Lori Townsend: After Congressman Don Young's death last Friday, Alaskans and members of Congress have been reflecting on his nearly 50 year political legacy.

He was Unknown: a real institutionalist.

He was very dedicated to the institution of Congress and to Democrats and Republicans coming together and governing.

Lori Townsend: We're discussing Mr. Young's career and the upcoming special election to replace him right now on Alaska Insight.

Representative Don Young will lie in state on Tuesday, March 29, in Statuary Hall.

This is the historic former House chamber, one of Mr. Young's House colleagues and someone he was both friends and enemies with depending on the legislation at hand, Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, says it is a high end befitting honor.

Unknown: It's a place of great distinction.

And so the fact that Don will be lying in state there is a real honor and a tribute that I think he deserves.

Lori Townsend: We'll hear more from Congressman Huffman tonight about the bipartisan work that he and Young worked on together and where they disagreed as we reflect on the long tenure and record of Don Young's work in Alaska, and what comes next.

Joining me tonight to help describe his political career and in the studio for the first time in more than two years is Alaska Public Media's Washington Correspondent Liz Ruskin.

Liz, it's so great to have you here.

Unknown: Lori, it's good to be here.

Lori Townsend: Liz, we know that Don Young was raised on a ranch in California.

What brought him to Alaska?

Unknown: He said that he was really drawn to the cold, it was way too hot on the ranch.

He told this story at an event marking the anniversary of the purchase of Alaska.

And he just he described a very homesteader, gold miner vision of Alaska.

He said that he told his mom he was going to go up to Alaska to hunt and trap and gold mine for gold and, and run dogs.

And he so after the Army in 1959, he went to Alaska and made his way to Fort Yukon.

I think the fact that it was very far from California was a real appeal to him and very cold and very cold.

And in Fort Yukon, he did a lot of different things.

He was a teacher.

He was a riverboat captain, as he often said, he ran the tug.

And from there he got into politics, local politics and state politics and ultimately, National Politics.

Well, let's Lori Townsend: talk a little about that.

He started out as the mayor of Fort Yukon, correct, and then went to state office.

His first wife, Lu, who died in 2009, was very involved in his political career and his DC office, talk about that relationship and lose influence.

Unknown: Lu was in the office all the time she was I think that was something that spouses usually wives of congressmen did a lot in the era that Don Young first got elected and before that.

I think she really helped him with outreach in rural Alaska among Native people.

She was Athabaskan.

And she campaigned with him, was just by his side all the time.

They were very close.

Lori Townsend: How about his second wife, Anne.

Has she been as involved in his career as Lu was?

Unknown: Yeah.

And and the Congressman married in I believe it was his it was his 82nd birthday.

So they were married a little over six years, and was also in the office all the time.

From what I could tell.

She accompanied him all over the Capitol.

She seemed to have a lighter touch with constituents and with the staff from what I could tell then, then Lu Young did.

Lori Townsend: We're going to discuss the special primary election that will take place on June 11 to replace him in a little while, but let's talk about his record.

He faced controversy for some political actions and his sometimes colorful and sometimes shocking language.

He liked earmarks and drove billions of dollars of federal funds to Alaska, but drew criticism on both sides of the aisle.

Liz what really really stands out as some examples of that?

Unknown: Well, um, in terms of of earmarks.

I mean, his ability really peaked when he became chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 2001.

He got a lot of bridges and airports for Alaska, highways, all kinds of infrastructure, water projects, but he'll forever be associated with the Gravina Island bridge.

The Ketchikan bridge to the island with the airport.

At the time, there were a lot of interest groups devoted to trashing earmarks, they thought earmarks were wasteful, Taxpayers for Common Sense, there were other groups, but they successfully held up that "bridge to nowhere" as became known nationally as an example of government excess and waste.

And that will forever be associated with him and with earmarks.

So Congress, he actually kind of brought the whole system of earmarking down for many years, and it's just now making a tentative comeback with with some reforums, a little more transparency than we had before.

Lori Townsend: Hmm.

Well, as we noted at the beginning of the program, he was also known as someone who would work across the aisle when it made sense.

Let's hear again from Representative Jared Huffman, the California Democrat about that relationship.

Unknown: Don Young, for all of his theatrics, and bluster and, you know, Don, kind of had this curmudgeon persona sometimes, certainly would say some provocative and controversial things, sometimes for effect.

I just knew Don as a colleague and a friend and he was a sweetheart.

