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Should this Senator be Awarded ‘Lie of the Year’?

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsIn an interview with Bill O’Reilly last Sunday, Barack Obama doubled down on the IRS cover-up, claiming that there was not so much as “a smidgen of corruption” in the rogue agency’s clear political profiling of conservative groups.

Nothing could be further from the truth. How do I know this? Because just a few months ago, IRS officials apologized, and the President himself called the behavior “outrageous and unacceptable.”

Now we’re supposed to believe those who demand answers are acting out in bad faith and fabricating “phony scandals.” All this has prompted some to suggest that the Mr. Obama should be in the running for his second consecutive “Lie of the Year” award.

If you recall, the “Lie of the Year” last year was “if you like your health plan, you can keep it.” Problem is, Barack Obama should have had to share the award with Democrat Senator Mark Begich, because he sold Alaskans the same bill of goods.

Turns out Mr. Begich has not been honest about his voting record in Washington, D.C. either. After spending the last year telling Alaskans he was “as independent as Alaska,” Congressional Quarterly reported this week that the junior senator voted with Barack Obama 97% of the time in 2013. Now that’s what I call a whopper!

But that’s not all. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office is now projecting total jobs lost due to the passage of Obamacare to reach 2.5 million, according to Forbes online. This stands in stark contrast to Mark Begich’s 2009 claim that Obamacare would be good for small business.

Mark Begich could have saved Alaska from the train wreck we call Obamacare, but instead chose to hand his 60th and deciding vote over to Harry Reid and the Democrat Majority.

It’s time to send a clear and unequivocal message to the Washington elites. Obamacare must go. Whether it’s by repeal or through defunding, it’s time to kill Obamacare and put America back to work.

I can’t do this alone. But together, we can make a difference.

In the fight,

Joe Miller, candidate
United States Senate

Why Are Anti-Development Environmentalists Funding Begich?

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Fairbanks, Alaska. January 30, 2014 – While Mark Begich professes to be an advocate of off-shore drilling, US Senate candidate Joe Miller isn’t so sure Alaskans are getting the whole story.

“Mark Begich promised to be an advocate for resource development,” said Miller. “But given the results, coupled with his behavior in the senate, Alaskans are having their doubts.”

In his latest radio ad, Begich takes credit for the return of Shell Oil rigs to the Chuckchi Sea. There’s only one problem. Last week’s Ninth Circuit Court decision to suspend permits resulted from litigation brought by some deep-pocketed friends of the junior senator.

Begich has collected nearly $20,000 in campaign cash over the last two cycles from board members, executives, and associates of the plaintiffs who sued to stop drilling in the Arctic Ocean. These plaintiffs included the Alaska Wilderness League, Pacific Environment, Defenders of Wildlife, the Village of Point Hope, Oceana, and EarthJustice.

That doesn’t include other affiliated groups and non-profits who account for thousands more. And who knows what their donors are doing?

“It all adds up to a rather disturbing pattern,” Miller concluded. “When seen through the purview of his party’s stance on development issues, his support for Obama and Reid, votes to confirm radical environmentalists to cabinet-level positions in the Department of Interior and at the EPA . . . I have to scratch my head. Do Mark’s big government friends know something that Alaskans aren’t being told?”

It’s time to send a senator to Washington that folks can trust to put principle over party. Alaskans deserve a leader that they know won’t be cheating on them with Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s environmentalist friends.

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

Mark Begich Not Interested in Campaigning In Alaska with his 93 Percent Friend

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Screen Shot 2014-01-30 at 2.44.55 AMJoe Miller is not surprised that Mark Begich does not want to campaign with Barack Obama and questions the senator’s commitment to opening ANWR and other federal lands to resource development, given his voting record. 

Asked by CNN following the State of the Union Address earlier this week whether he wanted Barack Obama to campaign with him in Alaska, Begich said, “I’m not really interested in campaigning. What I’d like him to do is see why his policies are wrong on ANWR for example. He opposes oil and gas development.”  

