Alaskan Independence Party
The Alaskan Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Alaska that advocates a state vote which includes several options, including increased state autonomy, territorial status, becoming a separate nation or commonwealth state, and, failing that, for increased Alaskan control of Alaskan land, gun rights, privatization, home schooling, and reduction of governmental intrusion in the private lives of its citizens with adherence to the founding documents of the United States. Their platform is essentially libertarian but with emphasis on some level of political independence for Alaska.
The preceding was copied wholesale from Wikipedia on September 6 2008, with no concern for accuracy.[1]
Their biggest electoral success came when Wally Hickel was elected governor of Alaska in 1990 running on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket. Hickel had previously been governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 as a Republican, and then had been Richard Nixon's Secretary of the Interior who briefly became a counterculture hero when he was fired by Nixon for denouncing the Vietnam War after the Kent State shootings. Hickel's reputation was that of a liberal Republican. In office he governed as a fairly standard (for Alaska) center-right governor and made no attempt to throw any bones to the AIP's more radical libertarian/secessionist wing, making him not so popular among some of the AIP.
Assertions of certain "progressive" types in the lower 48 that the AIP is somehow a bunch of treasonous secessionist subversives to the contrary, the AIP is rather mainstream and not particularly controversial within the context of Alaskan politics. No one panics when they read the internets meme created by Second Vermont Republic operatives that Vermont is considering secession again every few weeks, after all. On the other hand they have repeatedly endorsed Constitution Party candidates for president, in 2004 and 2008 specifically.
Unlike most other state parties using the name "Independence Party", the Alaskan Independence Party does not have any historical connection at all to the Reform Party.