I was sitting here in Aspen, trying to write about the Mark Begich senatorial campaign in Alaska.  It’s not easy for me to do anything disciplined in Aspen. Basically in July and August the town becomes one big summer camp for adults.  But I had just hiked around the Ice Caves and the cottonwood trees were putting off enough cotton seed to make it look like an early snow storm, so I was kind of getting in the mood.  Then I saw the crawl across the bottom of my computer about Ted Stevens being indicted.  Then came today’s front-page story in the New York Times.
 
Even before it looked like the Republican incumbent in Alaska might be in prison soon, I thought Mark Begich had a real shot at the senatorial seat.  As of the last twenty-four hours, his chances just got a whole lot better.
 
It seems Senator Ted Stevens got a little carried away with the renovations for his “chalet” in the ski resort of Girdwood, Alaska (better known to some of us as the finish line for “The Amazing Race 12”).  Always famous for bringing the pork to Alaska (the ‘bridge to nowhere’), his largesse has now extended to his own wrap-around decks, Viking grills and Land Rovers.
 
Sam and I first met Begich for breakfast a few weeks ago before a fundraiser with Bonnie Raitt and Barbara Boxer at a house south of the San Francisco airport. He had flown all night to get from Anchorage to the Bay Area – yes, it is that far, and the connections are that bad. He was exhausted and heavily into caffeine. We met a bright, energetic, attractive guy with a very interesting life story. Nick Begich, his father, was Alaska’s third congressman.  While campaigning for re-election in 1972, his twin-engine airplane disappeared in a presumed crash over a remote part of Alaska. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs (father of NPR’s Cokie Roberts and super lobbyist Tommy Boggs) was also on the plane along with the pilot and an aide. Mark was only ten years old and his mother was thirty-four.  She was left to raise six young children on her teacher’s salary.  Consequently, Mark worked from an early age.  By the time he was twenty-six, he was part of the Anchorage Assembly (which sounds a lot like city council from where I sit) and in 2003, at age forty-one, he was elected Mayor, getting forty-three percent of the vote in a multi-candidate race in a city that had voted Republican for almost fifteen years.  It is his performance in that job that will get him elected to the Senate.  Well, that and Ted Stevens’ performance.
 
“The main issue in Alaska is the economy.  Twenty-five hundred people migrate to the cities every year because of it,” says Begich.  “There’s been a two-percent growth in Anchorage for nineteen consecutive years.  The industries are changing.  For instance, Ketchikan’s economy (Alaska’s fifth largest city) used to be logging.  Now it is known as the ‘Salmon Capital of the World’.  But over-fishing and global warming threaten the future of the industry.  This year one-third of Kodiak’s fishing vessels won’t go out.
 
“Alaska’s second biggest issue is energy, closely connected to the economy of course,” Begich continued.  “This is a huge state and everything has to travel great distances.  Everything comes through the port in Anchorage.  A gallon of milk in Bethel is $9.50. It’s hard to manage with prices like that.  Add to that the price of heating your house . . .  But Kodiak is working toward a goal of ninety percent energy independence, mostly through wind and that will help.”
 
“Of course the other overriding issue is the war,” said Begich.  “We have the largest percentage of vets in the country and we’re the second smallest state, so everyone knows or has a vet in their family.”  Fifty-seven Alaskan men and women have been killed in Iraq and Begich has been to over a third of those funerals.
 
Begich has a deep commitment to energy independence – and by that, he does not mean drilling our way out which would be what you might expect in Alaska.  He talks knowledgably about various energy alternatives and, the day after we left, he followed up on a promising wind turbine company we had mentioned to him.  He is a policy wonk and gets carried away when talking about global warming.  One of his campaign sites shows a photo of him standing in front of Portage Glacier with three of his siblings when he was a child (third from the left below).  Later he went to the same spot with his son Jacob who was then three-years old.  As you can see, the glacier was about ten feet away in the first photo.  In the second, you can no longer see it.  “What happened to me in that moment was truly life-changing,” says Begich.


 

This is a four to five million-dollar race, which is cheap for a senate race. Anchorage television is about seventy per cent of the state market so, after five years as mayor, Begich is well known and has high name recognition. Seventy thousand dollars can buy over saturation on TV for a week.   “At that point the car dealerships will be wanting their air space back,” says Begich.  “You have to do direct mail to Fairbanks.  The Anchorage market is just too far away.  Fairbanks to Anchorage is about the same distance as Seattle to San Francisco.  Most of the money we raise will go to voter ID and the ground operation.”
 
Before Begich boarded his return flight to Anchorage, I asked him what he’d like to be known for?  “I’d like to be the guy people go to talk about energy.”

Mark Begich with Bonnie Raitt
 
 
Ted Stevens has been the Alaskan senator forty of the forty-nine years Alaska has been a state.  Think about it.  We really could win Alaska!
 
To contribute to Mark Begich, go to this site: https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.aspx?X=e2dS567G1sUDKEKUG24GucVly1xiqwbg
 
To contribute to Senator Obama, go to this site:  http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/sambrown
 
 

I love it. King Abdullah left Colorado a few days ago in order to get to Jordan in time to greet and meet with Obama before he left for Berlin.  But the king delayed his flight long enough to see “The Dark Knight” at Aspen’s Isis Theater.   (He pretty much had the theater to himself since his security had to have several rows on either side of him.)  So, the knight delayed the king from seeing the prince.
 
