Former U.S. Sen. candidate Joe Miller's most recent federal campaign finance report has been posted on the Federal Election Commission website and perhaps the most interesting thing is the Drop Zone security agency has finally made an appearance.

Readers will remember Drop Zone security guards are the ones who detained and handcuffed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger on Oct. 17 at a public town hall at a middle school in Anchorage. This after Hopfinger tried to ask Miller questions about the circumstances of his departure from the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Miller walked away without answering and when Hopfinger tried to follow the Drop Zone security team "chest bumped" him back, grabbed him and handcuffed him saying he assaulted a still unidentified bystander and that he was trespassing. Anchorage police arrived and let him loose. No charges were filed against anyone.

The Miller campaign has never reported an expenditure to Drop Zone or owner William Fulton for that security service, and in fact the two off-duty military guys who were helping Fulton that day told Hopfinger they were campaign volunteers (albeit the only ones dressed in black suits, white shirts and ties, and wearing radio earpieces).

The year-end report filed Jan. 31 now lists a payment of $315 to Drop Zone but not for the infamous October town hall. This payment on Dec. 28 is for "Recount Personnel Services/Equipment," according to the report, suggesting Miller continued to keep Fulton and Drop Zone around even after the town hall incident, which garnered international attention for Miller and not in a good way.

The report shows Miller still had about $825,000 in the campaign bank at the end of January. That briefly lit up the political blogosphere with people wondering whether he was planning another run for office, maybe against U.S. Rep. Don Young in two years or perhaps Sen. Mark Begich in 2014. On Thursday, RealClearPolitics.com reported a conversation with Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto in which DeSoto said Miller may form a new political action committee which would allow him to keep his fundraising machine going.

And that's a good thing for the Miller campaign crew, who, records show, made tens of thousands of dollars off the "grassroots" campaign. About a dozen Alaska residents and a few from Outside have appeared regularly in Miller's FEC reports as consultants of various stripes, ranging from political strategists to fundraising consultants to "travel/logistics consulting" and "compliance consulting," the tag for Miller's campaign treasurer who fills out the FEC reports. There's no sign of payroll taxes like other campaigns report for staff who are paid a salary rather than reported as "consultants."

As of Friday morning, no year-end FEC reports had been posted for Lisa Murkowski or Scott McAdams.

Contact Patti Epler at patti(at)alaskadispatch.com.