Congressman Don Young [R-AK] was appointed by the Governor of Alaska to the state's single US House seat in 1972, after losing the election to Nick Begich [D], father of current US Senator Mark Begich [D]. The senior Begich was lost in a plane crash near Juneau two weeks before the 1972 election. Young has been re-elected to the seat every two years since then.
Young always seems unstoppable and untouchable -- but it's tough to understand why, since he is [with occasional exception] harsh, combative, rude, uninformed, disaffected and even downright weird! In my estimation, it has to do with the quality of his challengers; fondness of the voters here for seniority and continuity; and faulty decisionmaking by the state's Democratic Party leaders.
Alaska is among the reddest of the red states. But it wasn't always this way, and may not continue to be, if present demographic trends continue. Interestingly, Alaska is the fifth least religious of the 50 states. It has had more Democratic than Republican governors [including one DINO and one RINO].
more below...
Young's Democratic opponent in 2006, Diane Benson did a lot better than expected, but still lost by 17 points [40%-57%]. She was an outsider and was knocked by establishment Dems because she had never held elective office before, and had a mini controversy or two in her past. I thought she had a lot of strong points -- female, Alaska Native, blue collar work background, educated, and her son [age 26 at the time] was in the military and lost both his legs in Iraq. So she should have had the anti-war vote, the left wing, women, natives and labor.
In 2008, with Benson in the race again, no less than three mainstream Dem challengers competed against her in the primary. In the end it was between Benson and former State Rep. Ethan Berkowitz -- with Berkowitz carrying his message that he would be a much stronger opponent than Benson... and going after national Democratic Party support. Berkowitz was actually raising money right here at DKos via an ActBlue page for his race against Young, neglecting to even mention he still needed to clear a primary in August 2008. Not even a mention of Benson, who was IMHO a much better and more progressive choice. Berkowitz was lackluster at best, putting up with influence peddling and corruption when he was in the State Legislature, rather than speaking out against it. Berkowitz did slightly better than Benson but still lost to Young by 5 pts. in the general.
[In 2010, State Sen. Harry Crawford [D] was trounced by Young, 31%/69%.]
The closest scrapes Young ever had were in 1990 and 1992. Both times he narrowly prevailed over Valdez, AK Mayor John Devens, who made a national name for himself during cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound. The AK Democratic Party considered Devens a long shot in 1990 and didn't help him in any way with money or support.
I'm not necessarily saying the AK Democratic Party is in need of an intervention -- the cure might be worse than the disease. Alaska is a complicated and nuanced political environment -- despite the impression you may have been given by a certain half-term governor and VP candidate! The fact is, there are still a few RINOs and DINOs in the State Legislature; the balance of power is fairly even; and bipartisan cooperation is still practiced, a lot of the time.
Though I've lived in Anchorage for 40 years, in the last two I've also spent a lot of time in Homer, a sea cost town of 5,000 at the end of the road 200 miles south. It is always represented the Republicans -- but they are RINOs, and their party affiliation isn't played up, and it's really part of a calculus to get elected in a town with an electorate that's pretty old and pretty white. It's also relatively liberal -- one of the few places in Alaska where Democrat Scott McAdams prevailed in the three way 2010 US Senate race where Lisa Murkowski won a write-in campaign against Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate who squeaked past her in the [closed] Republican primary. In the fall of 2010 I found myself on a boat trip with, among others State Rep. Paul Seaton [R-Homer]. Seaton spent most of the trip bending the ear of a couple other passengers about his passion for alternative energy development. "Alaska has to make sure our interests are met, in regards to oil taxation -- but I'm really a lot more interested in making sure we can play a role in development of wind, geothermal, hydro, solar and so forth, because that is the future and that is where there is opportunity," I overheard him say.
The Murkowski election involved getting a plurality of natives in places like Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and Barrow [and outlying satellite villages] to abandon their typical Democratic voting pattern and vote for Lisa, to prevent Joe Miller from getting the seat. The management of native corporations, more than the native voting public was behind this push -- but it worked. And the sad part is, they might stay that way. What is the AK Democratic Party doing to win back their loyalty? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking, not much of anything. Both AK Senators, Murkowski [R] and Begich [D] are moderates to a great degree; though both also vote with their party most of the time.
Who knows who will run against Don Young this year? Maybe nobody will.
What I am leading to, in a circular way is this: what do you guys think should be done to defeat an intractable kook like Young?
I know it doesn't matter. I know it's only a single seat out of 435... and that Alaska is full of wingnuts and whack jobs and self-centered nobodies. I get it. But aren't there a lot of similar challenges, in the West, rural counties in the South and Midwest, etc. where lessons learned in how to make a red place blue would apply? Isn't there still a 50 state strategy?
And FFS, wouldn't it be great to send Don Young back to Ft. Yukon?
Correction [from comments]: Young wasn't appointed, he won a bare plurality in a special election in '73. Thanks. Should have researched that, instead of trying to remember events that happened when I was 12!