Recent polling indicates a good reason the senator does not want to campaign with the President. A Gallup Poll released this week found Barack Obama has a 33.5 percent job approval rating in Alaska, while a recent poll found a 39 percent approval rating for the state’s junior senator.

 
Miller stated, “I’m not surprised Mark Begich does not want to campaign before the people of Alaska with the man he has voted with 93 percent of the time back in Washington, D.C. The President and his policies are even less popular in our state than the senator’s. Whether it is ObamaCare, blocking the development of ANWR, or the profligate tax and spend policies that are stymieing job creation and stealing our future, Alaskans know our nation is currently on the wrong track.” 

Begich insists he is a strong proponent of opening ANWR, but his vote last summer to confirm Sally Jewell as Interior Secretary, who is an outspoken opponent of such a move, makes the senator’s pronouncements highly suspect. He also voted to confirm Regina McCarthy to head the EPA, who opposes opening ANWR. 

“It is a mystery to me how Mr. Begich can imagine that he has any credibility on this issue when he is, at least in part, personally responsible for elevating the very people to power who are blocking access to Alaska’s resources,” said Miller.

Facing Tough Re-Election Fight, Begich Seeks Cover Under Murkowski’s Voting Record

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Photo Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo

Photo Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, might not want her Democratic colleague, Mark Begich, to win re-election in 2014, but her habit of breaking with the GOP on several key votes could give him some political cover ahead of 2014.

“As an Alaska delegation, we’ve got to be working on those issues that are important to our constituents,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News this week. “Sen. Begich has been keying in on the issues that I think Alaskans are worried about and doing what he was tasked to do.”

“I’m going to be working to get Republicans elected,” she later added.

Murkowski’s more moderate voting record could help Begich, given how much the two Alaskans overlap on some issues. Begich faces a tough re-election fight this year in a state that has traditionally elected Republicans to Congress. There’s a competitive GOP primary in August to determine his opponent.

Murkowski, once a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, has broken ranks several times since her 2010 re-election victory as a write-in candidate. Murkowski votes with her party only 61 percent of the time, according to data compiled by the Washington Post’s Congress Votes Database.

Read more from this story HERE.

Listen to Joe Miller’s Interview with Tea Party Express: Miller has Proven History of Challenging the Status Quo, Taking on Establishment

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unnamedIn this week’s “On the Campaign Trail” podcast, we are joined by Joe Miller. Joe discusses his campaign for the U.S. Senate in Alaska where he hopes to replace Democrat incumbent Senator Mark Begich.

Joe Miller shocked the political world on August 24, 2010 when he came out of nowhere to defeat incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Alaskan Republican Primary. He then entered into a contentious three-way general election, where federal contractors and others who benefited from the status quo waged a multimillion-dollar campaign and managed to help narrowly defeat Joe.

Joe talks about the important lessons he learned from his 2010 Senate race, as well as the NSA surveillance scandal, the FBI investigation of the IRS, and the news that for the first time in the history of the Index of Economic Freedom, the United States is ranked outside the top ten.

You are really going to enjoy this interview with a candidate who has a proven history of challenging the status quo and taking on the political establishment.

LISTEN NOW!

2014 is going to be a huge election year as we fight to hold onto the House and are poised to take the gavel out of Harry Reid’s hands and take control of the Senate. It is important that we enter 2014 prepared and informed. Here is your chance to get to know one of the outstanding U.S. Senate candidates, Joe Miller.

“On the Campaign Trail” is a weekly podcast that features interviews with House and Senate candidates as well as Tea Party leaders to provide voters with a regular discussion of important political issues and campaigns.

A new Tea Party Express podcast will be available every Tuesday on the Tea Party Express website HERE or it is available by subscription on both RSS and iTunes.

Without Protecting This Most Fundamental Right, None of the Others Matter

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Screen Shot 2014-01-22 at 3.51.46 AMDear Friend of Liberty,

The intolerance and bigotry of the hard political Left has raised its ugly head yet again.

Earlier this week, the Washington Examiner reported: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes that pro-life activists, along with anti-gay activists and supporters of the Second Amendment, are not welcome in his state.”

