Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell posted on his Facebook page that he “applauded” Sen. Ted Cruz’s attempt at defunding the Affordable Care Act. He said that “when” he’s elected, he would “stand and work with Senators like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.”
Treadwell is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. So far, the only other declared candidate is tea party favorite Joe Miller. For years in Alaska, Treadwell had a reputation as being a moderate Republican. He gave money to liberal Democrats, talked about global warming being at least in part caused by human activity, and worked to get the U.S. to sign on to the Law of the Sea Treaty, all of which, particularly the latter, are verboten to the tea party.
That began to change when he ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and began to court the conservative and tea party vote. In 2010, he declined to endorse Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was a long time friend of Treadwell’s, against Joe Miller.
He did, however, support her during her write-in campaign against Miller, which infuriated many tea party activists.
Treadwell is now staunchly anti-abortion, repeatedly rails against federal encroachment, and has made repealing the Affordable Care Act a major part of his platform.
A spokesman for Miller indicated that Miller would not readily cede the tea party vote to Treadwell. “Joe has been standing strongly with fellow tea partiers Cruz and Lee and has signed the Senate Conservatives Fund pledge to defund Obamacare,” the spokesman told the conservative site The Daily Caller. ”Unless, Mead just signed on today, he has not. He is shown as a thumbs down on their site.”
While Treadwell’s embrace of Cruz’s “filibusterer” is designed to get him some traction with tea party activists in Alaska, it’s questionable if he will succeed. It also runs counter to the views of some in the Senate Republican leadership, who are increasingly vocal about Cruz “burning bridges” in that organization.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
I have known Mead Treadwell for some time. I cannot begin to explain my disappointment with him. He is not a conservatibe or a tea party activist. Unfortunately, he has turned into a political whore saying anything to anybody for the purpose of pandering for votes. Besides, just how dumb us it to try to out tea party Joe Miller? Treadwell will end up coming in 3rd place in the polls and 1st p being disgusting, lacking political courage and not being true to his convictions. I would have voted for Mead, not now, not ever.
I asked Meade several questions and the answers were moderate to weak. Nice enough conversation, but didn’t feel a lot of substance.
The big question is, to win the election he is “sounding conservative”, will he drop that once he is thousands of miles from us? My gut says, yes.
This sort of partisan posturing is bad for our state and our nation.
Mead is turning into a fruitcake. He doesn’t know what he is. I knew him when he was a liberal Republican. He gave political contributions to liberals like Matt Claman and Sheila Sellkregg. Truth be told he is a RINO. A Republican leader once said referring to Mead, “don’t worry what his position is, he’ll change it from group to group depending on who he is talking to”. Well, aint that the truth. I’m no Joe Miller fan, but I’d support him over Treadwell – – at least he has convictions. Is Sullivan getting in the race soon ? I sure hope so because I don’t want to vote for Miller.
Treadwell is a two-face phoney. He is desparate and trying to re-create himself. He disgusts me and stands for NOTHING.