In mid-May two years ago, it seemed like it could be time to start contemplating Congressman Don Young's political obituary. Alaska's 18-term congressman was far down in the polls to Republican primary challenger Sean Parnell, who was the lieutenant governor and had the support of the governor, Sarah Palin.
But Young came from behind, beating Parnell in the primary by just 304 votes and winning the general election by a comfortable margin. Now Young is facing another Republican primary, and this time against Sheldon Fisher, a former executive and a political newcomer who hopes to topple the man who's been in Congress longer than the majority of Alaskans have been alive.
"I'm working hard to get my name out," Fisher said in a recent interview. "Even though I don't have political expertise I feel like I have accomplished a lot in my life. I went to Yale law school, that was many years ago, but represented a lot of work and since opened up many doors for me. I spent the last 15, 18 years as an executive in the telecommunications industry. ... we need more people from a business background."
There are just two weeks left before the deadline to file for office. Fisher and John Cox of Anchor Point, a political unknown and new entrant in the race who has not visibly campaigned to this point, are the only Republican candidates signed up to challenge Young in the Aug. 24 primary election. State representative Harry Crawford is running for the Congressional seat as a Democrat, in order to take on the Republican primary winner in the November election.
Andrew Halcro, a well-known blogger and former state legislator, had announced a challenge of Young in the Republican primary. But Halcro changed his mind and launched a consulting business instead. Halcro said he wanted to pursue opportunities and didn't believe it would be possible to defeat Young in a three-way primary. He said he and Fisher would split the anti-Young vote
Halcro said in a recent interview that he finds Fisher's candidacy a bit puzzling. Fisher has only lived in Alaska for six years -- "not quite Vic Vickers" (referring to the candidate who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008 months after moving to Alaska) -- but not long for someone running for Congress, he said.
"I think he has a tough road, simply because he's only lived here six years, and has no name recognition. And I've really always believed that unless Don gets indicted it's going to be tough for anybody to beat him," Halcro said.
MONEY MATTERS
The 76-year-old Young has not lost an election in 38 years. "If I did not think I was the best for this job I would not run for it," Young said at last month's Alaska Republican Party convention. "I've had people say, why don't you retire? This state needs me now. And I'm not saying that with arrogance. We need the ability to fight this administration. To re-establish the rights of this state."
Fisher zeroes in on Young's insistence on submitting earmark requests over the opposition of the Republican party. Earmarks don't get the kind of scrutiny as a business would give that much spending, Fisher said. "It shouldn't just be that someone because they're a friend shows up and asks for money and they get it," he said.
Fisher, 47, is well aware that just about everyone knows about Young and not very many people know of him. But Fisher says people want a change, and he's been working to get his name and message out since he entered the race in January.
Fisher grew up in Oregon, the seventh of eight children in a Mormon home. He earned a degree in economics from Brigham Young University and a law degree from Yale. Fisher came to Alaska from Lower 48 telecommunications giant Sprint, where he was the general manager in wireless broadband.
Fisher said he was running an advanced technology team and part of his job was convincing Liane Pelletier, Sprint's vice president for corporate strategy, he was going in the right direction. When Pelletier moved to Alaska to take charge of Alaska Communications Systems, they started talking about Fisher coming up as well.
Fisher became vice president of sales and marketing for ACS in 2004, moving from Kansas City. "We came more for Alaska than necessarily the job," Fisher said.
Fisher resigned from ACS this past January to run for Congress. He said he was becoming concerned about national politics, watching the federal government go from the budget surplus at the end of the Clinton administration to the deficit of today. Republicans controlled Congress and the White House for most of that time, he said, and spent too much. Fisher said he was also frustrated with the Republicans for failing to tackle health care. They left it to the Democrats who correctly recognized it was a critical issue but took a flawed approach, Fisher said.
Fisher has put $56,000 of his own money into his campaign and raised another $25,000, according to the latest campaign finance statements. He said he'll probably put "a little bit more" of his own cash into the campaign. But he said he recognizes contributions are a measure of support and he's working to raise funds.
Young has $272,865 in campaign funds in the bank. He's raising more money than Fisher and hasn't used his campaign account to pay legal fees in several months. He'd earlier spent more than $1 million in campaign funds on legal bills connected to a federal investigation including a look at fundraising practices of the former Veco Corp. and an earmark in Florida that stood to benefit a campaign contributor. The investigation has gone for years with no charges. Anchorage pollster and political consultant Marc Hellenthal said people have been "holding their breath and turning quite blue" waiting for answers.
QUESTIONING EARMARKS
Young and Fisher debated at last month's Alaska Republican Party convention over earmarks, the controversial spending items that members of Congress write into budget bills without hearings. Fisher said the House Republicans were right to put a one-year ban on the practice, passing the moratorium on earmarks by voice vote in a closed-door meeting of the Republican caucus.
Young said he's just doing his job, getting Alaska the funding that the young state needs. "My leadership made that decision, didn't consult with its members and said it for political reasons," Young said, shaking his finger. "They did not elect me, you elect me, and every earmark I've ever put in any bill you've asked for."
Young said earmarks are his Constitutional duty, the role of Congress to appropriate money. He said he had 300 earmark requests this year from Alaska, and he's listed them on his website.
Fisher told the state Republican convention that earmarks have been used to support bigger federal programs. There's been a lack of transparency with earmarks, he said, and they're viewed as a tool to support campaign contributors.
Fisher held a rally in March at the "million dollar bus stop," in downtown Anchorage. Ted Stevens obtained the $875,000 earmark for the "Anchorage Museum Transit Transfer Facility," at the request of city officials to go with the expansion of the museum.
"Two years ago, fellow Republicans forced Mr. Young to resign his seniority positions. Today, Mr. Young is alienating his fellow Republicans -- the very people whose support he needs in order to regain Alaska's seniority," Fisher wrote.
By SEAN COCKERHAM
scockerham@adn.com