After his failed Senate bid in 2010, Tea Party favorite Joe Miller is considering running against Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) next year in what he calls a choice between the "easy lies of an insider politician or the hard truth of a reformer."
In a Sunday blog post on his website, Miller explained why he may run again, confirming speculation that he still has his eyes on Capitol Hill.
"Serious times call for bold measures. With the re-election of Barack Obama, our very way of self-government is in peril. The Constitution is under attack, the value of human life degraded, religious liberties are threatened, the Second Amendment is increasingly in jeopardy, and the right to protection from unlawful search and seizure is giving way to a virtual surveillance State," Miller writes. "We need a candidate in 2014 who will join reformers like Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz to confront President Obama, not one who will cut a deal to negotiate the terms of our surrender to his radical socialist agenda."
Earlier this year, the National Review reported that Miller was exploring a 2014 challenge to Begich. The Alaska conservative met with National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) on Capitol Hill, and stopped by his former rival Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) office in what was reportedly their first meeting since the 2010 election.
In his blog post, Miller said he has yet to make a final decision on a run, and is weighing financial support as well as conservative backing for his potential challenge to the GOP "status quo."
"I have been a Republican for most of my adult life," Miller writes. "But I am under no illusions about the Republican Establishment’s failure to confront the problems facing the country. The status quo is not a viable option."
Miller was the Republican nominee for the Alaska Senate seat in 2010. However, he lost the general election to fellow Republican Murkowski, who waged a successful write-in campaign after losing to Miller in the GOP primary.
Miller's former private security guard William Fulton told The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly that the GOP candidate wore a bulletproof vest on the night he beat Murkowski to win the Republican nomination.
Fulton said the story illustrates how Miller was "a paranoid guy with a bunch of guys with guns that like to hang out with him who almost became a senator."
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