Tea Partier’s challenge of U.S. Senate loss in Alaska thrown out

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by conservative Tea Party favourite Joe Miller that challenged his loss in Alaska’s election for a U.S. Senate seat, clearing the way for state officials to certify Lisa Murkowski’s historic write-in victory.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline lifted an injunction he imposed last month that delayed certification.

“The injunction is lifted and the Division of Elections may certify the election results immediately,” the judge said in his order.

The election will be officially certified Thursday by Sean Parnell, the Alaska Governor, and Mead Treadwell, the lieutenant governor, Mr. Treadwell’s office said late Tuesday after mistakenly announcing it had already been certified.

Mr. Miller had filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Alaska Division of Election’s policy of counting write-in votes for Ms. Murkowski.

“I am disappointed with the federal court’s ruling today,” he said in a statement, adding his team was “evaluating the ruling and determining what our next step will be.”

The Tea Party challenger claimed the state’s “voter-intent” standard, which allowed for ballots with minor misspellings and handwriting errors to be credited to Ms. Murkowski, violated state law and the U.S. Constitution.

He also alleged there were various instances of voter fraud that padded her lead.

The case was moved to state courts. There, a state Superior Court judge ruled against Mr. Miller, and the state Supreme Court upheld that ruling last Wednesday.

There is no reason for the federal court to contradict the state’s highest court, Judge Beistline said in his ruling.

“Generally speaking, the Alaska Supreme Court is the final expositor of Alaska law. That must be the case here,” he said.

Ms. Murkowski learned of the ruling just after boarding an Alaska Airlines flight in Anchorage, headed out of state for a family vacation.

“This is pretty great news,” she told the Anchorage News by phone from the plane.

“It means that I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that next week Alaska will have two senators in the United States Senate and there would not be any lapse that could have happened had certification been held up very much longer.

“I have had a bottle of champagne in just about every refrigerator where I have visited over this Christmas holiday and I haven’t been able to release that cork yet.”

Mr. Miller, a Fairbanks lawyer, had won the backing by the Tea Party Express and Sarah Palin, the former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee. He upset Ms. Murkowski in the August Republican Party primary.

But Ms. Murkowski mounted a write-in effort that mobilized moderate Republicans, independents and many Democrats. She wound up beating Mr. Miller by more than 10,000 votes in the general election on Nov. 2, or about 4.5% of the total votes cast.

It would be the first successful write-in campaign for a U.S. Senate seat since 1954. The result does not alter the party makeup of the Democratic-controlled Senate as both Ms. Murkowski and Mr. Miller are Republicans.

In a motion filed Monday, the state of Alaska said officials hoped to certify the election by Wednesday and send the document, signed by the governor and lieutenant governor, to the secretary of the Senate.

The signed document will be hand-delivered by a state employee, and must be delivered by noon on Jan. 3 in order for Ms. Murkowski to be sworn in for her second full term, the state’s motion said.

Mr. Miller could find himself on the hook for some of Alaska’s legal bills. Under the “loser pays” court rule, the state likely is entitled to 20% of its costs, which would amount to about US$15,000 from him.

© 2010 Thomson Reuters

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