Politics

Alaska GOP headquarters under lockdown, leadership meeting Monday night

With the Alaska GOP set to meet Monday evening to decide the fate of party chairwoman Debbie Brown of Kasilof, she has seized the Republican headquarters in Anchorage and is threatening to arrest anyone who tries to enter the building.

"In order to protect the assets of the Alaska Republican Party, the office located at 1001 West Fireweed Lane in Anchorage has been temporarily closed and the locks changed," she said in an email sent to various Alaska Republicans early Monday. "No one is to enter the premises without permission from the State Chairman. Any unauthorized attempt to enter the premises will be met by the authorities."

The Alaska Republican Party's assets are at the moment rather limited. The headquarters building borders on being a dump, and most of the party funds have been transferred to the control of the Capital City Republicans in Juneau, the state capital, for safe keeping.

That was just before the party hierarchy ousted party chairman-elect Russ Millette, a Yellow Pages salesman, saying that he'd proven himself incompetent as a party fundraiser, the key job of the party Finance Chair, which Millette assumed before becoming party chairman.

Left to step into Millette's shoes was Brown, the vice-chair elect from a contentious 2012 Republican convention that was taken over by supporters of failed Republican presidential nominee Ron Paul with help from supporters of failed U.S. Senate Republican candidate Joe Miller. Miller is the one-time attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough who upset incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, in the 2010 Republican primary only to lose to her in the general election when she staged an unprecedented write-in campaign against Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams.

The infighting within the state's most powerful political party has been ongoing ever since.

Miller, who followed his unsuccessful bid for office with a jump into journalism, on Monday declared in a headline on his website that there is a "civil war for the soul Alaska Republican Party.''

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In an apparent call to arms, Alaskan Daniel Hamm, a reporter for Miller's website, wrote that "the Republican Party is in a war for its very spirit."

Will a small cabal of political machinists continue to run the party for personal interest while continuing to lose ground to the conquering socialists like the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek did before Mao Zedong? Or will the party be returned back to its grass-roots supporters? Your action or inaction will be the deciding factor for the future of unborn millions. Grass-roots Republicans have a once-in-a-generation chance to let light shine out of the darkness. The Republican Party must once again wield the torch of freedom that guided the footsteps of our Founding Fathers.

Hamm is another failed politician and new member of the Alaska press corps. Last fall, he lost a bid for the Republican nomination for a state House seat representing Palmer. His political biography describes him as a 747 pilot, small business owner, and author.

Where the Alaska Republican Party's state executive committee will meet Monday night to discuss Brown's future is at the moment unclear -- as is how the party is functioning with its office locked down.

But in her email, Brown said, "I want to assure Alaska Republicans that the business of the Party will continue during this office closure, and that all obligations shall be met."

Brown was not immediately available for comment. All of the phone lines at the state Republican headquarters in Anchorage were being answered by voicemail. The voicemail said the personal line for the state party chairman was "not available."

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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