newsminer.com

Photo by Sam Harrel

FAIRBANKS -- In a Tuesday debate between candidates for Alaska’s congressional offices, the incumbents billed themselves as experienced, proven leaders with a history of seeing to the state’s unique needs. Their challengers promised fresh energy, younger voices and new tactics to accomplish the same things.

Republican incumbents Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young encouraged listeners to consider their proven track records in keeping Alaska’s needs at the forefront.

Democrat challengers Mark Begich, the Anchorage mayor running against Stevens, and Ethan Berkowitz, who wants Young’s seat, said long tenures by the incumbents haven’t brought about much change.

“It’s going to take a new approach, a new approach in how to deal with these complex problems that have been on the table for many, many years,” Begich said.

Berkowitz got a little aggressive, albeit with a smile, in his closing statement.

“Thomas Jefferson — you remember him, I think he was president in your first term,” Berkowitz offered his opponent. “Thomas Jefferson said a little revolution every now and then is a good thing. He said it because change rejuvenates this country.”

And Young countered, offering his tenure not as a problem but as an asset that offers Alaskans a chance to be heard in the nation’s capital. He said he’s hearing a lot about change, from presidential contenders to his opponent, Berkowitz. But he said any hunter knows when you’re in the field you don’t change a good pair of boots, just as a musher doesn’t switch his lead dog.

“You don’t change the leader that gets you home every time,” Young said. “You don’t put some young pup in the lead, to get lost and never get home.”

Young hasn’t usually faced such intense competition for his seat. Berkowitz’s push comes at a time when Young is vulnerable and being scrutinized by federal investigators.

The forum, sponsored by the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, ran video responses from Stevens. He is on trial in Washington D.C., on charges that he lied on Senate financial disclosures, which is forcing him to limit his time in Alaska.

The economic meltdown and a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street was on everyone’s minds.

Stevens recognized the bailout is controversial, but said the bipartisan bill was necessary to protect people’s investments and small businesses. Begich countered that the bill “missed the mark,” and should have included more drastic measures to protect individuals’ investments, a call for greater regulation of the financial sector, and a strong stimulus package to address the country’s crumbling infrastructure.

Young voted against the bailout bill, and said $700 billion is too much money to put in the hands of a single person, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

“We didn’t have the time to do it right,” he said, blaming the high costs of energy for mortgage defaults. He said the nation survived in the 1930s during the Depression, and will do so again.

Berkowitz said the financial meltdown is a “crisis in confidence” that demonstrates the need for change in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Sarah Palin, running for vice president on the McCain ticket, wasn’t far from anyone’s mind. Begich touched on some of her trademark phrases at times, railing against “business behind closed doors,” “wheeling and dealing,” and “business as usual” in D.C. And both Begich and Young joked a bit after referencing bridges in responses dealing with infrastructure needs — a token notice of recent controversy surrounding Palin about her positions on the Gravina Island bridge, derogatorily dubbed the “Bridge to Nowhere” by those deriding earmarks.

Even Stevens quoted Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

“I’d like to quote Governor Palin. There are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and other candidates who use their careers to promote change,” he said, adding that he’s always worked in Alaska’s best interests.

Wanting to offer Alaskan Independence Party candidate Bob Bird a voice that was denied at the chamber’s forum, the AIP held its own debate Tuesday afternoon nearby at the Fairbanks Curling Club. Party chair Lynette Clark said voters should have access to all candidates, and decried the chamber’s policy that led to Bird’s exclusion.

“I think it’s pretty cheesy what the chamber did,” she said. “The only alternative for us as a party was to sponsor this type of function, so there is access.”

Begich joined Bird in answering the same questions posed at the chamber event. The Anchorage Democrat applauded AIP for holding a second forum.

Bird stuck to the constitutional platform of the party.

“I believe that the Constitution, if properly followed, will solve our problems,” he told an audience of about 16 people. “I would be bound by the Constitution.”

Bird said the economy should be allowed to correct itself without a public money bailout.

“It’s painful. It needs to be painful,” he said. “Otherwise people will continue to be reckless.”

The AIP’s chosen candidate said corporate welfare is as bad as personal welfare. He added that “reshuffling the deck” with new names from the same parties isn’t going to change anything in Washington, D.C., where he said politicians have long overstepped the bounds set by the Constitution.

In response to a question asking whether candidates support a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals split, Begich slipped. He said it will take more western-state Democrats like himself, if elected, and those from Colorado and New Mexico to counter California’s insistence that the court jurisdiction remain intact.

Colorado and New Mexico fall under the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction, not the 9th.