Democrat Crawford says he'll challenge Young for U.S. House

Crawford filed with the Division of Elections Wednesday to run against Young, Alaska's lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1973. Crawford said he knows it won't be easy to defeat the entrenched incumbent.

"I understand what I'm doing here," Crawford said, throwing in one of his most quoted sayings in the Legislature. "I knew it was a snake when I picked it up."

Crawford said he's running because he's tired of waiting to see movement on getting resources to market, such as drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. Crawford, whose background is as a union ironworker, said he'd try to forge an alliance with members of Congress from steel producing states that stand to benefit from Alaska development.

"(Young) has a certain style that everybody's well aware of and I don't believe it has worked very well," Crawford said. "Now he's no longer in the majority, no longer in a position of power. The Democrats are in power now and I believe that I have a record of working well with both parties."

Young's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Crawford's challenge.

Young shrugs off talk about him being out of power, saying in an Anchorage speech last week that he's been able to do work while in the minority for more than 20 of his years in Congress. "God willing, with your support, I'll be going back in the majority," he said at a World Trade Center Alaska luncheon.

Young, 76, blamed the federal government for preventing Alaska's resource development and said the state should sue when it's stymied by the feds.

"We have just not had the desire on the congressional level to produce the energy that will solve much of our economic problems in this country," he said.

Crawford, 57, has toppled a Republican political powerhouse before: He was first elected to the state House in 2000 by beating Ramona Barnes, a 10-term legend and former speaker of the state House. Crawford will have to give up his seat representing the Baxter area of Anchorage in the House in order to challenge Young for Congress.

Crawford said his first task is fundraising. He's hoping to get support from the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which told him in a Washington, D.C., meeting that he has to prove himself first as a strong candidate.

Young reported $232,108 in his campaign account in his most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission. He continues to use some of the campaign money on legal bills, spending at least $37,000 on lawyers between April and June. Young is under federal investigation for his fundraising and other matters but no charges have been filed against him. He's expressed frustration that it's dragged on for so long, saying that he has been cooperating for more than 30 months and is confident nothing is going to come of the probe.

Crawford said he doesn't plan to make an issue of the investigation. "I intend to make this about what I can do, not about Don Young," he said. "People know Don Young; they've had him for a long time."

Another possible challenger for Young next fall is former Republican state legislator Andrew Halcro of Anchorage, who said he'll announce his plans on Sept. 10.

Young won his most recent re-election bid in 2008 by defeating Democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz by more than 16,000 votes. He had a tighter contest in the Republican primary, beating then- Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell by just 304 votes.

Parnell is now governor and Berkowitz is expected to challenge him for that job in next year's election instead of going for a rematch with Young. Diane Benson, whom Berkowitz beat in the 2008 Democratic primary for the U.S. House, said she thinks Crawford is a great candidate and hasn't committed to whether she'll make another run for political office in the 2010 election.

Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.