Alaska GOP Chair Criticizes Miller Court Challenges

Ruedrich criticized Miller's continued court challenges and complaints about the way Lt Governor Craig Campbell has been overseeing the vote counts.

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By KTVA CBS 11
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Story Created: Feb 22, 2011 at 4:56 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 22, 2011 at 5:00 PM AKDT

Original article posted Nov. 25, 2010

Wednesday, the Joe Miller campaign fired back at Alaska GOP Chair Randy Ruedrich. 

Ruedrich criticized Miller's continued court challenges and complaints about the way Lt Governor Craig Campbell has been overseeing the vote counts.
 
Randy DeSoto, Miller's campaign spokesperson, issued a written statement claiming Ruedrich does not speak for all Alaska republicans, and pointing to a recent federal court injunction on certification because of serious legal issues raised by the Miller camp.
 
Yesterday, Miller spoke out his criticism for the lieutenant governor.
 
"He [Lt. Gov. Campbell] was arguing for the first time in state history that we ought to have a write-in list with Lisa Murkowski's name on it. At that time, there was one write-in candidate, so the voters could spell her name correctly so their ballots could be counted. It's a little disingenuous to come in after the fact, to come in and say after the election was held 'we're going to approach this in a different way,'" said U.S. Senate republican candidate Joe Miller in a phone interview.
 
Wednesday evening, Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan said he wants the election wrapped up by Jan. 3 to avoid losing representation in Washington D.C.
 
Read DeSoto's entire statement in response to Ruedrich's criticism:
 
On behalf of the Republican Party, Randy Ruedrich issued a statement seeking to assure Alaskans that there is 'nothing wrong with the election process, nothing to see here, and please, would everyone just move along.'  Why is Mr. Ruedrich suddenly an apologist for the Accu-Vote election system? 
 
Joe Miller has a right to ensure that the election process was fair and lawful.  There is a court process in place that is intended to guarantee that.  The Miller campaign fails to see how Mr. Ruedrich can be troubled with our effort to ensure that state laws are followed.  We have said this before and we will say it again:  the people have a right to know who won the election under the laws of the state of Alaska.  Neither Mr. Ruedrich nor the party should fear court scrutiny of this process, and their effort to disparage Mr. Miller or the court process is unseemly and irresponsible. 
 
Further, Mr. Ruedrich does not speak for all Republicans--not by a long shot.  Many others in the Party, including on its governing board, share our view there are still vital matters that must be addressed before we can have confidence in the election results. The United States Federal District Court in fact put a stay on the certification of the election because "serious" legal issues needed to be resolved.  
 
No voter in Alaska should be concerned about a fair and open evaluation of the election. 
 

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