3.14.2008

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) to face GOP primary challenge!

Finally, it looks like there might be more political change coming to Alaska. 18 term imcumbent Rep. Don Young will be facing Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in a primary.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Here is Rep. Young last summer on the House floor defending earmarks:
Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home state of Alaska.

"You want my money, my money," Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that "those who bite me will be bitten back."

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.
You got that? Your tax dollars = his money.

Interesting side note: Lt. Gov. Parnell's father, Pat Parnell challenged Rep. Young for his seat in 1980 and lost. Rep. Young's extremely classy reaction to this new challenge noted this (from earlier link):
"Sean, congratulations," Young said. "I beat your dad, and I'm going to beat you."

Pat Parnell ran as a Democrat against Young in the 1980 general election. Young received 114,089 votes to the elder Parnell's 39,922, according to the Division of Elections.

Gesturing with his finger toward Parnell, Young said that if Parnell had wanted the U.S. House seat, he should have run two years ago.

"If you wanted to run for this job, you should have done it two years ago instead of running for lieutenant governor," Young said. "You wanted that job. Stay where you are, and that's where you're going to be."
It is about time that Alaska stopped being a politically corrupt "Northern Louisiana". First stop: removing Rep. Young. Then on to Sens. Stevens and Murkowski!

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