The Alaska Republican Central Committee voted over the weekend to remove one of its members due to his decision to back newly-minted Libertarian U.S. senate candidate Joe Miller instead of the state’s moderate GOP incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, while other members chose to resign to support the insurgent candidacy.

As reported by Western Journalism, Miller was the 2010 GOP nominee who defeated Murkowski in perhaps the biggest upset in the 2010 federal election cycle, running as “Alaska’s True Conservative Choice.”

Then, as now, Murkowski had the most liberal voting record of any Republican up for re-election. During the last session of Congress, the senator voted with President Obama and the Democrats 72 percent of time, second only to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

As in 2010, incredulously Murkowski branded herself as a conservative (“The Conservative Voice For Alaska”) during this year’s Republican primary in which she faced no challenger with statewide name identification. She easily prevailed in an election with the lowest voter turnout in recent history.

The senator looked like she was on her way to an easy re-election in the red state until last week, when Miller accepted the Alaska Libertarian’s Party’s invitation to replace its candidate, who had chosen to end her bid.

Alaska GOP party chair Tuckerman Babcock knew Miller’s entry into the race was going to draw support from members of his party’s top leadership and called on any who wanted to back Miller to do the “honorable” thing and resign.

Dave Bronson, one of Anchorage’s district chairs, did not believe he should have to step down just because he wanted to support Miller — whose positions align with the state party’s pro-life, pro-family, pro-limited constitutional government platform — instead of getting behind a “Republican” senator whose votes do not.

Rather than resign, he put the issue up for vote at a central committee meeting last Saturday. Speaking before the body, he said “I am standing here before you because I am done with turning a blind eye to a Republican senator from Alaska who rejects our values and then expects our support every six years.”

Bronson, who serves as a board member of the Alaska Family Council, highlighted Murkowski’s claim to support traditional marriage during the 2010 election, then coming out not long afterwards in support of same-sex marriage. He also noted her vote to fund Planned Parenthood, even after the undercover videos revealed the organization was apparently guilty of selling aborted babies’ body parts.

He stated, based on Murkowski’s voting record and decision to run as an independent in 2010 against the Republican Party nominee, he does not doubt she would switch to being Democrat, if she calculated it would keep her in office.

“Disciplining me is the right thing to do,” Bronson conceded though wanting to keep his seat. “I openly supported that candidate for the US Senate who best reflected the principles of the Alaska Republican Party. It just happened to not be Lisa Murkowski.”

Reportedly, Bronson received hearty applause when he concluded his remarks from a significant portion of the audience with many rising to their feet to show their approval. However, the members of the Central Committee present voted 36 to 23 to remove him.”

Four other district chairs and one member of the Rules Committee, to date, chose to resign their positions to openly back Miller, while others reputedly plan to do so privately because they do not want to lose their seats.

Shannon Connelly of Palmer (about 40 miles north of Anchorage), who was vice president of the Mat-Su Valley Republican Women until this weekend and a district chair, is another who decided to step down. She told Alaska Public Radio that, in Miller, she has a candidate, “who is pro-life, which is a major thing for me,” adding, “I thought I can’t just sit back. I have to stand for what I believe in.”

The Alaska Right to Life endorsed Miller two days after he announced his candidacy.

In a release earlier this week, the group shot down the notion that Murkowski is “pro-life” as a campaign spokesman claimed and then was forced to walk back, noting Murkowsk received an 80 percent NARAL Pro-Choice America score in 2014, in contrast to most GOP senators (like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and even John McCain), who received a score of zero.

In an unprecedented move, the Alaska Republican Assembly (which has described itself as the Ronald Reagan wing of the GOP) endorsed Miller this week.

Like Connelly, Ron Johnson, a member of the assembly, chose to resign as a Mat-Su Valley district chair this past weekend to back Miller.

He told Western Journalism, “This allows me to work for a candidate that holds Republican values. I’m a Republican because of the party platform, not because of the party. Many of us are.”

Johnson explained one of the reasons he decided to run for district chair was in response to how the Republican party failed to get behind Miller’s candidacy in 2010 after he defeated Murkowski.

The senator waged a write-in campaign narrowly defeating Miller in a three-way race, 39 to 35 percent, with the Democrat garnering 23 percent of the vote. Between her and her father, a Murkowski has held the seat since 1981. This year’s contest pits four candidates against each other: Murkowski, Miller, a left-leaning independent, and a Democrat.