Honestly, beneath all of that was this big teddy bear, who was a lot of fun to be around, was a generous person had a great sense of humor.

We've fought like cats and dogs, because I'm the guy spearheading, you know, a ban on drilling in the Arctic Refuge and protection of the Tongass and all sorts of things that he was not on board with.

So, you know, by, by most measures, we should have hated each other.

But we didn't, we actually got along really well.

And I'm missing.

Lori Townsend: Such interesting comments, Liz, in today's very fractured and divisive political climate, what are some examples of that bipartisan work that really helped Alaska?

Unknown: You know, I want to say we have uh Congressman Huffman on here.

A lot of Alaskans might not be familiar with him, but he's the last in a long line of foils for Don Young, especially on the House Resources Committee.

There was Why am I forgetting his name?

Miller?

Congressman Lori Townsend: Congressman Miller.

Unknown: Congressman!

Jerry Studs, there were just all these people who would Ed Markey, who became a Senator, who would just be his foil on the on the Resources Committee, it was a chance for all of them to act out a little, little theater there.

But as far as bipartisanship, the most recent example, I guess, would be the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

A lot of Republicans saw that as a Biden bill.

And, you know, didn't want to be part of it.

Don young saw it as something that was a way of bringing home big projects to Alaska, and he was going to be for it.

And he was more interested in that then scoring points with the Republican base, his support for interior secretary Deb Haland, and he had his reasons for that.

A lot of people in the Alaska Native community were really rooting for her.

And so you know, that no doubt weighed on him.

And the other part of the calculus, another part of the calculus had to be that it Biden, President Biden was going to get a secretary of Interior that was not to Don Young's liking and he might as well have someone on there that he felt he had an in with who would consult with him who, you know, owed him at least a phone call to discuss Alaska issues.

Lori Townsend: We had a similar conversation earlier this week about Don Young on Talk of Alaska, and some Alaskans appreciated the discussion and a few were really steamed up at us, saying that we were being too soft on a man whom they found untenable and corrupt.

How do you balance that the Don Young that infuriated Alaskans and the Don Young that was repeatedly voted back in by Alaskans.

It's not as if he installed himself in Washington D.C.

Unknown: No, it took Alaskans to bring him back, you know, every two years.

He had plenty of flaws.

His anger would get the better of him.

He had an ego, he was cozy with lobbyists.

Those things are all true.

And the ethics committee, the House Ethics Committee in 2014 confirmed I believe -- no, I'm not sure the year -- confirm the accepted a lot of improper gifts and, and gifts of travel.

He enjoyed the trappings of the office.

All that was true, but that's not all there was to him.

You know, one thing that strikes me is he entertained a lot of people.

We heard that in the Huffman clip that he was fun to be around.

And when you saw him campaign, he he charmed a crowd, he would entertain and I think-- Lori Townsend: We did hear from some Alaskans who were not charmed when they saw him in a crowd.

Unknown: But I mean, if you're trying to under-- I mean, I would think that those Alaskans especially did not like his vision of Alaska, which was heavy on resource extraction.

And they didn't like his style, which was brusque, it was rude, he could be arrogant.

But and they didn't, they didn't like the way that he legislated.

And yeah, there's no getting around that.

And he, as he said himself, you know, about half the people like him and half don't.

Lori Townsend: Sen. Lisa Murkowski reflected on his independence saying he didn't care if other politicians liked him or what he did if the action taken resulted in a win for Alaska.

Unknown: I think what Don taught me was independence and standing up for your state.

Everything else, everything else could be secondary.

But by God, if it was going to be good for Alaska, don't make any apologies don't offer any any excuses.

If it's good for Alaska, by God, it's just good for Alaska.

And that's all that need to be said.

And he would just move on.

Lori Townsend: So the Senator, Sen. Murkowski gave a recent example of that political independence when bucking his party Young supported Biden's administration, the Biden administration's infrastructure bill.

Unknown: It was being worked actively, by, by a lot of a lot of conservative Republicans led by former President Trump and Trump called him up, you've probably heard this story and and said, "You know, I think that you need to vote against this."

And Don said, "You apparently have not read the bill.

Because if you'd read the bill, you would know that this is good for Alaska.

And not only am I going to vote for it, I'm going to make sure that other Republicans vote for it and that it's going to get signed into law."

There was no, there was no pussyfooting around, there was no you know, "I want to try to to keep my political friends."

If it was good for Alaska, he was all over it.

And you don't ever offer, offer any apologies beyond that.

