Two new ads — one funded by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican candidate Joe Miller’s campaign, the other funded by the Tea Party Express — introduce Alaskan voters to Miller’s life story.
Both ads highlight Miller’s military service in Iraq during the Gulf War for which he was awarded a Bronze Star.
The NRSC/Miller campaign plays up Miller’s family man status, showing a clip of him with his wife and kids. “Husband. Dad. He chose Alaska as his home,” a female narrator says.
“We have to change D.C.,” Miller argues in that ad. “In the senate, I’ll fight the incumbents’ endless spending and tax hikes. And I’ll work to free our natural resources to lower energy costs and to create jobs for all Alaskans.”
The Tea Party Express ad focuses more on Miller’s judicial background. “As Alaska’s youngest federal magistrate, he built a record of constitutional excellence,” the narrator announces. “And now he’s ready to take on the federal government and fight for Alaska’s interests.”
Of course, this is the less notorious of the two Tea Party Express ads supporting Miller. Since Murkowski came out and denounced the Tea Party Express’s other ad, saying that it was inaccurate, the group has responded by declaring that they did make a “mistake.” “Omitted from the ad was the fact that Lisa’s campaign team also looked into a possible Independent bid for Senate, until they discovered that the filing period for Independent candidates had closed,” said the group in a statement.
“There was only so much time we had in our ad to list all the means Lisa had considered to disrespect the will of the voters who rejected her candidacy in the GOP primary,” said Tea Party Express chief strategist Sal Russo to the National Journal.
The Associated Press also reported that the Libertarian party denied being “manipulated” by Murkowski, as the Express ad alleges when the narrator says Murkowski “tried to manipulate the Libertarian party into giving her their slot on the ballot.” “Tempted, another story. But manipulated, no,” said Alaskan Libertarian party chairman Scott Kohlhaas.