Long-shot Fisher challenges Young in primary

Young's challenger in Tuesday's Alaska Republican primary, Sheldon Fisher, says there are plenty of other reasons for voters to reject the incumbent.

Fisher, whose long-shot chance to unseat Young diminished with the Aug. 4 announcement, says Young is part of the reason America is dissatisfied with the direction of the country and professional politicians.

"I do believe he's accountable," Fisher said. "If he's not accountable, who is?"

Fisher, 48, resigned as an executive with telecommunications company ACS to challenge Young. The son of a college math teacher, Fisher grew up in Ashland, Ore. He earned an economics degree at Brigham Young University and a law degree at Yale.

Most of his professional life has been spent in telecommunications with Hughes Electronics and Sprint before ACS.

Ideally, Fisher said, he will join the 40 or 50 other new Republican members of the House to change the trajectory of the country, restoring fiscal discipline and making hard decisions to cut spending and the federal deficit.

Change will require sacrifice, he said, a message that may not sit well with voters. He says he'd rather tell people what be believes and lose rather than what they want to hear and win.

"That being said, I actually believe that increasingly Alaskans, as well as all Americans, are starting to realize the chickens are coming home to roost," he said. "Everybody needs to be willing to make some sacrifices if anything's going to change."

Fisher reported campaign receipts of $134,370 to Young's $777,775 as of Aug. 4. If Fisher has had to struggle getting his message out, Alaskans largely know what they are getting with the incumbent, who has been the state's lone representative in the U.S. House for most of statehood.

Young, 77, won a special election in March 1973 and is now the second-longest serving Republican in the House. His campaign ads claim he is Speaker Nancy Pelosi's worst nightmare, though he does not hold a committee chairmanship and he left the Republican House leadership during the investigation.

Over the years Young has railed against federal government regulatory intrusion but welcomed billions in federal aid.

Young is an unabashed supporter of developing Alaska's natural resources, including offshore drilling and petroleum development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He calls global warming a scam.

He has been a steady vote against gun control and a reliable supporter of the military and infrastructure for rural Alaska.

He said Friday that he will continue to fight against federal intrusion into the lives of Alaskans, starting with the health care bill. Health care needed change, he said, but, "They just went wacko." He vowed to rewrite, repeal or withhold funding for the measure until it can be made palatable.

Young said energy development will be the basis for getting the U.S. economy back on track. Petroleum will continue to be the bridge to alternative sources down the road, and Alaska someday could be the country's power center with its wealth of hydro, thermal, tidal, coal and petroleum power.

"That's not going to happen in two years," he said.

Young also cites a low-profile reason for re-electing him.

"I'm very good at constituent work, and I like it," he said. No challenger can match his knowledge on the needs of Alaskans in every village and region of the state, he said.

Young was re-elected in 2008 despite an investigation of his connections to Veco Corp. and its chairman, Bill Allen, who was convicted of bribing state lawmakers. Congress itself asked for an investigation of a spending bill earmark that benefited a Young campaign supporter in Florida.

Fisher believes it's time for Young to go. The only information received on the dropped investigation, he said, was a two-sentence announcement from Young's office.

"It's hard for me to tell whether all the investigations have been dropped or just the Veco investigation that was here in Alaska," he said.

One other Republican is in the race. Republican John R. Cox of Anchor Point reports spending no money for the race. The winner will face Democrat Harry Crawford, a member of the state House from Anchorage, who is running unopposed.

U.S. House candidates Primary election candidates for United States Representative • John Cox (Republican) • Sheldon Fisher (Republican) • Don Young (Republican) -- Incumbent • Harry Crawford Jr. (Democrat)