Lori Townsend: You know, Liz, I don't know if you've heard that story before.

But I hadn't, that he said those things to the former president.

Beyond Huffman and Murkowski, his thoughts about his work stone record.

Do you think this is helps to present a more fuller picture of him or her we still missing some things?

Unknown: Well, okay, the man just died, there is a tendency to remember his better qualities.

And, you know, as Michael Carey said, the other day, you know, "this is a warts and all look, and if all you see is the warts, then you're not getting the full picture."

In that interview with Senator Murkowski, she also said that she picked up her phone after having it off for a meeting and there were these voicemail messages, angry voicemail messages from Don Young, who was upset that he she didn't have her phone on and didn't take her his calls because he didn't text and you didn't email.

So he, you know, was just ticked off that she wouldn't.

She didn't answer and was yelling into her email and into her voicemail.

And she said that she she called him up and said, Hey, that was not nice.

You have to speak in a decent manner to me.

And I thought that her point was, by the time she talked to him, he had moved on, and he was no longer mad.

He couldn't even remember why he was yelling into her voicemail.

But I thought the interesting takeaway from that story that she told was that They did offended her that she was miffed that he was yelling at her.

And so yeah, he could...

Even with this close colleagues.

Exactly.

Lori Townsend: When I sent out a tweet about our program, someone responded saying, and I'm quoting, "He didn't serve Alaska, he served himself.

Never worked a day after his election.

Laziest Congressman ever."

Now, it's not our job to defend him.

But being clear about his record is important.

How does that comment compare with his legislative efforts?

Unknown: He had many years when his attendance was bad, especially in the 1980s.

He just wasn't in Congress, missed a lot of votes.

He had things he thought were more important.

Sometimes it was hunting trips, sometimes it was travel.

And over his career, I just looked it up, he missed 14% of the votes with, which is a lot worse than the average.

Now, members of Congress from far away from Washington tend to have worse records of attendance.

But this, you know, that was not a good record.

It was not always as bad as it was in the 80s.

He had some years that were, you know, not notable for missed votes.

As far as lazy, no, that does not ring true to me.

He was very energetic.

He, he loved the campaigning, but he also loved doing the job as he saw fit.

And I think a lot of people, as I said they, they didn't like the way he saw fit to do his job.

They didn't like the positions he took.

They didn't like his vision of Alaska, and they didn't like his his manner.

Lori Townsend: Well, continuing on regarding his record, Congressman Young did big and small things for Alaska and Alaskans, sometimes really small things.

Tell us a bit about his assistance for a very small rural post office.

Unknown: Yeah, I saw this story on Twitter.

So I thought out the person who wrote it, and it was about lodging in Coldfoot.

That was the the lodging called foot that was running out of stamps, they ran a contract post office running under stamps, and lo and behold, Don young shows up there one day, and the guy who worked there who was told the story, he says that.

He said, "Oh, you know, Congressman, by the way, we're running out of stamps, we're down to $25 worth of stamps all in penny and nickels.

So when somebody wants to mail a package..." Anyway, there was no, he had no at aide traveling with him.

So they thought maybe that was as far as it would get go.

But you know, long story short, a whole lot of stamps showed up.

Lori Townsend: They got a few thousand dollars in stamps, Unknown: They'd been trying to get their regular allotment of right?

$600 worth of stamps, and they just couldn't get action out of the Postal Service.

And whoever was supposed to fulfill this order had COVID, or something along those lines, and they couldn't get action.

But, and I think what this story sort of illustrates is that, you know, Don Young liked to be the hero for Alaskans.

And constituent service was a big part of his job.

And I think he, he loved that part of it.

He loved that wherever he went in Alaska, people were grateful to him for helping with sometimes really serious personal problems that they had interacting with the federal government.

And that was, you know, important to him and to them.

Lori Townsend: We've talked about some of the heat Mr. Young drew for his comments and positions, another Republican representative that certainly knows how divisive politics can be as Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney.

Unknown: You know, we have too many people on both sides who are are sort of there for the publicity or, you know, to see how many likes they can get on social media.

But, you know, losing sight of actually getting things done.

And I think Don certainly never lost sight of that, was absolutely committed to his constituents, absolutely committed to, you know, making that trip back and forth, which is not an not an easy trip regularly, so that he would be able to be at home and be with his constituents.

And I think, you know, among among the many things we're all going to miss about on we will certainly not be as rich a place in terms of having, having his experience and wisdom and guidance for the newer members.

I think people really on both sides of the aisle benefited from that.

