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Sarah Palin and friends rally around Joe Miller
Former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman and state Sen. Fred Dyson made speeches, but as of 8:07 p.m., Sarah Palin had not appeared. Some people were starting to leave.
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An estimated 300 to 350 people cheered on Senate candidate Joe Miller, who appeared at a rally Thursday that included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and other big names in the GOP.
The crowd included many who made the drive down from Wasilla and the Mat-Su Valley, despite the snow Thursday night. Miller, the Alaska Republican Senate candidate locked in a three-for-all race for the seat held by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was all smiles, even if the crowd was far smaller than the Glen Beck-Sarah Palin 9/11 rally last month in Anchorage.
The event was expected to include appearances via video from 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, and South Carolina's Sen. Jim DeMint, the campaign worker said.
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Tea Party Express-backed Miller is enmeshed in a three-way Senate race that includes write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent senator, and Scott McAdams, a Democrat and mayor of Sitka.
In recent weeks, Miller has been dogged by media questions about his background, including his time as a part-time attorney at the Fairbanks North Star Borough. He has admitted twice in the past week that he got into trouble for using his co-workers' computers for some kind of political activity. A judge sided with Alaska Dispatch and other media Saturday, ordering the borough to release Miller's records.
Among the documents that have been released are those detailing the events surrounding Miller's politicking on borough time in March 2008.