Amy Demboski, a district secretary in Anchorage, is supporting Miller. She said party Vice Chair Rick Whitbeck threatened to remove her until she pointed out the Alaska GOP rules specifically state that only those who hold district chair positions or above are prohibited from publicly supporting anyone other than the nominee.

“Like many Alaskans, I don’t do well with intimidation and threats,” she said, and the GOP leadership backed off.

Demboski, who is a radio talk show host in the Anchorage/Mat-Su Valley area and was the Republican nominee for mayor of the city last year, affirmed Johnson’s observation that the state party did not appear to back Miller in 2010. Further, it was her sense that then-chairman Randy Ruedrich and others in leadership actively worked against him behind the scenes, while supporting Murkowski.

Demboski could not help but note the irony of the GOP’s loyalty test for Murkowski in 2016 in light of 2010, and pointed out the senator’s co-chair in that race was current Democrat Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

“Nobody is talking about and the party is pretending it did not happen,” she said.

Miller enjoys the support of not only Demboski, who is Donald Trump’s co-chair in Alaska, but also Bill Keller of the Kenai Peninsula, who was Sen Ted Cruz’s co-chair (along with Demboski and others) during the Republican presidential primary. Cruz won the primary with 36 percent of the vote to Trump’s 33.5 percent.

Keller said people “have been really grumbling about Murkowski” since the 2010 race. Like other prominent GOP members in the Last Frontier backing Miller, he cites Murkowski’s liberal voting record as the main reason he will not support her.

Alaskans appear in for a spirited contest to see who will represent them in the U.S. senate in January. A district chair, who voted against Bronson’s removal, told Western Journalism that Miller’s entry in the race creates the rematch people have waited six years to see. (For more from the author of “Top Alaska GOP Officials Resign Rather Than Back Liberal Murkowski Over Libertarian Joe Miller” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Citizens for Joe Miller Press Release
September 13, 2016, Anchorage, Alaska

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has a long record of support for abortion “rights” and federal funding for Planned Parenthood, is apparently pushing the line that she is, and has been, a pro-life senator. Alaska Dispatch News reported on Monday that the Incumbent Senator’s spokesman said Murkowski “remains pro-life.”

“This is typical Murkowski, but a staggering assertion nonetheless,” said Joe Miller. “It’s a clear indication that the Murkowski campaign is in a panic over the loss of Republican support. But it also poignantly illustrates that Alaskans can’t trust anything she says. It’s all politics all the time. She has no principles.”

Early in her tenure in the US Senate, Murkowski voted for a Sense of the Senate Amendment that affirmed:

“It is the sense of the Senate that – (1) the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade was appropriate and secures an important constitutional right; and (2) such decision should not be overturned.”

Murkowski has consistently stood in opposition to Ronald Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy,” which bans taxpayer dollars from flowing to foreign non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortion.

The Senator has also been a strong advocate for federal funding of the nation’s leading abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

But that’s not all, she has even defended Roe v. Wade on the Alaskan airwaves and accused Republicans of a “War on Women.”

During the last session of Congress, Murkowski received an 80 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, while her Republican colleagues like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., earned a 0 percent.

There’s a reason Alaska Right to Life declined to endorse Murkowski during her 2004 run against Tony Knowles, and has subsequently backed Joe Miller.

But now that she’s in a tough re-election fight she’s throwing her liberal allies under the bus, and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of pro-life Republicans. It’s not going to work.

Miller concluded, “Lisa Murkowski is a creature of Washington who governs one way and talks another. I think Alaskans are getting wise to the fact that she is playing both sides, but loyal to neither. As we saw in 2010, she’ll do or say anything she thinks will get her the desired political outcome – which is of course re-election.”

Joe Miller is a limited government Constitutionalist who believes government exists to protect our liberties, not to take them away. He supports free people, free markets, federalism, the right to life, religious liberty, American sovereignty, and a strong national defense.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

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.

Joe Miller Announces Run Against Lisa Murkowski, Will Be on Alaska Ballot https://t.co/zrnhMQDMyg

— Joe Miller (@JoeWMiller) September 6, 2016

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)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

I had to laugh. Really, I had to.

