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Don Young
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alaska's At-large district
Incumbent
Assumed office March 6, 1973
Preceded by	Nick Begich
Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
In office 2001–2007
Preceded by	Bud Shuster
Succeeded by	Jim Oberstar
Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee
In office 1995–2001
Preceded by	George Miller
Succeeded by	James V. Hansen
Member of the Alaska Senate from the I district
In office January 11, 1971 – March 6, 1973
Preceded by	Paul B. Haggland
Succeeded by	George C. Silides
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives from the 16th district
In office January 23, 1967 – January 10, 1971
Member of the Fort Yukon City Council
In office 1960–1968
Personal details
Born	(1933-06-09) June 9, 1933 (age 79) Meridian, California
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Lula (Fredson) Young, deceased August 1, 2009
Residence	Fort Yukon, Alaska
Alma mater	California State University, Chico
Occupation	mariner, construction worker, miner, educator
Religion	Episcopalian
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1955-1957

Donald Edwin "Don" Young (born June 9, 1933) is the U.S. Representative for Alaska's At-large congressional district, serving since 1973. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Young is the 6th most senior U.S. Representative and the 2nd most senior Republican Representative, as well as the 2nd most senior Republican in Congress as a whole. Upon the defeat of Senator Ted Stevens, Young became the senior member of the Alaska congressional delegation.

Early life, education, and pre-political career[link]

Young was born in Meridian, Sutter County, California. He earned an associate's degree in education from Yuba College in 1952 and a bachelor's degree from Chico State College in 1958. He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957.^[1]

Young moved to Alaska in 1959, not long after it became a state. He eventually settled in Fort Yukon, a 700-person city on the Yukon River, seven miles (11 km) above the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s central interior region. He made a living in construction, fishing, trapping and gold mining. He captained a tugboat and ran a barge operation to deliver products and supplies to villages along the Yukon River. He still holds his mariner's license today. During the winter, he taught fifth grade at the local Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school.

Early political career[link]

Young began his political career in 1964 when he was elected mayor of Fort Yukon. After only one term, he was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives and served two terms before being elected to the Alaska Senate in 1970.

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

Elections[link]

1973-1974[link]

Alaska's at-large congressman, Democrat Nick Begich, disappeared in a plane crash on October 16, 1972. He was re-elected to the House that November, but was declared dead on December 29. Young, who had been the Republican candidate against Begich in November, ran in the special election in March 1973 and won with just 51% of the vote against Democrat Emil Notti. He won a full term in 1974 with just 54% of the vote. He credits his victory to his leadership of the fight for the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System.^[2]

1976-2006[link]

He won re-election with at least 55% of vote all but three other times in his career (1990, 1992, and 2008). In 1982 and 1984, he defeated Nick Begich's wife, Pegge Begich, with 55% and 57% respectively. In 1990 he won re-election with just 52% against John Devens, the Mayor of Valdez. In 1992, he defeated Devens again, this time with just 47%: the lowest winning percentage of his career and the only time he won without a majority vote. Young's largest winning percentage was in 2002 (75%), and the most votes he got was in 2004 (213,216).

2008[link]

Republican primary

In light of many of the controversies, incumbent Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell announced he would run against Young in the August 26, 2008 Republican primary. Parnell was strongly supported by Gov. Sarah Palin, the Club for Growth, and many other organizations that opposed what they viewed to be corrupt behavior by Young. This was the first primary since he was first elected in which Young faced a strong challenge.

Young received the endorsement of Mike Huckabee's political action committee, Huck PAC, in June 2008.^[3] After a storm of negative reaction, Huckabee explained on the Huck PAC blog that the endorsement was due in part to Young's endorsement and steadfast support of Huckabee during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries.^[4]

Final results on September 18 showed Young winning by 304 votes (0.28%), and Parnell announced that he would not seek a recount.^[5] Prior to the announcement of the unofficial results, both candidates had said that they would request a recount if they lost.^[6] The state of Alaska pays the costs of recounts when the difference is within a half percent, as it was in this primary election.^[7]

General election

Young, plagued by questions about his ethics, faced a strong challenge from Democrat Ethan Berkowitz, the 46-year-old former minority leader in the Alaska House of Representatives.

