It’s not. Ketchikan is a dying town with a declining population. It’s a complete waste of money. That didn’t stop Palin from spending millions of dollars on a dirt road from the airport to where the bridge isn’t.
Mark Begich is a moderate Democrat and very pragmatic. He tackles problems that he knows he can gain support for and is usually successful in his efforts.
I and others urged him to run for mayor six years ago, after 15 years of Republican mayors had all but ruined this city. We were in debt, with no balanced budget, poor snow removal, deteriorating infrastructure, and a shoddy public transit system. The incumbent at that time was weak and unpopular and Begich unseated him in a real squeaker of an election (seems to be his M.O.).
In the past six years, Mark has balanced the budget, created a surplus, paid off bonds (which results in voters approving new ones), improved public transit and the downtown corridor, built a new convention center, and instituted numerous other life-improving measures. Snow is actually plowed off the sidewalks and from the bus stops! He works entirely in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, and will be a popular and effective Senator in Washington. He’s much like his father, Sen. Nick Begich, who I also knew.
Break out the butter, folks! Stevens’ conceded!
Interesting trivia: Stevens is the most senior Senator ever to be defeated for reelection, and the first Alaskan Senator to be defeated.
I would never guessed the old fart would go down without a recount.
Since the state went to electronic ballots, recounts have been pointless when there is a margin this large. Ted’s a realist, for all his faults.
Thank you. And I mean that in all sincerity.
You’re welcome. He was somewhat unsure, as he had been beaten in the previous mayoral race. But the guy who beat him turned out to be a disaster in office. People were pretty pissed about the condition of the city. Several people in this exploratory meeting asked various questions and made some comments, but he still seemed to be hesitant.
I finally said, “Look, we want our goddamned city back. We need someone with a vision of the future, not the past. This guy is beatable. So here’s my question: If not now, when? If not you, then who?” That brought a thoughtful look to his face, and his answer was still noncommital, but there was much more positive body language. And a few days later, he declared his intention to run.
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Actually, Rep. Nick Begich. I just happened to be reading about the disappearance of him and Hale Boggs the other night on Wikipedia.
He was a state senator when I knew him. He became a U.S. Rep. after I left for military service.
Will you bring your Rasputin-like ways to Ohio and convince my husband to clean the bathroom?
Well, thank goodness for that. The Senate GOP members might have had to actually do something about it.
Har.
Make no mistake, people: if it hadn’t been for the Alaska Independence Party candidate stealing 12,000 votes away from the Republicans, we would be looking at the spectacle of a convicted felon in the Senate. Republicans are practically foaming at the mouth up here over both the national and local elections. Calls for secession and all that other sour grapes shit that dems were spouting after the 2004 election. I’m lovin’ it.
I’ve been feeling so conflicted about this. On the one hand, it makes me tingly that he has to live his days out knowing that he got fired by the people he served. He fair and square lost an election, which I’m sure he long felt was impossible. The people eventually decided they didn’t like him.
On the other hand, it would have also been a very special moment if he had been fired by his own colleagues. A unique flavor of disgrace that he has certainly earned.
Now that I think about it … there is still time to have our cake and eat it too! Fire the lame duck. Whadya say Senators?!
Congress stood up and applauded him when he did his farewell speech. I found that rather distasteful.
Noteworthy that Begich, in his comments to reporters declaring victory, felt it necessary to explain that he was a libertarian-thinking Alaska Democrat, different from them other Democrats, especially New York Democrats.
This sort of attitude promoting suspicion of and separation from “Outsiders” seems to be pretty common among Alaskans. Sad that even a purported progressive like Begich has to pander to this view.
That whole institution is so incestuous it’s icky. Remember that this is the same group where one of the Democratic senators (Hawaii’s Daniel Inouye) was firmly on Ted Stevens’s cheerleading squad. Their collegiality is more important than their constituents.
Which is kind of what it’s supposed to be. The Senate didn’t even start out as a chamber that the people voted for. It’s supposed to be much more removed from partisan wrangling and popular political passions than the House.
Southern Democrats will do that quite often, so its hardly unique to Alaska.
It’s either that or go down in flames in the 2014 election. Begich is right about dead center, politically; but the Republican viewpoint here is so far to the right that they see him as a flaming liberal. If he doesn’t curry favor with the libertarians and other moderates, he can’t win another election.
Most interesting in this election was that the Bush (Alaska Native villages) went for him. In the past, the Native vote has been squarely in Stevens’ pocket. His battles to help Alaska Natives has been epic and was always appreciated by them, but I’m glad to see that they still have a strong sense of ethics, unlike the assholes in Sarah Palin country, which went solidly for Stevens. Also, the military went for Begich, which was a big surprise.
First time I’ve ever seen libertarians characterized as “moderates”! Only in Alaska!