Could this happen in Alaska? If Mark Begich and Barack Obama get their way, this brand of left-wing zealotry is just around the corner.

After all, Mr. Begich was the 60th and deciding vote for an Obamacare law that imposes a kind of ideological hegemony that shows no respect for Alaskans whose religious convictions compel them to stand in opposition to abortion or contraception.

Mark Begich has been a rubber stamp for Obama’s radical anti-gun appointees.

And, you guessed it, he’s also been a strong backer of measures like Anchorage Prop. 5 and federal ENDA legislation that would force people of faith to either compromise their religious convictions, or abandon the public square.

It is noteworthy that Wednesday will mark the 41st Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s dreadful Roe v. Wade. In four short decades more than 56 million American lives have been snuffed out by abortion.

Make no mistake about it, Mark Begich strongly supports legal protection for the taking of innocent human life. It’s time for a senator who respects our First Liberty, the Constitutional Right to life!

When I am elected to the United States Senate, I will co-Sponsor Senator Rand Paul’s “Life at Conception Act” to ensure that every Alaskan’s First Liberty is protected, even those too young to speak for themselves.

If you agree that it’s time to stand up for Constitutional liberty, I need your help today.

Thanks for standing with me in the battle for life and liberty!

In the Fight,

Joe Miller, Candidate
United States Senate

Why Joe Miller Could Pull Off An Upset Against The GOP Establishment, Again

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Photo Credit: People's Pundit Daily

Photo Credit: People’s Pundit Daily

I rarely, if ever, revisit my Senate predictions on PeoplesPunditDaily.com for purposes of clarification rather than rating changes. However, after several discussions with campaign operatives in various camps, conservative Super PAC spokesmen, as well as further analysis of the Republican establishment’s strength in terms of support among Alaska Republican voters, this article is clearly warranted.

In my last look at the race, entitled “Alaska Senate Race Rating And Analysis Bodes Bad For Begich,” which is currently rated “Leans Republican” on the 2014 Senate Map, I gave a general assessment of the race and the political landscape. And to make a long story short, despite the bias fantasies held by other so-called objective pundits, I confidently concluded that it is more likely than not that election night is going to be a miserable night for Senator Mark Begich.

At this point, the only variable keeping the Alaska Senate race from moving farther to the right on the rating spectrum is the Republican primary, which we will now examine in more detail. With Gov. Sean Parnell deciding to stay out of the race, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell made his bid known almost immediately. Treadwell has already attacked the 2010 Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller, saying “I believe I don’t scare people. Joe does sometimes.”

Treadwell, no doubt, is the establishment candidate and was their first pick, but he will have to share the GOP country club with another establishment candidate. Former Natural Resources Commissioner and Attorney General Dan Sullivan is the second-tier establishment candidate, but ironically seems to have the money advantage. Alaska’s Energy, America’s Values, which is headed up by political consultant Art Hackney and backs Dan Sullivan, already spent about $12,000 to air ads in Anchorage and Matanuska Valley.

There is a real potential for a reverse vote splitting phenomena to play out that inevitably will benefit Joe Miller. That is, typically establishment Republican candidates win primaries because the conservative vote is split between 2 or more anti-establishment candidates. In the Alaska Senate race the opposite is true, and it is conceivable to see how under the right conditions Joe Miller could upset the GOP establishment on primary night, again.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Questions Opponents’ Willingness to Take on Federal Spending Crisis

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Joe Miller speakingJoe Miller questioned the willingness of his opponents to truly take on the budget crisis facing this nation when their actions are considered in light of the passage of the $1.1 trillion Omnibus bill. President Obama signed the bill into law over the weekend, which implements, in part, the agreement laid out in the Murray-Ryan budget last month. 

The Murray-Ryan budget plan rolled back the budget cuts made under sequestration and increased spending by $63 billion. Unbelievably, while the agreement called for increased spending throughout the federal government, it cut military veteran retirees’ pay by $6 billion. The $1.1 trillion measure, over 1500 pages long, began implementing this agreement, which included keeping the pay cut for the majority of retired military veterans. The Alaska delegation, Republican and Democrat, voted for the bill. Joe Miller was the only Republican candidate for U.S. Senate to come out against Murray-Ryan. 

