Joe Miller

Alaska Senate Nominee (R)

(Miller web site)

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: GOP nominee for state representative (2004); U.S. Magistrate Judge; Acting State District Court Judge; State Magistrate; Superior Court Master for the Fourth Judicial Distric; First Gulf War veteran
Hometown: Kansas
Alma Mater: University of Alaska, master's in economics; Yale law school, date graduated N/A, West Point, date gradudated N/A Candidate Comparison, Miller web site
Spouse: Kathleen

Campaign Office: Joe Miller for U.S. SenatePO Box 72838Fairbanks, AK 99707-2838
Email
Web site

Path to Power

Miller is originally from Kansas, but moved to Alaska "because of his love for the outdoors."

He graduated from West Point and served as an officer in the U.S. Army, where he received a Bronze Star for combat service during the First Gulf War. He got his master's in economics from the University of Alaska and received a law degree from Yale University before returning to The Last Frontier to practice law.

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The Issues

In his campaign announcement, Miller called himself a "concerned citizen" rather than a politician. In 2010, he was boosted by the tea party fervor, and boasted the key advantage of having one of the national tea party idol's, Sarah Palin, and her husband, Todd, behind his candidacy.

Palin and the family of Lisa Murkowski, whose father, Frank, is a former senator and Alaska governor, have never had good relations as Palin once ran against the former governor.

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Miller supports repealing President Obama's 2010 health-care legislation, saying he will support a reform that is "market-based and incentivizes individual responsibility."

"One major aspect of this reform must include allowing and promoting a system of robust employer and/or self-funded tax-free health savings accounts," Miller says.

He wants to eliminate the Education Department because it isn't in the U.S. Constitution.

Social Security and Medicare

Like other 2010 conservative candidates, Miller has said he would like to ultimately see government excluded from the management of core government entitlement programs like Social Security and Mecicare.

According to the Fairbanks (Alaska) Newsminer, Miller would like to see an "orderly transition" away from Social Security, to "privatize" or "personalize" it, while not reducing benefits for anyone who is "currently dependent" on the program.

As for Medicare, he also wants an "orderly transition" that would ultimately prevent government management of the program. "The government has broken everything that it's had its finger in."

Climate Change

Miller "strongly opposes the unconstitutional" cap-and-trade energy legislation passed by the House in June 2009, saying "the science supporting manmade climate change is inconclusive."

Although her record is more nuanced, Miller has accused Murkowski, the senior Republican on the Senate Energy and and Natural Resources Committee, of supporting cap-and-trade when the trend in weather patterns in recent years has been towards cooler weather, forcing a shift from the term "global warming" to "climate change."

Abortion Rights

In a June 23, 2010 letter to supporters, Miller wrote that Murkowski was a "willing accomplice of the Pro-Abortion lobby."

He was endorsed by the Alaska Right-to-Life Group in the primary over Murkowski.

On her campaign web site, Murkowski says abortion is a abortion is "a very personal issue that must be left to a woman and her physician, and not to elected

officials." She also says she supports the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortions, and opposes late-term abortion procedures.

The Network

Miller's biggest coup was his GOP primary endorsements by Sarah and Todd Palin. He was also endorsed by several other national conservative figures, including 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Redstate blogger Erick Erickson and talk-show host Laura Ingraham.

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