NEW YORK -- Republican Joe Miller has hired a controversial political hand to help him beat back a win by incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the Alaska Senate election: Floyd Brown, the man behind the infamous Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign, who also founded Citizens United and runs a site dedicated to impeaching President Obama.
On Thursday, Brown raised the possibility of voter fraud and suppression, although according to the Associated Press, he offered basically no proof to back up these charges. (He did present an affidavit from a Fairbanks poll watcher, who said he saw an unsecured ballot box that left him wondering "about the integrity of our state operation of polling places.")
A press release on the Miller campaign website refers to Brown as an "advisor" although he is referring to himself as a "volunteer strategist".
Brown has set up a toll-free voter fraud hotline for people to report irregularities. "To facilitate collection of this [voter fraud] material for law enforcement or legal review, we thought it best to establish a centralized number where people could call, anonymously if need be, and leave information," said Brown. "We encourage any citizen who has a concern to call this number."
Brown is no stranger to phone lines. In 1992, he created a 1-900 number so that callers could hear excerpts of conversations between President Bill Clinton and lounge singer Gennifer Flowers.
He is most famous, however, as the mastermind behind the controversial Willie Horton commercial during the Bush-Dukakis presidential race in 1988 -- a fact that he touts on his official bio.
More recently, Brown founded Citizens United, the group that challenged federal campaign rules before the Supreme Court and opened the doors to the unprecedented corporate spending in the most recent elections.
He also started a site dedicated to impeaching Obama, writing in 2009 on a right-wing website, "Barack Hussein Obama a very dangerous man and one of the greatest threats to your personal liberty today."
"For the international socialist movement of which Barack Obama is a card-carrying member," said Brown in September, "the U.S. must be brought to its knees, and I guarantee you that Barack Hussein Obama is doing everything he can to bring the country to its knees. He wants to bring it to its knees."
According to the Associated Press, "The tabulation of 45,132 initial write-ins, representing about 45 percent of precincts, showed Murkowski with 89.8 percent of the votes undisputedly, meaning those ballots were properly cast for her with the oval filled in and her name written correctly. Another 9.5 percent was challenged, though [State Division of Elections director Gail] Fenumiai counted the majority of those to Murkowski's tally."
The Miller campaign -- with the assistance of Brown -- is aggressively challenging the ballots, arguing that any not meeting the strict letter of the law should be disqualified. For example, Miller supporters have challenged a vote for Murkowski "that appeared to have her name spelled and printed correctly, though the 'L' in 'Lisa' was in cursive handwriting." They have been arguing against other ballots in which her name appeared clearly readable, including one that read, "Lisa Murkowski Republican."
The Miller campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.