Alaska Candidate Miller Acknowledges Benefits

Shown here are Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, left, and challenger Joe Miller. (AP Photos)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller says his family benefited from Medicaid and a state-run health care program for low-income children and pregnant women.

Miller previously acknowledged receiving federal farm subsidies for land he owned in Kansas in the 1990s and low-income hunting and fishing licenses for him and his wife when they first moved to Alaska and he was getting out of law school.

As a conservative candidate, he's criticized expansion of -- and even questioned the constiutionality of -- certain entitlement programs. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's running as a write-in candidate against him, called Miller a hypocrite.

Miller on Thursday told the Anchorage Daily News he's struggled in the past, and that there's a proper role for government. He says the question is whether power is held at the state or federal level, and he favors greater state control.

Miller says he hasn't received government assistance "for years," but wasn't more specific.