Anchorage Daily News

Detailing what he called his "Alaska Ethics Pledge," Anchorage Mayor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Mark Begich vowed Monday to run an open campaign and promised honesty and accessibility if elected this fall.

Begich, standing on a downtown Anchorage street corner and flanked by a pair of supporters, gestured at the Federal Building behind him and said "far too many elected officials" had passed through the courthouse as defendants. He pledged financial reporting and accountability that would go "beyond the Senate ethics laws on the books."

Begich mentioned no specific names in delivering the plan, and when pressed whether he was targeting Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Stevens with his ethics complaints, he refused to point fingers directly at the senator. He said his complaints were with the process, not with individuals. "The system doesn't work," he said.

Later, however, within minutes of the release of a summary of the press conference from the Begich campaign, an Alaska Democratic Party spokeswoman e-mailed a memo critical of Stevens's voting record on ethics issues. Titled "Ted Stevens Record on Ethics -- Unfamiliar With the Concept," the memo faults the senator for being on what it judges is the wrong side of a list of measures dealing with ethics and lobbying reaching back to 1995.

Stevens campaign spokesman Tim McKeever called the memo "an effort to distort and mislead the voters of Alaska." He said the senator's vote on the issues was often in alignment with most of the Senate, including Democratic leaders.

Julie Hasquet, Begich's campaign spokeswoman, said the mayor's campaign knew the Democratic organization was researching Stevens' voting record on ethics and the party knew the mayor planned an ethics statement on Monday. But she said the mayor's campaign was not involved in the preparation or release of the memo.

In a written version of his ethics pledge released at the press conference, Begich said he will:

• Post on his Senate Web site financial disclosure forms reporting his and his wife's income "to the dollar."

• Make public on his Web site earmarks requested of him and detail who they would benefit.

• Refuse to support any pay raises for senators unless there is first a separate vote to increase the minimum wage.

• Stay in touch with Alaskans via radio and Internet and by maintaining a "strong open-door policy."

Begich was accompanied at the press conference by Vic Fischer, a delegate to the Alaska constitutional convention and former state senator, and by Nick Moe, who ran for mayor as a teenager two years ago and whom Begich subsequently hired. Fischer said Begich was not running to tear down Stevens but contended it's "time to change representatives in the U.S. Senate."

Begich faces Ray Metcalfe for the Democratic nomination.