Alaska GOP scandal

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HULLABALOO DIGBY


A reporter for the Alaska Dispatch, an online news site, was handcuffed and arrested by private security guards at a middle school in Anchorage Sunday after trying to question Republican Senate hopeful Joe Miller following a town hall meeting. The guards who arrested the reporter worked for Miller through Drop Zone Security, a private security firm in Anchorage.

According to accounts in the Anchorage Daily News and the Dispatch, the problems started when the reporter, Tony Hopfinger, followed Miller down a hallway in an effort to ask questions about Miller's time as a government lawyer for the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2009. Miller did not respond to the questions, having announced last week that he will no longer speak about his past work experience or personal life.

Hopfinger told the Dispatch that as he followed Miller, he was wrapped up in a crowd of Miller supporters and security guards and pushed someone away from him. That's when a Drop Zone guard grabbed him. "He throws me up against the wall," Hopfinger said. "He handcuffs me." Hopfinger also said the guards took his video camera, the contents of which had been erased when it was later returned to him.