World News Korner

Joe Miller, the "Barely Bearded One," is asking the FEC for permission use campaign funds to pay legal costs that he owes to the Alaska Dispatch.

Courtesy of ADN:

Federal elections regulators are set to decide whether to adopt a draft advisory opinion that would allow Joe Miller to use campaign funds to pay a legal judgment in a case stemming from his unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate run in Alaska.

During Thursday's meeting the Federal Election Commission could also opt to make changes to the opinion. Public comment is being accepted in the lead-up to the meeting.

State court Judge Stephanie Joannides in May ordered Miller to pay more than $85,000 in legal costs to the Alaska Dispatch, which was among the media organizations that sued during the 2010 campaign to obtain records from Miller's personnel file from his time with the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Joannides found Miller's conduct in the case caused unnecessary delays and costs for the Dispatch and Fairbanks North Star Borough. She also found there were significant matters at stake in the case, with the records emerging near the end of the 2010 campaign. Miller lost the race to incumbent Lisa Murkowski, who mounted a write-in campaign after losing the GOP primary to Miller.

Miller was a part-time borough attorney for seven years. He was disciplined in 2008 for using work computers for political purposes, information revealed in his personnel file.

He is appealing Joannides' ruling and through an attorney, asked the FEC whether campaign funds could be used as a cash deposit that would be held while Miller appeals the judgment against him. Miller also asked if he could use campaign funds to pay the judgment if his appeal fails, a request the opinion suggests should be granted.

Can you believe this guy?

Miller did everything he could to stop the Alaska Dispatch from revealing to the Alaska citizens what was in Miller's employee file from his days working at the North Star Bureau. And his actions were indefensible in the eyes of Judge Joannides:

“Miller’s conduct, which included taking inconsistent positions, failing to disclose information during discovery, and his procedural filing, which the record did not support, all caused unnecessary delay and costs for both Alaska Dispatch” and the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the judge wrote in her ruling.

The court costs for the Alaska Dispatch were $112,375. Miller was ordered to pay 75% of that, $85,000. (At the time of the ruling Miller had almost half a million dollars in his campaign war chest.)

Of course in the end Miller failed in his bid to block access to those records and we all got to learn that he broke into the computers of his fellow employees and used them to vote in his own straw poll in an attempt, along with then Governor Sarah Palin, to oust party chairman Randy Reuderich.

Ultimately that damaged his character enough to allow Lisa Murkowski to beat him in the general with a write in campaign.

And remember, this guy is STILL trying to run for office in Alaska, and is currently mounting a campaign for the GOP nomination to run against Mark Begich for his Senate seat.

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