The initial results from the general election showed Young leading the race by a slim margin. He got just 50%of the vote compared to Berkowitz's 45% and 5% for Don Wright, the candidate of the Alaskan Independence Party.^[8][9] Berkowitz himself conceded defeat on November 18, 2008, after counting of absentee and provisional ballots had mostly been completed and Young had a clearly insurmountable lead. Berkowitz received more votes in 2008 than any Democrat who had ever run against Young for Congress, and the 2008 race was the closest any Democrat had come to unseating Young since 1990, when John Devens of Valdez received 48% of the vote.^[10]

2010[link]

Young announced in 2009 that he will be seeking his 20th term.^[11] Young won the Republican primary with 70% of the vote against Sheldon Fisher and John R. Cox.^[12]He was challenged by Democratic nominee State Representative Harry Crawford.^[13] Young defeated him with 69% of the vote.^[14]

Tenure[link]

Earlier photo of Don Young

Oil on canvas, Charlen J. Satrom, 1996 Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Young is the seventh longest-serving House member, and the second most senior Republican (behind Rep. Bill Young of Florida). Due to his long tenure in the House and that of former Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska is considered to have clout in national politics far beyond its small population (it has long been one of the smallest states in population and is currently 47th, ahead of only North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming). He is often called "Alaska's third senator."^[15] Young chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 to 2007. He also chaired the Resources Committee from the 1995 Republican takeover of the House until 2001. However, since Young was stripped of his seniority shortly after the 2008 election due to his role in several controversies, he no longer holds the same influence.

Young's voting record is relatively moderate by Republican standards. He has a lifetime rating of 77 from the American Conservative Union.^[16] He most often crosses lines on issues affecting labor. He was one of a small number of Republicans to vote against the Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act of 1995, some free trade agreements, and was one of only 13 Republican congressmen to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007. His voting record is anti-abortion and anti-gun control, but he was also among the Republicans to vote in favor of more federal funds for stem cell research and voted against the re-authorization of the Patriot Act. However, he is best known for his vigorous opposition to federal control of Alaska's land and resources.^[2] He is also a strong proponent of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.^[17]

On November 4, 1999, Young voted in favor of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act,^[18] which some economists, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, believe helped create the 2007 financial crisis.^[19][20]

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Young sponsored the Airport Security Federalization Act of 2001, which created the Transportation Security Administration.^[21]

In July 2007, fellow Republican Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey proposed an amendment to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.^[22] Young defended the funds on the floor of the House, stating that "You want my money, my money."^[22] Young also stated that "Those who bite me will be bitten back."^[22] Young went on to suggest that conservative Republicans such as Garrett lost the Republicans their majority in the 2006 election by challenging spending earmarks, and made several critical remarks about the state of New Jersey.^[22] While Garrett did not ask for an official reprimand, other conservative Republicans took exception to Young's remarks that the funds in question represented his money. Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee gave Garrett a standing ovation later in the day during the group's weekly meeting and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina compared Young's earmarks to "legal theft."^[22]

According to The New Republic, Young is "well-known for his sharp elbows and generous appetite for legislative pork."^[23] His reputation for steering federal dollars to Alaska is almost as legendary as that of Ted Stevens. For example, in the 2005 Highway Bill, Young helped secure $941 million for 119 "special projects," including a $231 million bridge in Anchorage that a rider in the bill named for Young himself.^[24]

He was listed as the third-worst congressman by the popular magazine Rolling Stone, and dubbed "Mr. Pork" due to his involvement in the Gravina Island "Bridge to Nowhere" incident.^[15] In the article, Young is quoted as saying that "Environmentalists are a self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots" who "are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans."^[15] During a debate on native Alaskans right to sell sex organs of endangered animals for the purpose of aphrodisiacs, he pulled out an eighteen-inch penis bone of a walrus and brandished it like a sword on the House floor.^[15]

Congressman Young has been included in the annual listing of the most corrupt members of Congress compiled by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in 2007, 2008 and 2009 reports on Congressional corruption for abusing his position to benefit family and friends, and for steering millions of dollars in earmarks to corporations in exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee.^[25]

When John McCain asked Young to give up money earmarked for Alaska to help the rebuilding effort from Hurricane Katrina, Young replied that Katrina victims "can kiss my ear!"^[15]

