Alaskans send a different kind of senator to D.C.

ANCHORAGE — To get elected in Alaska to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat sometimes requires not acting like one. Talk up drilling for oil in wildlife refuges. Talk up gun rights. Insist that those liberals who control Congress will never push you around.

And when your Republican rival is convicted in federal court shortly before Election Day, do not gloat. He is, after all, Sen. Ted Stevens, once decreed by the Legislature the Alaskan of the Century.

Of course, that was last century.

Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage is the Democrat who last month pulled off what once seemed unimaginable, becoming only the second Democrat from Alaska to win a seat in Washington since his father was a member of the House of Representatives nearly four decades ago.

His seat in the Senate has been occupied by Stevens since Begich was 6 years old and Alaska was just 9. But Begich, 46, suggests there is something larger at work in his victory than just good timing in taking on a suddenly vulnerable Stevens, who was convicted in October of failing to disclose gifts and home renovations he received from a wealthy oil-services industry executive.

"We're a much more mature state in many ways," he told reporters a day after he declared victory.

Stevens "lost touch"

As Begich describes it, Alaska is an increasingly modern state where people still support proposals to drill for oil, build pipelines and dig gold mines, but they also want new sidewalks with nice landscaping, better financing for their children's education and something close to economic stability.

Under his watch, Anchorage has climbed out of a steep financial deficit, significantly expanded its police force, reduced violent crime, expanded its port and increased development downtown, including renovating the local history museum, installing heated sidewalks and opening a new convention center not long before Election Day.

It was his recognition of these new priorities, Begich says, that helped him persuade voters to make the "emotional, tough" decision to break from Stevens, who, he said, had "lost touch."

Some people, Republicans in particular, are not buying it.

"You can understand why he's trying to justify his win," said Dave Dittman, a Republican pollster. "No one likes to back into a championship or anything else. There is a touch of truth to it — the state is changing — but not enough to have elected him without the trial."

Begich has a history of courting skeptics, becoming mayor in 2003 (he avoided a runoff by just 18 votes) after losing twice before. He is certainly a different kind of politician than Stevens, 85, a World War II veteran and Harvard-trained lawyer who, like many other elected officials here, moved to Alaska as an adult.

Begich, who never went to college, was born and raised in Anchorage. His wife is the former head of the state Democratic Party, and his father, Nick, was a member of Congress. As a young man, Begich managed apartment buildings in Anchorage, and at 26 was elected to the nonpartisan Anchorage Assembly, or city council.

"He's a political animal," said Debbie Ossiander, a conservative member of the assembly. "He is very practical. And if he can see a way to get what he wants, he'll move in that direction. But his comfort base is always with the Democrats."

Energy policy top priority

Begich's father was the last Alaska Democrat elected to the House. Nick Begich won his second term in November 1972, weeks after he was killed when a small plane he was traveling in disappeared in Southeast Alaska during a campaign trip. Don Young, a Republican, won the seat in a special election the next year and still holds it. The state's last Democratic senator, Mike Gravel, was defeated in a re-election bid in 1980.

Begich portrays himself as a bold and contrarian Democrat, but he becomes more elliptical when discussing certain social issues. He says he opposes amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage (Alaskans approved a state ban in 1998) and supports allowing same-sex couples to receive benefits through their partners. He did not respond directly when asked more than once whether he was for or against same-sex marriage. He supports abortion rights and says he generally opposes the death penalty, though "sometimes I evolve on that issue."

In an interview in an Anchorage coffee shop, he said that he would work to repeal the anti-terrorism legislation known as the USA Patriot Act and that he opposed allowing the government to conduct surveillance wiretaps without warrants. He noted that Stevens had supported the Patriot Act and wiretapping, while "even Don Young voted against it."

Young also voted against the $700 billion financial bailout bill this fall while Stevens voted for it. Begich said that he would have "reluctantly" supported the bill, but that "as more has been unveiled on it, I would be very hesitant today to vote for it."

Begich said he supported federal aid for American automakers if they presented a convincing plan to build more efficient vehicles and provide secure lending methods for people to buy them.

Begich said his top priority in Washington would be energy policy. He said drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be done safely because of improved technology and should be part of a broad energy policy that also used wind, geothermal, hydropower and other renewable fuels.