I was listening to a Lisa Murkowski campaign ad and I heard this: “Her word is her bond.” I suspected this wasn’t true so I did some digging. I found that she can really tell some whoppers.

Like the one in 2010 she told to the Penninsula Clarion: When asked if she would support the winner of the Republican primary (she was running against Joe Miller for the senate seat her dad, Frank, gave her.) “Murkowski said she respects the electorate and would support whoever wins.” Well, we soon found out that wasn’t really going to happen. In fact, after losing that primary to Miller she decided to run a write-in campaign and eventually defeated him in the general election with the help of…well… a lot of Liberals. No surprise there of course since she is quite the Liberal herself. But that whopper is kinda right in your face, isn’t it?

And then there’s the whole issue about how her thoughts on things… really important things… evolve. I’m not talking about someone who in mid-life decides that Jiff is better than Skippy. I’m not even talking about someone who as a lifelong Green Bay Packer fan “evolves” into a Minnesota Vikings fan. (This is not possible of course, but I think you get the point.) No, I’m talking about marriage. You know, that institution that is the very foundation of civilized society. Well, in October of 2010, she told a newspaper from the Anchorage Archdiocese, The Catholic Anchor:

“I believe marriages should be legally defined as between one man and one woman. I have voted in support of efforts in the Senate to enact a Constitutional amendment that would have limited marriage to one man and one woman only.”

But just three years later she wrote this in an op-ed:

Like the majority of Alaskans, I supported a constitutional amendment in 1998 defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, but my thinking has evolved as America has witnessed a clear cultural shift. Fifteen years after that vote, I find that when one looks closer at the issue, you quickly realize that same sex unions or civil marriages are consistent with the independent mindset of our state – and they deserve a hands-off approach from our federal policies.

Are you starting to get the picture that when Lisa Murkowski tells us something we probably should wait at least a couple of years to see if she really means it. I mean, what is she going to “evolve” on next. Is she going to support some tax scheme on the energy sector that suggests that global climate change is caused by your SUV? Or, say the federal government under President Hillary decides that your AR-15 in the closet is a threat to national security so you had just better turn it over to your local Federales… will Senator Lisa “evolve” on the Second Amendment? We really don’t know, do we? In fact we don’t know where she will stand on anything because she is prone to telling whoppers as she “evolves.” And we all know what the Good Book says about that, and I quote; “Never trust a Whopper Teller.”

Finally, in another ad Senator Murkowski makes the claim she is the “Conservative Voice for Alaska.” The reality is that by any standard the good senator is the second most liberal Republican in the Senate. We have a name for these kind of Republicans, RINO (Republican In Name Only). She’s so liberal Mark Begich wanted to use her in his campaign ads the last time he ran in 2014. She didn’t like that one bit because she knew she had to run…in Alaska…in 2016…right now.

You see, the Republican Party has always stood for those principles which have made America what it is. It was created to fight slavery. It stood against the Progressivism early in the last century that Woodrow Wilson sought to impose on America. And it supported the Civil Rights Movement when nearly all Democrats held fast to Jim Crow.

Senator Murkowski doesn’t agree with most of those principles articulated in the GOP platform. Indeed, she scorns them. She fights for taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood even after we learned it was selling the body parts of aborted children. What kind of seared conscience can make that argument?

I guess she believes she is a Republican and a Conservative because she fights to have more ice-breakers built, or strives to have our natural resources developed, or advocates for a strong national defense or even because she wants the pipeline filled. Well just remember, Senator Mark Begich, the flaming Liberal that he is, fought for those very same things. At least he was always honest with us when he claimed to be a Liberal.

The problem I have here is that far too many politicians have the nasty little habit of telling us one thing when they want our vote, but then doing something completely different after we elect them. But the even greater problem is that we don’t do our job as citizens. That is, we don’t hold the Whopper Tellers to their word. We just let them tell us whoppers and then we put them back right back in office, over and over. We let them tell us they are with us…that they are somehow conservative…when they are not. We let them “evolve” when really they are just telling whoppers.

We do have a choice of course. On August 16th there is a Republican primary where we can vote for someone else who might actually be a Conservative, and who just might tell us a few less whoppers.

If that doesn’t work for you try voting for a Libertarian. Either way, it’s time to end the whoppers, and the Whopper Tellers who tell them.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.