As Republicans fell in defeat across the nation in 2006, Alaska’s Republican party was having a very different experience. It began an ethical cleaning of a house that had become filthy with the stain of entrenched one-party rule. Republican voters helped former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin (R.) defeat their incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski (R.), in a primary by a 32-point margin.
Murkowski, already controversial for his decision to appoint his daughter to the U.S. Senate in 2003, had worn out his welcome in a number of other ways. He purchased an airplane for the governor’s office over the objections of the state legislature. He also backed an unpopular oil-tax plan that had been favored by a highly influential Alaska company, VECO, whose CEO later pleaded guilty to bribing state legislators. Murkowski’s chief of staff pled guilty to having the company illegally pay for $20,000 in polls for the 2006 race.
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This August, Alaska’s GOP will have another opportunity to burnish its image and advance the cause of good government. To the surprise and delight of the crowd at the state party convention in March, Palin’s conservative running mate, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R.), announced his primary challenge against powerful Rep. Don Young (R.), an 18-term congressman and the former chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Parnell is pro-life and received the National Rifle Association’s highest rating in 2006.
“I recognize that he’s made some large contributions to Alaska,” Parnell says of his incumbent opponent, in an interview with
National Review Online. “But there’s no question that it’s time for a transition to a new generation of leadership.”
He uses both phrases — “new generation” and “no question” — in a considered way. Young has now represented Alaska for 35 of its 49 years as a U.S. state. And he currently faces two separate federal investigations, and is connected to several other controversies.
Famous for championing such pork projects as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” Young last year berated a fellow House Republican on the floor for attempting to remove one of his earmarks from a bill, calling it “My money! My money!” He made headlines most recently on April 17, when the Senate voted to refer him to the Justice Department for investigation into a highly irregular and possibly extra-constitutional legislative action. Young altered the language of a $10-million earmark in the 2005 Transportation Bill
after it had passed both the House and Senate and before it was signed into law. Young has since argued that he did nothing wrong in making this post-passage change, which benefited one of his major campaign donors.
The FBI initiated a different investigation of Young last year, as to whether VECO funneled money to him through an annual golf tournament with cash prizes. Young has also been criticized for pushing to build the Knik Arm Bridge (also known as “Don Young’s Way”), which, if built, would boost the property value of a piece of land held by his daughter and son-in-law. He even has a tie to Jack Abramoff: His former transportation aide, Mark Zachares, pled guilty to taking bribes from the convicted lobbyist last April.
Young’s problems do not end with ethics: He recently proposed a hike in the gasoline tax. “We have the highest gasoline prices in America,” Parnell told
NRO on Friday. “And our congressman proposes to raise the gas tax by a dollar per gallon. Our congressman is not in touch with Alaskans and not working for Alaska, and I want to change that. The people have to be able to believe that their elected representative is working in their interest. They can’t right now.”