Speaking of Aspen, I have an idea.  Denver is all hot under the collar about what they’re going to do with the homeless during the convention.  They’re planning to give them free admission to movies, museums, the zoo and a large bingo event (yeah, bingo) in the hope of keeping them off the streets.  Instead, why not rent buses and give Denver’s homeless a holiday in Aspen.  Many may never have seen the mountains up close.  Sam thinks it would benefit both towns.
 
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Driving into Albuquerque past parched hills of tumbleweed, creosote and agaves, you wonder why exactly it was that people – any people, modern or ancient – thought:  “Hey, this is a perfect spot for a city!” Going south from Colorado, the only thing more frequent than the casinos are the billboards warning against drunk driving: “If you hit the bars tonight, don’t wind up behind them” and “How many drinks is your loved one worth?”.  In-between the signs are the heart breaking wooden crosses memorializing the deaths of heedless drivers and their victims.
 
Most of commercial Albuquerque is a sort of a strip mall on steroids.  Every ethnic fast food and service from Cuban bakeries and Irish pubs to taco joints and sushi bars line the highway.  To be fair, we were on Route 66, the queen of highway tackiness. It was disappointing not to see Tod and Buz in their Corvette convertible, but nonetheless awe-inspiring.  We were headed for the headquarters of Martin Heinrich, the congressional candidate in New Mexico’s 1st district.  His campaign office, which he shares with the New Mexico Democratic Party, was just a couple of blocks off the famous highway, and across the street from the newly opened Obama headquarters.  It used to be a methadone clinic and a few recovering addicts still wander in.
 
Heinrich is a tough, gutsy candidate despite his model-looking, blue-eyed appearance and gentle demeanor.  (His eyes actually pierce through his website right into your skull.)  He was rushing off to a breakfast at God’s House Church, so we tagged along. On leaving the headquarters, one of the New Mexico Democratic Party workers asked if I’d noticed that Heinrich’s campaign occupies the west wing of the building.  “I’m sure hoping that’s a significant sign for the future,” he said.  “This guy is going places.”
 
At God’s House Church, we parked around the corner in front of Lee’s Auto Service where the sign out front said: Obama/Clinton beat McCain/anything.

Inside, Heinrich was joined by the House Majority Whip, James Clyburn, a tireless campaigner for congressional candidates.  Heinrich was one of the original supporters of the eREAD program the church is housing; a program to provide technical training in building and refurbishing computers and robots, ACT/SAT test prep and computer literacy for seniors.   Additionally, there is a sort of “tough love” football and academic program for high school kids who don’t yet have the grades to get into college.
 
Later, we followed Heinrich’s Prius over to Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill, where we had some of the west’s best fish tacos and homemade salsa under a swarm of paper mache bees, while talking about his campaign. The district is 43% Hispanic and Obama is polling far ahead of McCain among Hispanics – a big advantage for both Obama and Heinrich if it holds and if they turn out to vote. (Bumble Bee’s manager assured us that all the kitchen staff were legal and registered to vote.) Martin Heinrich’s opponent is the Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, a moderate Republican with a higher name recognition than Heinrich’s (75% to Heinrich’s 55%). Nonetheless, Heinrich is ahead 47% to 44% in the most recent poll released July 8th, no doubt partially due to anti-Bush sentiment in this increasingly Democratic-leaning district. White emphasizes his being an independent Republican, rarely mentioning that he was Bush’s Bernalillo county re-election chairman.
 
But it is Heinrich’s issues driven campaign and his great work as city council president that has proved to be his advantage.  The biggest issue in the state is the economy stupid – just like everywhere else.  “Heinrich may have boyish charm, but he has a very tough streak as well,” says Fred Harris, former Senator and presidential contender from Oklahoma now teaching and writing in Albuquerque “When he was president of the City Council, he put together a coalition to pass a local minimum wage bill against all odds.”  The first thing he did was go to the people he knew were going to work against him.  It took two years, but he brought business and labor to the table and forced them to work things out.  Now Albuquerque is one of four cities in the U.S. to have a minimum wage above the national level.
 
Heinrich and his wife Julie look like they run a daily marathon -- exuding good health and positive attitudes.  They first moved to New Mexico when he was looking for a job as an engineer.  Julie had fallen in love with the state after reading “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya. “We’ve made every decision together,” Julie says.  “I know a lot of couples say that, but we really did.  I didn’t want him to run for congress unless I was completely involved. I didn’t think it would be good for our two young boys or for our marriage.  But let me tell you, when you’re out there everyday, saying these wonderful things about your husband, it starts sinking in and that’s really, really good for your marriage,” she laughed.
 
“I get my energy from looking at my two little boys and seeing an opportunity to have an impact on their lives,” says Heinrich.  “They’re the best example of renewable energy I’ve ever seen.  If I can tap into that, I’ll take it to Washington."

To actually see Heinrich's piercing eyes, go to this site:  http://www.martinheinrich.com

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To contribute to Senator Obama, click here:   http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/sambrown

To contribute to Martin Heinrich for Congress, click here:   https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/heinrich