My Turn: The end of a remarkable run
The election of Frank Murkowski as governor ends a remarkable run for Alaska's Big Three - Murkowski, Ted Stevens and Don Young.
Sens. Stevens and Murkowski and Rep. Young have been Alaska's sole representatives in Washington for 22 years, a feat unmatched by any delegation since the U.S. Constitution was amended to provide for the direct election of senators in 1913.
Most states did not have the opportunity to keep the same team because of reapportionment and redistricting of the House. Population changes meant states saw their number of representatives climb or fall. Alaska, on the other hand, has had a lone representative since statehood in 1959.
While Alaskans have chosen Stevens, Murkowski and Young every time they have been on the ballot since 1980, states that could have had the same delegation for two-plus decades did not.
Wyoming, with a population now smaller than Alaska's, has always had a three-member congressional delegation, yet no senator has been popularly elected to the same seat more than three times. And only one congressman in the state's history has served more than 20 years. New Mexico, which entered the union in 1912, had one representative until 1960, but no congressman served more than four consecutive terms.
If the 22 years our senators have served together is an impressive tribute to their political skills, it is not a Senate record.
Strom Thurmond, about to retire from the Senate at age 100, and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, age 80, have been together 36 years, since Lyndon Johnson was busy expanding America's role in the Vietnam War.
Since 1940, other southern states have produced senators who served together for extended periods. J. William Fulbright and John McClellan represented Arkansas for 30 years from the mid-1940s until the mid-1970s. John Stennis and James Eastland of Mississippi also served 30 years, from after World War II until the late 1970s. Louisiana had the same senators for 20 years. So did Alabama.
Every one of those men was elected as a Democrat, though Thurmond later switched to the Republican Party. Despite the Alaska Democratic Party's bedraggled state, Alaska is no one-party fiefdom like the Old South. Alaska has elected three Democratic governors in the past 20 years.
As for the future, we don't know who Alaska's next senator will be - who will replace Frank Murkowski when he becomes governor. But we do know that that senator, like Stevens and Young, will reach Washington by a nontraditional path.
Ted Stevens, it is now forgotten by just about everybody but Ted, lost Senate bids in 1962 and 1968. He first went to Washington as a senator when Gov. Wally Hickel appointed him to a vacancy. The appointment came after the venerable Bob Bartlett died in December 1968. Had Sen. Bartlett died two years later or two years earlier, Gov. Bill Egan would have made the selection, and as the law at the time allowed him to select anyone, he certainly would have picked a Democrat.
Sen. Stevens has been a remarkable senator. He deserves the celebrity he has achieved in Alaska. But he also was fortunate to ever get the chance to become a senator.
Don Young has been unbeatable for almost 30 years, but as his enemies are fond of reminding him, he did lose once - to a dead man. Shortly before the 1972 election, incumbent Congressman Nick Begich disappeared on a campaign flight. Neither he nor his companions were ever found. Yet come Election Day 1972, Begich defeated challenger Young 56 percent to 44 percent.
Young became Alaska's congressman in spring 1973 after winning a special election by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Other states have had several appointed senators. In fact, the governor of Nebraska appointed two senators in spring and summer 1954 after the incumbents died. (Interestingly, the two Republicans who won elections to fill those seats, Carl Curtis and Roman Hruska, served together for 22 years.)
But come the convening of Congress in January 2003, Alaska will be the only modern state to have had both sitting senators and its House delegation, Don Young, reach Washington through appointment and special election.
Michael Carey is the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He can be reached at m2carey44@yahoo.com.