Congressman Don Young to Lie in State

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Category: State News

Created on Monday, 21 March 2022 17:06

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By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Don Young, the longest-serving Republican in House history, will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol on March 29, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today.

Young’s office announced the congressman’s death in a statement Friday night. He was 88.

Pelosi’s office said a formal ceremony will be held with the Young family, which will be open to invited guests. Following the memorial service, there will be viewing open to members of Congress. Lying in state is an honor traditionally bestowed upon American political and military leaders. Young will lie in state in National Statuary Hall.

Pelosi had said after Young’s passing that he was an “institution” in Congress.

“The photographs of him with ten presidents of both parties who signed his bills into law that proudly cover the walls of his Rayburn office are a testament to his longevity and his legislative mastery,” she said.

President Joe Biden said few legislators left a greater mark on their state than Young.

Congressman Don Young is pictured in 2014 during one of his many visits over the years to the Sitka Sentinel office. The U.S. House of Representative’s longest serving member died Friday. (Sentinel file photo)

“Don’s legacy lives on in the infrastructure projects he delighted in steering across Alaska,” Biden said.

Young’s office announced his death in a statement Friday night.

“It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. His beloved wife Anne was by his side,” said the statement from Young’s congressional office.

A cause of death was not provided. Young’s office said details about plans for a celebration of Young’s life were expected in the coming days.

Young, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1973, was known for his brusque style. In his later years in office, his off-color comments and gaffes sometimes overshadowed his work. During his 2014 reelection bid, he described himself as intense and less-than-perfect but said he wouldn’t stop fighting for Alaska. Alaska has just one House member.

Born on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California, Young grew up on a family farm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching at Chico State College, now known as California State University, Chico, in 1958. He also served in the U.S. Army, according to his official biography.

Young came to Alaska in 1959, the same year Alaska became a state, and credited Jack London’s “Call of the Wild,” which his father used to read to him, for drawing him north.

“I can’t stand heat, and I was working on a ranch and I used to dream of some place cold, and no snakes and no poison oak,” Young told The Associated Press in 2016. After leaving the military and after his father’s death, he told his mother he was going to Alaska. She questioned his decision.

“I said, ‘I’m going up (to) drive dogs, catch fur and I want to mine gold.’ And I did that,” he said. In Alaska, he met his first wife, Lu, who convinced him to enter politics, which he said was unfortunate in one sense — it sent him to Washington, D.C., “a place that’s hotter than hell in the summer. And there’s lots of snakes here, two-legged snakes.”

In Alaska, Young settled in Fort Yukon, a small community accessible primarily by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh interior. He held jobs in areas like construction, trapping and commercial fishing. He was a tug and barge operator who delivered supplies to villages along the Yukon River, and he taught fifth grade at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school, according to his biography. With Lu, he had two daughters, Joni and Dawn.

He was elected mayor of Fort Yukon in 1964 and elected to the state House two years later. He served two terms before winning election to the state Senate, where, he said, he was miserable. Lu said he needed to get out of the job, which he resisted, saying he doesn’t quit. He recalled that she encouraged him instead to run for U.S. House, saying he’d never win.

In 1972, Young was the Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich. Three weeks before the election, Begich’s plane disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Alaskans reelected Begich anyway.

Begich was declared dead in December 1972, and Young won a close special election in March 1973. Young held the seat until his death. He was running for reelection this year against a field that included one of Begich’s grandsons, Republican Nicholas Begich III.

In 2013, Young became the longest-serving member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, surpassing the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who served for 40 years.

In 2015, nearly six years after Lu Young’s death, and on his 82nd birthday, Young married Anne Garland Walton in a private ceremony in the U.S. Capitol chapel.

“Everybody knows Don Young,” he told the AP in 2016. “They may not like Don Young; they may love Don Young. But they all know Don Young.”

The often gruff Young had a sense of humor and a camaraderie with colleagues from both sides of the aisle.

As the House member with the longest service, Young swore in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, when the 117th Congress convened on Jan. 3, 2021 -- three days before the attack on the Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. Before administering the oath of office, Young expressed dismay about the period’s intense partisanship.

“When you do have a problem or if there’s something so contentious, let’s sit down and have a drink, and solve those problems,” he said, drawing laughter and applause.

House Votes for Limiting Campaign Contributions

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Category: State News

Created on Thursday, 17 March 2022 15:49

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By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press

JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska House has narrowly passed legislation that would set a limit on individual contributions to candidates after prior limits were struck down by a court and the state agency overseeing campaign finance rules urged the Legislature to revisit the contribution limits issue.

The bill, from Rep. Calvin Schrage, an Anchorage independent, would set a $2,000 limit on what an individual could contribute to a candidate each campaign period.

The bill has a $5,000 a year limit on what an individual can give a group, such as a non-party group, said Erik Gunderson, an aide to Schrage.

The bill, which also addresses contribution limits for non-party groups, calls for periodic adjustments to the limits based on inflation rates. It seeks to make the limits retroactive to March 3.

The bill passed 21-18 late Wednesday. It next goes to the Senate.

A divided federal appeals court panel last year struck down a $500-a-year limit on what an individual can give a candidate. It also struck down a $500-a-year limit on individual contributions to non-party groups and a cap on total nonresident donations that a candidate can raise.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission, in a decision dated March 3, did not approve a staff proposal that suggested that limits in place before those that were struck down “apply as adjusted for inflation.” The proposal had suggested limits of $1,500 per calendar year for individuals to candidates and non-party groups.

The commission, in its decision, said it declined to revive the old contribution limits and also declined to index those for inflation. There were legal questions about whether it even had the power to do those things.

The commission office has said that “’until the Alaska State Legislature takes action on this issue, there are no longer any individual-to-candidate and individual-to-non-political party contributions limits for Alaska’s state and local elections.”

Supporters of the bill passed by the House said Alaskans want contribution limits. Some critics expressed concern with placing limits on what candidates can receive or the size of the proposed limits. Some referenced a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that paved the way for corporations, unions and interest groups to make unlimited independent expenditures.

The bill notes that it does not impose limits on contributions made to groups that only make independent expenditures.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy in January expressed concern with the public offices commission staff proposal, saying the agency’s role is to “carry out law, not create law.” He told The Associated Press at that time that the Legislature should “eagerly” be taking up questions around campaign finance “because they help with clarity.”

Earlier this month, after the public offices commission decision, Dunleavy’s office said the Republican governor believed “setting a new limit on campaign contributions needs to be a legislative priority this session.” But the Anchorage Daily News reported Dunleavy that same day told the outlet he thinks political donors should be able to contribute as much as they want, provided that candidates have to disclose where their money comes from.

“You know me: I’m the guy that wants people to be able to drive four wheelers on the road. I’m a freedom guy,” he told the newspaper. “My tendency is to just let people do what they want in campaign finance law, as long as it’s disclosed and it’s accurate.”

Dunleavy spokesperson Jeff Turner, in response to AP’s questions about Dunleavy’s position, issued a statement this week saying Dunleavy “believes unlimited individual contributions from Alaskans to the candidates they support are allowable, as long as rigorous campaign disclosure requirements are in place so Alaskans will know where every dollar is coming from.”

Dunleavy faces reelection this year, and most legislative seats are up for election.