How Will the Alaska Media Spin the Paulite Takeover of the Alaska GOP

 Watch the crowd interact, shout, clap and boo during and after Sen. Lisa Murkowski's video address on Friday to the Alaska Republican Convention.

The Paulite-Tea Party alliance that has been the result of Randy Reudrich's announcement that he is stepping down as Alaska GOP Chairman has been a surprise to many.  Perhaps because I've been to so many Tea Party events in Alaska, photographing, interviewing and polling people, I'm less surprised than many, but I'm still surprised the party didn't act more heavy-handed to keep this from happening.

 Here's the headline on this at the Alaska Dispatch:

 Ron Paul supporters team with Joe Miller to take over Alaska Republican Party

Amanda Coyne writes:

 Some party loyalists had expected that either Alaska GOP favorites Judy Eledge or Bruce Schulte would win the chairmanship, particularly after Schulte opted out to give more power to Eledge’s nomination.

But after the party delegates’ votes were tallied Saturday evening, a cheer erupted from Paul supporters on the second floor of the Hilton. Others looked crestfallen. Some blamed failed senatorial candidate Joe Miller and his wife, Kathleen, who spent much of their time Saturday huddled with Paul supporters. Miller was largely expected to jockey for a party leadership position, but it was Kathleen who, sporting a Ron Paul sticker, won a seat on Alaska’s GOP Electoral College.

The Millers were nowhere to be found at the party afterwards at Ron Paul’s Alaska campaign headquarters in downtown Anchorage, where both Millette and Brown spoke to supporters.

“They tried every maneuver they could, but God prevailed,” Millette told the crowd, many who were half his age or younger.

To be sure, not all Paul supporters believe in God, but a certain alliance between the tea party and Paulites was necessary for an upset in GOP politics on the Last Frontier, as evidenced by Joe Miller backers aligning with Paul supporters at this weekend’s convention. And so, regardless of religious beliefs, they cheered for Millette.

 KTUU TV carried a short item on the takeover.  So far, the Anchorage Daily News has not filed a story on what may turn out to be a national-level news story.

Amanda Coyne has already been accused in the comments to her Dispatch story of "spinning" what happened yesterday evening:

 I've seen this article updated at least 3 times and each time they spin it further. The 1st incarnation was pretty much ok, except that they said we want to take Randy's position away from him before his term expires officially. Other than that they could have just kept the original. This "paper" seems to stray further from credible with each month and is seemingly becoming part of that "mainstream media" that they came out against as a voice of truth in conception.

Coyne isn't giving way:

Amanda here. When did I say that they wanted to take of RR's seat before it expired?

What the Paulites have done here this week is not entirely unprecedented.  Paul's delegates at conventions and caucuses in other states are showing more staying power than the GOP elite and mainstream media find comforting:

Minnesota will send 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Twenty of the 24 delegates based on congressional districts were awarded to Texas Rep. Ron Paul in selection processes that concluded this weekend.

Thirteen Minnesota delegates will be allocated based on the results of a statewide convention in May, according to Paul campaign senior adviser Doug Wead.

Wead wrote on his blog that GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is an a “panic” after the Paul landslide. Similar efforts to bolster the Texas congressman’s delegate count are underway in Iowa, Colorado, Maine and other states.

It will be interesting to see how the ADN spins yesterday's events.

The Mudflats has more.

Jesse Griffin, once more plagued by his Sarah Palin fantasies, writes:

Oh shit!

If Miller is quietly behind this pulling the strings, then you can bet your ass that Palin is behind him pulling HIS strings.  After all Palin and Miller attempted a similar coup of the Republican party back in 2008. (As a matter of fact THAT attempt was behind the scandal that helped to derail Miller's run at the Senate seat in 2010.)

Only this time they used the Ron Paul supporters in Alaska to out maneuver the established GOP players. So THAT explains why Palin has been kissing Ron Paul's ass lately!

As much as I have dreamed about the Alaska GOP being taken over, and seeing the old corrupt bastards kicked to the curb, the idea of Palin now having power over the party does NOTHING but fill me with dread.

In fact this might almost make her MORE powerful, and MORE damaging to my state, then she was even as out Governor.

Well so much for me getting a good night's sleep tonight!  [emphasis added]

Griffin's premise that "Palin is behind" anything having to do with this is absurd.  I've polled Alaska Tea Party opinion on Ron Paul now for four years.  He has always been popular, mostly over his fiscal positions.  Miller may have a hand in this - his wife did gain a position on the Alaska GOP Electoral College.  But the Paulites pulled the strings, not the Millerians.

At the Wasilla Tea Party Tax Day event, although I polled on different issues than anything touching upon sympathies for Miller or Palin, they both came up in a number of conversations I had with people there.  None of the references were flattering.  When Palin was mentioned by one of the speakers that day, there was silence.  In Wasilla.  Nobody at the podium brought up Miller's name.