamics appear to be in play, with now four candidates vying for the seat including Miller, Murkowski, Democrat Ray Metcalfe and left-of-center independent Margaret Stock.

It is very likely the race will come down to Miller and Murkowski, once again. (For more from the author of “Conservative Joe Miller Challenges Most Liberal GOP Senator up for Re-Election” please click HERE)

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