Alaskan Politics

Alaskan politics made national news this past week when Joe Miller, a little-known, courageous conservative, received more votes than Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary election. Miller has an awesome resume that includes being a combat veteran and former federal judge. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Miller was miraculously ahead of Murkowski 51-49 percent on election night. Thousands of absentee ballots were counted today, closing the gap between Miller and Murkowski a little but leaving Miller too far ahead to catch. Murkowski conceded the election tonight. I think that I can safely say that Murkowski was blindsided by Miller because recent polls had her leading Miller by 30 percent. Few people really expected Miller to win, but he kept quietly working to win the nomination and pulled out a victory. Senator Jim DeMint wrote, "Despite what the liberal media and Washington establishment may say about Joe Miller, he is a rock-solid conservative who believes in balanced budgets, constitutional limits, and individual liberty…. Joe Miller supports a Balanced Budget Amendment, he opposes earmarks, he opposes corporate bailouts, he will fight against amnesty, he's pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and will be a breath of fresh air in a Senate that is filled with career politicians who go along to get along." Alaskans, like most Americans, recognize that something needs to be done to change the course of our nation, but I personally had to seriously consider the two candidates before deciding how to vote. I then sought confirmation from God if my decision was the right one. I don't think that I would have been too upset by a Murkowski win, but I decided to vote for Miller because he was the more conservative of the two. I know that our leaders in Washington need to start making difficult decisions with wisdom in order to bring the spending under control, and I think Miller is more capable of the hard votes than Murkowski is. I believe that Miller's win should be a wake-up call to Republicans: Even though Alaska's Congressmen have brought home much pork over the years, Alaskans understand that we can't bankrupt the country to benefit ourselves. I also believe that Miller's win should be a wake-up call to all Alaskans: Only those who vote have the power to decide who our representatives will be. About 27 percent of registered Alaskan voters bothered to go to the polls to vote, and they were probably the more conservative voters. There was a proposition about abortion on the ballot with the conservative side being just a little ahead of the more liberal side. If you didn't bother to vote, you have no room to complain about the results! Joe Miller has been endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund organized by Senator DeMint as well as the Tea Party Express.