Republican Senate Candidate Joe Miller did something unusual on Thursday: He spoke out in support of party that was not his own. The comments concerned the Libertarian Party, which could be in a position to gain converts from some dissent within the state GOP.
As the state’s biggest organized political party, the GOP represents plenty of different sects. There are big businessmen, and small businessmen, religious conservatives, Tea Partiers, and a slew of other subgroups.
The state’s Libertarian Party is not so big. Its membership has hovered around 7,000 voters since the Division of Elections began tracking their registration in the late 1990s. But there may be a perk to that: With fewer members, you can have more cohesion.
“It’s obvious the GOP is fractured. Everyone is well aware of that,” says Brad Leavitt, Alaska Libertarian Party vice chair and chair of its platform committee. “And to be honest, we’re reaping the benefits. People are coming over, and they’re disgruntled.”
Leavitt says he’s one of those guys. He only joined the Libertarian Party a year ago, and he often voted for Republican candidates before that.
Now, Leavitt says he’s seeing more interest in his party from the Ron Paul faction of the GOP. That group took over the GOP in 2012 in a coup, but then lost control a year later to the establishment wing.
Read the full article here.
Hopefully they won’t get Joe “East Berlin” Miller (look that up) either.
No. A few people in the LP sought her, and thankfully did not get her.
The article says the state has only been tracking Libertarian registrations since the 1990’s, but the state also tracked the LP registration in the years 1982-1986.
IIRC she spoke with them about using their line, but ultimately decided on running as a write in. I do wonder if that was because they were willing to reject her, or that she decided she did not need them. Found this:
“Sen. Lisa Murkowski met with Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate David Haase on Tuesday to talk about taking his place and running on the Libertarian ticket. But Alaska Libertarian Party Chairman Scott Kolhaas said after the meeting that “I don’t think it’s happening.”
http://www.adn.com/2010/09/07/1443217/libertarians-cool-to-senate-run.html
Well props to the LP, if that’s true.
Didn’t Joe Miller’s 2010 opponent Murkowski seek the Libertarian Party endorsement in that election?
Joe Miller would be a better fit with the CP or Alaska Ind. Party.
Can’t say I’d blame Miller if he decided to bolt the GOP. He won’t win the primary and the party establishment openly sabotaged his bid last time. (Though to be fair, I believe he shared some of the blame. I recall him seeming very unlikeable.)
I know he was fairly big in RP circles during his last run. From what I remember his foreign policy positions were pretty good. So initially(Indeed, when I started writing this post) I was hoping he’d run as a Libertarian. But a quick check of his campaign site proved concerning. One example:
http://joemiller.us/2014/05/uncle-sam-doesnt-really-want-military-now-turns-80-applicants-video/
For extra fun, check out the comments at the bottom as well. Now I’m not the type who automatically thinks less of a candidate for the support he attracts, but these hardly strike me as voters the Libertarian party would be (Or more realistically, should be) eager to attract. Indeed, its more than a bit concerning that Mr. Miller seems to view this news as a bad thing in general.
In the immortal words of the robot in the old TV series “Lost in Space”… “Warning, Warning…Danger, Danger! Look out, Will Robinson!”