by Eric Dondero

The Independent Political Report (IPR) is reporting this morning that the Alaska Libertarian Party and the Alaska Independence Party have agreed to form a "new bipartisan coalition."

at least in the battle for four seats in the Alaska Legislature, including that of Speaker of the House. The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) and the Alaska Libertarian Party (ALP) have both agreed to endorse and support each others candidates for the Alaska Legislature this year.

There are three Alaska Libertarian Party candidates, Robert Clift in HD21 in Anchorage, Harley Brown in HD25 in Spenard/Jewell Lake and Scott Kohlhaas in HD20 in Mountainvie (photo - right), Russian Jack and Northeast Anchorage. There is one Alaskan Independence Party candidate, Ray Southwell, RN of Nikiski, who is challenging Alaska Speaker of the House, Milke Chenault in House District 34. Southwell said, “Isn’t it time that like minded people from all political persuasions band together in defense of our liberties by electing those who will hold our government accountable?”

Although IPR describes this as a "new" coalition, this has been done before. The Alaska Independence Party in many ways emerged out of the Libertarian Party of Alaska in the 1980s. The LPA got immersed in a huge scandal over a raffle for a sea plane which ran awray of state election laws. For years after, Libertarian candidate ran on the "Independence" ticket. The Party itself is said to have been formed by former members and fellow travelers of the Libertarian Party.

As is well known, Todd Palin was a dues-paying member of the AIP for years. Sarah Palin herself was often an attendee at AIP events, and even produced a video for an AIP convention welcoming attendees as Governor. Of course, Sarah Palin's political mentor was former Alaska Governor Wally Hickel, twice elected on the AIP ticket.

Added to the connections, Rob Clift listed above as helping for forge the coalition between AIP and the LPA, is the very individual who invited Sarah Palin to be a guest speaker at two Libertarian Party of Alaska local supper club meetings held in Anchorage in 2005/06.

In that election year, the leadership of the LPA, including then State LP Chair Jason Dowell publicly endorsed Palin, and worked as volunteers for her campaign. Sarah Palin's opponent for Governor on the ballot Billy Toien, good naturedly endorsed her too the last 3 days of the election.

Briefly in the 2008 Presidential campaign, the Palins were slammed by the liberal media for their attachment to the AIP. Though, suspiciously, their connections to the Libertarian Party of Alaska were largely ignored.

Now the connections may be resurfacing, in an effort to connect Palin and the Tea Party to extremist of "fringe" movements. Progressive Nation and Huffington Post are reporting "The Alaskan Independence Party, The Tea Party Before There Was A Tea Party":

If you like the Tea Party, you gotta love the Alaskan Independence Party, so why has it been shunned even by Alaska politicians?

Onetime Gov. Sarah Palin sort of started this when she was running for vice president back in 2008...

Todd Palin, the husband of ex-Gov. Sarah, was for years a registered AIP party member, and now he’s helping out with the campaign of Tea Partier Miller.

Note - Joe Miller was a guest on "Libertarian Politics Live" (LPL) two weeks ago, the radio show for this blog hosted by Andre Traversa and Jim "Right Guy" Lagnese.

Sarah Palin endorsed Miller (photo) over incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski on her Facebook page last month.

Sarah Palin's ties to the Libertarian Party of Alaska do not fit the agendas of either the third party advocate folks at IPR, nor the liberal media types at HuffPo and Progressive Nation, which prefer to paint her as a "religious conservative," rather than a Libertarian. So, interestingly enough, her and her husband's ties to AIP are played up, but her ties to the LP are ignored.

Disclosure - I am a longtime friend of Scott Kolhaas, and worked closely with Rob Clift in 2005/06 in Anchorage on a local initiative. I also served as a volunteer in Sarah Palin's campaign for Governor the last few weeks of the election.