Gabrielle LeDoux

AGE: 60

OCCUPATION: Lawyer

BACKGROUND: LeDoux is a former Kodiak Island Borough mayor who represents Kodiak in the state House. She was first elected to the state Legislature in 2004.

Gabrielle LeDoux is a second-term state representative from Kodiak and former mayor of the Kodiak Island Borough.

She's running against incumbent Don Young and Sean Parnell in the Aug. 26 Republican primary.

Below, LeDoux discusses earmarks, ANWR, Iraq and a gas pipeline, among other topics.

Q. You've said you don't want to run an anti-Don Young campaign. Tell me about that.

A. I want it to be about people and I want it to be about issues, and I don't want it to be about slamming people. And I've never run a negative campaign in my life, and I don't intend to do that this time either.

Q. Was there a certain thing that pushed you over the edge that made you decide, now this is the time to run for Congress?

A. I decided to run back last summer and, again, without trying to get into the personalities or anything, there were things looming and there were rumors and investigations and so forth that were talked about. And I just decided, you know, I really don't like the way business is being done there. And so sometimes when you don't like what's going on, you just decide, well if you want to change things you've got to do it yourself.

Q. What, specifically would you like to go to Washington, D.C., and change?

A. I guess what I consider my strong point is that I really listen to people. And I think that is the probably the most critical thing to have in an elected leader. When I was Kodiak, I kind of prided myself in that I had knocked on virtually every door in Kodiak when I ran for office. Well, you know I can't knock on every single door in the state, but I am traveling around the state, and I'm trying to meet as many people as I can. Because I've got this philosophy about things, and that is that you can't really represent somebody unless you get to know that person.

Q. Don Young has said, "Anybody running for this job, ask them what they can do better than Don Young. In fact, ask them, really, what hasn't he done?" What's your response to that?

A. I'll try to respond to this without being negative. But I don't take Don Young for a guy who really spends a lot of time listening to what his constituents have to say. I've just listened to the remark that he made the other day ... and he said, "I'm an easy guy to get along with until you cross me." Well, I'm sorry, I don't think that's the right attitude to be taking, especially when too often politicians view the term "cross me" as meaning you disagree with him. I mean, I try to listen and get along with everybody, because that's important.

Q. National critics have singled out Young for securing money for the Knik Arm and Ketchikan Gravina Island bridges. What do you think of both those projects, and was the criticism fair?

A. I'm not going to really get into whether they were good projects or they were bad projects. Right now they're not going to happen.

Q. What's your position on earmarks in general?

A. I don't think there's a problem with earmarks in general. I think there's a problem often with how earmarks are accomplished. An earmark is simply the elected representative having some sort of say as to what goes into the budget for his or her community, rather than letting the feds decide everything. But, again, it's all a matter of how the earmark is accomplished.

Q. Your opponent Sean Parnell has said he'd like to see a one-year moratorium on earmarks. What do you think about that?

A. That's naive.

Q. What do you think really separates you and Sean Parnell as candidates?

A. I'm more of a people person. I represent in my community in Kodiak, I represent regular working-class sorts of people. The kind of blue-collar people who make up most of this state. I'm there, I listen, I work with these people, I relate to these people. They were my constituents, they were my clients when I practiced law, and they've been my constituents since I've been in politics.

Q. What are some of the issues you really want to work on in Washington, D.C.?

A. Well, I think ANWR is certainly important, and I'm not for giving up on ANWR. I don't think we can ever give up on ANWR. And maybe with the cost of fuel being what the cost of fuel is, maybe some of those other folks will get the idea, hopefully, because their constituents will be hounding them, that resource development is a critical thing.

Q. What do you consider your main accomplishment in the Legislature?

A. The Safe Haven bill. It took me two terms to get that done. ... It allows a parent who has a child, a newborn, and (who) realizes correctly or incorrectly that they can't take care of that child. So often you find kids like that dumped in trash cans. And it says to that person, who is usually a scared teenage mother, "I can drop this baby at a doctor's office, a hospital, a fire station, a police station."

In addition to that, I'd say we were probably the (legislative) office that helped our constituents the most. I mean, if people came to us with a problem, that was our role.

Q. Do you think any more should be done in Congress right now for an Alaska gas pipeline?

A. It's in the state's court now, and then, once the state has something, then the congressman or woman can be pushing it.

Q. What do you think of the divide between those who say it should be a pipeline company like TransCanada leading the way and those who say it should be the oil companies who hold the gas leases?

A. I'm all for competition. I think it's good right now we've got the proposal from the producers. I'd like to see a further look at the all-Alaska proposal. ... I'm not totally convinced right now that should be just shunted aside.

Q. What should be done about the war in Iraq?

A. I would like us to see us gradually withdraw at a time when the Iraqis are able to take over.

Q. Do you think the Bush administration is handling it correctly nowadays?

A. Well, I'm just going to leave it at a gradual withdrawal. The Iraqis are eventually going to have to step up to the plate.

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

Congressional Q&A lineup

TODAY: Gabrielle LeDoux, Republican

THURSDAY: Sean Parnell, Republican

FRIDAY: Don Young, Republican

MONDAY: Diane Benson, Democrat