Parnell cultivates support from right

Parnell, one of two Republicans challenging Young in the August primary, spent a week in Washington, D.C., after Memorial Day meeting with a who's who of national anti-tax and spending groups: The Club For Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

On Friday, the Club For Growth endorsed Parnell, and its president authored an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal headlined "Don Young Embodies What's Wrong with the GOP." Few Alaska voters have probably heard of the group, but what this means for Parnell is money.

The Club For Growth has spent big money, in donations and on television commercials, on past races, including more than $1 million on one primary election alone earlier this year. The group ad promises cash and possibly TV ads to help Parnell.

Young was contemptuous of the endorsement, saying the Club For Growth has never supported anything in Alaska and it just shows how out of touch Parnell is with the state and its people. He said Parnell is nothing but a surrogate for Gov. Sarah Palin.

"He has done nothing, if you'll check his legislative record," Young said. "He is a zero. A zero. It's amazing to me, I've never seen a candidate try to hook on and live off of someone else as he's doing."

Is Parnell a conservative?

Parnell, who spent eight years in the state Legislature, is calling for a one-year freeze on federal earmarks -- the directions written into federal spending bills that Young and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens have used extensively to steer money home to Alaska. Parnell says he's also for keeping taxes down and reducing "wasteful" government spending.

Parnell, though, has supported Palin proposals that drove some Alaskan conservatives apoplectic. That includes her energy cost relief plan calling for all Alaskans to get $100-a-month state debit cards to use at the gasoline pump. It also includes the major tax increase on oil companies the governor pushed through last year.

Parnell defends the oil tax hike by pointing to the FBI's finding there was corruption among state legislators at the time the previous oil tax was being debated.

"So at that stage, when you have proven corruption influencing a tax regime you have to make a change," Parnell said.

Parnell said Young has repeatedly advocated higher taxes that would hurt Alaskans.

"On a number of occasions he has proposed increasing the gasoline tax, most notably three weeks ago when he wanted to raise our gasoline tax to a dollar a gallon," Parnell said. "I think he's headed in the wrong direction when it comes to fiscal policy."

Young suggested raising the gas tax from 18 cents to a dollar a gallon at a House subcommittee meeting. But Young subsequently said it was not a proposal and he was only trying to wake the committee up to make the point that if Congress doesn't allow new domestic supplies of oil it will have to find a way to curb demand.

Young does, however, support a five-cent-a-gallon increase in the federal gas tax.

"If you want to build roads, if you want to have transportation, if you want to save fuel, we've got to address it. We're so far behind," Young said on Friday.

'MR. WHOEVER HE IS'

Young and Parnell also battle over earmarks. Parnell said earmark abuse is so rampant that the practice needs to be suspended for a year to rework the process and give the public confidence.

"I would like to see the number of earmarks dramatically reduced; the number has escalated significantly in the last decade. I'd like to see more openness and transparency there so the earmark sees the light of day and bears public scrutiny," Parnell said.

Parnell said most of Alaska's federal money comes from sources other than earmarks. It hurts Alaska to be a symbol of national excess and the state is capable of competing for federal funds without relying on earmarks, Parnell said.

But Young said Alaskans -- cities, groups and individuals -- ask him for the earmarks to fill needs the state won't. He said calling for a moratorium on earmarks is a losing strategy for Parnell.

"I hope Mr. Whoever He Is keeps saying that. I guarantee that if he was accidently to win this primary you can just about be assured he won't (be re-elected) and be back in Washington, D.C." Young said.

The other Republican who is running for Young's seat, Kodiak state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, also disagreed with suspending earmarks for a year.

"I think that's naive," she said.

BLUSHING DEMOCRATS?

The conservative Club For Growth would like to scrap earmarks altogether. But club spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said she doesn't expect that of Parnell.

"Sean Parnell just has to show up and it will be an improvement over Don Young," she said.

Club For Growth president Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush."

The Club For Growth influences races by bundling contributions from its members and by running ads. Soloveichik said it gave more than $400,000 in contributions and spent over $600,000 on TV ads this year to defeat Maryland Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrist. He lost in that state's February primary. The group spent about $1.5 million in 2006 to get an Idaho Republican elected to Congress, running ads criticizing the Democrat in that race as "too liberal for Idaho" and tying him to "San Francisco and New York liberals."

Alaska has a closed primary. That means only Republicans and unaffiliated voters who pick the Republican ballot will decide whether Young, Parnell or LeDoux moves on to face the Democratic nominee in the November general election.

Anchorage pollster Dave Dittman said he thinks Parnell's run to the right of Young could resonate with voters. He said Parnell might have "submerged" his conservative beliefs at times lately to be a team player with Palin but they're not inconsistent with what he did as a budget leader in the state Legislature.

There are some Alaska Republicans, though, who have a hard time seeing the 18-term Congressman Young as liberal no matter what the Club For Growth says.

"I think (Parnell) is going to have a hard time convincing Alaskans that Don Young is not a conservative," said conservative former Lt. Gov. Jack Coghill.

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Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344. Reporter Erika Bolstad in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.