“That a $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill, laden with pork and breaching our commitments to our military veterans, would sail through Congress with substantial Republican support is a source of amazement and disappointment to me,” said Miller. 

A review of the Omnibus spending bill reveals an astounding level of wasteful and even immoral use of American taxpayers’ money, including: taxpayer-funded abortion, billions in green energy projects, massive transportation boondoggles, unrestricted money to the Justice Department, and – unbelievably – funding for the continued administration of TARP.

Joe Miller stated, “The Omnibus spending bill highlights everything that is wrong with Washington right now. The ‘go-along to get-along’ mentality that allowed its passage is the same mentality that is bankrupting America.” He concluded, “At a time when big government is seen as the top danger to the future of the nation, this vote only validates the people’s worst fears. It is clear the only way this issue will be addressed is with bold, new leadership, unafraid to take on the political establishment.” 

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

Top Republican Praises Alaska’s Senator Mark Begich

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Photo credit: aflcio

Photo credit: aflcio

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) is drawing praise from across the aisle from one of Alaska’s top Republicans.

Rep. Don Young (R), the state’s lone congressman, praised the work Begich has done as senator.

“Mark’s done a great job of, very frankly, representing people. He’s not always on my page, that’s for sure, but he’s done a good job,” Young told The Hill on Wednesday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Joe Miller: These Two New Facts Should Give Everyone Pause

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Photo by Joshua Doubek

Photo by Joshua Doubek

This week we’ve already learned at least two facts that should give pause to anyone who cares about the liberty and prosperity of this country. First, an FBI investigation into the IRS scandal has so far determined there was no criminal wrongdoing and therefore no one should be held accountable. In other words, after investigating itself, the Obama Administration announced, “There is nothing to see here. Move along, Move along.”

This “investigation” was led by a political supporter of Barack Obama, who gave several thousand dollars to his campaign over both cycles. The probe, which reportedly did not even involve interviewing members from most of the targeted tea party and other conservative groups, found the IRS employees implicated were simply ignorant as to the rules. They did not have any particular political motive.

Really? I am not making any of this up.

The “investigation” cleared this atrocious abuse of government power by the IRS, which blatantly violated Americans constitutional rights to freedom of association and freedom of speech.

These are the kinds of unlawful or immoral actions we have come to expect from this Administration. Yet Senator Mark Begich has no intention of standing up for Alaskans’ constitutional rights or the cherished freedoms of all Americans. You only need look to the IRS scandal, the NSA surveillance scandal, the Associated Press wire-tapping scandal, or Benghazi.

Or how about the liberal Politifact’s number-one rated lie of 2013: “If you like your healthcare, you can keep your healthcare”? Senator Begich joined with President Obama in making that promise, yet thousands of Alaskans have seen their plans cancelled.

If you are tired of the lies, and the countless scandals with no one being held accountable, stand with me and help me remove Obama-enabler Senator Begich from office.

The second piece of news is that, for the first time in the history of Index of Economic Freedom published each year by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, the United States does not rank in the top ten nations. Denmark and Ireland moved ahead of the U.S., causing us to drop out of the top ten. We are now the only nation in the history of the index to fall for seven years in a row.

The United States has earned the dubious distinction of being only “mostly free” while other nations enjoy the ranking and benefits of being “free.” The main issues that caused America to lose its place include: new and onerous regulations, including ObamaCare; quantitative easing, where the fed prints money out of thin air; and out of control deficit spending.

If you agree it is time to begin restoring America to the “city on hill” she is meant to be, I need to hear from you today. We can’t win this effort without your help. One thing is for certain, Mark Begich and my Establishment primary opponents will not move America off the path that leads to continued decline.

Rest assured, I am committed to making the United States once again the beacon of freedom, both politically and economically, but I need your help today!

In Liberty,

Joe Miller, Candidate
United States Senate