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Alaska Rep. Young, Fending Off Ethics Questions, Draws Serious Dem Challenge
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Oct 10, 2007 09:41pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Oct 10, 2007 09:40pm |
| Description | By Rachel Kapochunas | 9:36 PM; Oct. 10, 2007 |
Ethan Berkowitz — a well-known figure in an Alaska Democratic Party that has struggled for years in the conservative-leaning state — announced Wednesday that he will challenge entrenched but suddenly embattled Republican Rep. Don Young in the 2008 race for Alaska’s sole House seat.
The entry by Berkowitz, a former state House minority leader who was the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor in 2006, underscored the party’s hopes of seriously threatening the usually lock-tight hold that Young has had on the at-large seat since he first was sent to Congress in a March 1973 special election.
Berkowitz enters a field of legitimate Democratic contenders that is unusually crowded, spurred in part by a spate of news reports about ethics controversies that have cast a cloud over Young. Preceding Berkowitz into the race for the August 2008 Democratic primary were Diane Benson, a writer and political activist who held Young to a subpar 57 percent of the vote as the 2006 Democratic nominee, and Jake Metcalfe, a labor union lawyer who is a former chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Berkowitz accentuated the positive aspects of his campaign in his candidacy announcement late Wednesday afternoon Alaska time. “It’s time for Alaska and America to take a new direction,” Berkowitz stated, according to prepared remarks that he provided in advance to CQPolitics.com. He pledged to “run a campaign that will be about what we’re for, not who we’re against.”
But Berkowitz seemed to refer obliquely to the ethics questions that Young has recently faced, pledging to “restore trust and high ethical standards in our public servants and our government,” and declaring, “We can have leaders who make us proud.” |
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