Lori Townsend: Liz, wisdom and guidance.

Did you observe that?

Unknown: Well, that's not what I observed.

I mean, wisdom, guidance, I picture sort of a gentle you know, pat on the back and a few nice words.

That's not the the Don Young that I saw.

I mean, I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it's not what I saw.

I saw, you know, kind of barking out things.

Lori Townsend: That type of mentoring.

Yeah, well, 49 years for the 49th state.

Moving forward, there will be a special election to fill Young's congressional seat, which is how he first won the seat in 1973.

The special election primary will be on June 11.

It's going to be the first test of the state's new rate choice voting system.

Liz, the interesting part will be that the next step after the primary.

What do Alaskans need to know about how this is all going to come together?

Unknown: Well, first of all, I want to say because there's a lot of confusion among Alaskans.

The primary whether it's the special primary, or the regular primary is a pick one primary.

Alaskans will choose one person in the primary, then the top for advance.

And in the general, we're going to --and the Special General, which will be on the day of the regular primaries.

So we'll have a prayer on on your regular primary day in August, you will be doing a "pick one" for all the other seats.

And then we'll have a little practice on roll, ranked choice voting, which we'll do on his special election, you'll rank the candidates one through four, if you want to, you can just pick one there too, if you want, but you can rank them one through four.

Lori Townsend: It'll be interesting to see how it's laid out on the actual ballot.

So hopefully, it's not confusing.

It's I think there's going to be a lot more to unpack as we go forward and learn more about how the state will handle this.

It's going to be the special election will be a vote by mail.

And, Liz, with this special election coming up, his position is going to be open until September 2.

Because we only have one representative in the house, what do you think that might mean to have that position open for six months?

Unknown: It'll be interesting to see.

And it is also what we had in 1972, when Congressman Begich when he when he disappeared when his plane went missing.

That seat was open for months.

And I think that the office will keep running the staff will be there they will be able to deal with constituent issues.

But there will be no one voting for Alaska.

I would not be surprised if there are a number of Congress members who step forward and say "I was gonna vote against this bill.

But I know that the congressman from Alaska would have voted for it.

So I will abstain from voting because he's not here."

We'll have to watch.

We'll have to see.

I'm just guessing.

But I imagine that that might happen.

Not on decisive votes, but on, as sort of a tribute to him.

Lori Townsend: That's an interesting thought we'll have to pay attention to that and see how that comes forward.

So we know that just quickly, we know that there are a couple of people that have already declared that they're running -- the grandson of the former Congressman Nick Begich and an Anchorage Assembly Member Christopher Constant.

Have you heard of anyone else that's jumped in yet?

Unknown: Right.

And I wanted to say because there's confusion about this too, that Nick bagage the third who is running it is a Republican and he's running, he he ran to Congressman Young's right he was attacking him on a number of right wing issues.

Chris Constant is Democrat, running as a Democrat.

We've heard other names coming in.

Lori Townsend: Alright, we have talked about Don Young's record, his ability to both infuriate people and bring them together.

As you wrote he was also he was bombastic, but also bipartisan.

An example of his effort to bring political leaders together was during the tension after the 2020 election, Young as dean of the house was going to swear Nancy Pelosi in a speaker, but Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was apparently very combative and divisive in his comments, and the Dean of the House didn't like it, and he addressed it calling for decorum and bipartisanship.

Unknown: Madam Speaker before I issue the oath, I'd like to take privilege of the floor as the dean.

I've been in this house longer anybody else.

I've served with you longer than anybody else who served with you.

I love this institution.

I will be honest, I do not like what I see.

It's time we hold hands and talk to one another.

Madam Speaker, I say this with all sincerity.

You will be the speaker of the House, not have a party.

That may hurt some of you.

The job of our nation is for the House of Representatives to govern this nation.

It was never meant to be the executive branch.

It was never meant to be the judicial branch.

It's this house that raises the money and dedicates how it shall spend and we are representing the people as we are elected.

Lori Townsend: Whether he infuriated you or fix a problem you had with a federal agency, Don Young will be remembered for a wide range of things.

Whatever your opinion is on the legacy of Alaska's longest serving congressman, there's no denying that the effect of his work, his words and his actions will continue to ripple across the state for many years to come.

We'll look more at ranked choice voting in coming episodes of Alaska Insight.

That's it for this edition of the show.

Be sure to tune in daily to your local public radio station for Alaska Morning News and Alaska News Nightly every weeknight.

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We'll be back next week.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.