AK-AL, AK-Sen: Choices, Choices

MyDD’s Jonathan Singer recently had an excellent pair of posts chronicling the ethics controversies currently swirling around two of Alaska’s Republican federal statewide officeholders: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens.  While the FBI is sniffing around Stevens and his son, Young has been catching heat for inserting a $10 million dollar earmark in a 2006 transportation bill that just so happened to boost the fortunes of a local real estate developer–and Don Young fundraiser–over the objections of local officials:

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county. […]

Mr. Young’s role, first reported by The Naples Daily News, has escalated objections to the project. Environmentalists say the interchange would threaten wetlands. And a Republican commissioner of Lee County, Ray Judah, is campaigning against the interchange, calling it an example of Congressional corruption that is “a cancer on the federal government.”

“It would appear that Don Young was doing a favor for a major contributor,” Mr. Judah said.

With former Governor Tony Knowles having flamed out in two successive elections, Democrats are setting their eyes on recruiting who they believe will be their party’s next great hope to take on one of these highly-entrenched incumbents next year:

With a trio of stories today involving ethical allegations against Alaska Republicans, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich’s phone started ringing early with calls from Capitol Hill.

Begich, a popular mayor who won his second three-year term a year ago, is being courted to challenge one or the other of Alaska’s longtime Republican incumbents, who have more than 73 years of combined congressional experience. He’s the son of the late Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), who died in a 1972 plane crash with the late Rep. Hale Boggs (D-La.), in a remote part of the Frontier State. Begich, now 44, was 10 at the time.

Facing a term limit in the spring of 2009, Begich is in a minor bidding war between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — which wants him to challenge Rep. Don Young (R), who took his father’s seat after the crash — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — seeking a challenger to Sen. Ted Stevens (R), 83, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.

Now, if you were Begich, which race would you prefer to take a crack at?  Barring a retirement by either of these geezers (which is not outside the realm of possibility), I’d lean in favor of a Begich vs. Young match-up.  Both Young and Stevens are institutions within Alaska, but Stevens moreso, what with his seniority and his curious tie collection.  And while Young has cruised to comfortable re-election margins after a couple of scares in the early 1990s, the luster was removed after his relatively humble performance against little-known Democrat Diane Benson in 2006, where Young only won by a 57-40 margin despite outspending Benson by a nearly 10-to-1 ratio.  (Compare that to his 2002 and 2004 wins of 75-17 and 71-23, respectively.)

On top of that, the potential negative campaign narrative against Young could be devastating.  The last time I checked, Alaska and Florida are on polar opposite ends of the United States, and that could be especially damning if Begich and the DCCC slam Young for being “the unofficial representative of Florida.”   “Don Young (FL-AL)” has a pretty good ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Race Tracker: AK-Sen | AK-AL