Although Congressman Young is considered to be Pro-Life and was quoted saying, "… I have always voted for pro-life legislation as I believe an unborn child is a human being and should be protected through all stages of life," (1997) ^[26] his official positions on the subject do not make abortion illegal in every scenario. Young believes that abortion should be legal only when the pregnancy is a result of incest or rape, or in the case that a woman’s life is endangered by her pregnancy. He has addressed the issue of the time-period in which abortions should be legal, saying he does not think abortions should be limited to the first trimester of a pregnancy, and also disagrees with the idea of federal subsidies prohibiting abortions. ^[27]

Young is a signer of Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge.^[28]

"Bridge to Nowhere"[link]

In 2005, Young and Stevens earmarked $223 million for building the enormous Gravina Island Bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which also contains Ketchikan's airport. The bridge would be used for access by emergency vehicles, as well as passengers. Currently there is a small car and passenger ferry that travels the 1/4 mile (400 m) crossing in 3 to 7 minutes and runs every half hour. Critics assailed this as pork barrel spending at taxpayers' expense and dubbed it the "Bridge to Nowhere." After criticism from citizens and others in Congress, lawmakers defunded the bridge and instead funneled the money to Alaska's Department of Transportation, allowing the Governor of Alaska to start road construction after the Alaska Legislature funded the project with the directed monies.^[29]

Another bridge earmarked in the bill connects Anchorage to Pt. Mackenzie, a lightly populated area in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough that is situated less than four miles (6 km) across Cook Inlet from downtown Anchorage. Currently, Anchorage is accessible from Point Mackenzie only by an 80-mile (130 km) route around Knik Arm, much of which is an unimproved road. It is currently unlikely that the bridge will be built^{[citation needed]}; if it were, it would enhance the value of property in which Mr. Young's son-in-law owns an interest.^[15][30][31]

Abramoff scandal[link]

Published reports have linked Young to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal, although no wrongdoing has been alleged.^[32] In September 2002 Young and fellow Republican Steve LaTourette of Ohio wrote to the General Services Administration urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals. In particular, the letter referred to a historic building, the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington, D.C.^[33]

BP Environment Controversy[link]

In late 2010, Obama administration officials stated that the Deepwater Horizon blowout exceeded the Exxon Valdez spill, as they estimated that the gusher had spewed between 15 million US gallons (57,000 m³) and 40 million US gallons (150,000 m³) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Around the same time, however, Young declared that the oil pumping into the Gulf was not an "environmental disaster", stating instead that it was a "natural phenomena" as "oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10,000,000 barrels (1,600,000 m³) of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover."^[34]

Coconut Road[link]

In 2006, Young added a $10 million earmark to a transportation bill for the construction of an interstate interchange for a short stretch of road (known as "Coconut Road") near Fort Myers, Florida. Some puzzled why a congressman from Alaska would earmark for a little road in Florida that the local community opposed. A June 2007 article in the New York Times reported that a local real estate developer, Daniel J. Aronoff, who owns 4,000 acres (16 km²) along the road helped raise $40,000 for Young shortly before the earmark was inserted. Young's spokeswoman Meredith Kenny initially said that the local Republican congressman, Connie Mack, had requested the funding. In fact, both Mack and local Republican politicians opposed the funding.^[35][36][37]

In August 2007, the Naples Daily News reported that the words "Coconut Road interchange" were not in the federal transportation bill as it was approved by Congress. Instead, the words were added after the votes in the House and Senate, but before President Bush signed the bill. The original language for the $10 million earmark specified it was for widening of and improvements to Interstate 75. The language within the earmark was changed during a process called "bill enrollment", when technical corrections such as changes in punctuation are made to legislation before it is sent to the President.^[38]

In April 2008, top Senate Democrats and Republicans supported asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of the $10 million earmark. Young's staff acknowledged that aides "corrected" the earmark just before it went to the White House for President Bush's signature, specifying that the money would go to the proposed highway interchange project. Young said that the project was entirely worthy of an earmark and that he welcomed any inquiry, a spokeswoman said. Young's office said that presentations made by Florida Gulf Coast University officials and the developers proved the case for the project.^[39]

Federal investigation[link]

On July 24, 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported that Young was under federal investigation for possibly taking bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corporation, an Anchorage-based company. The top two executives of that company had already pleaded guilty to bribing members of the Alaska legislature.^[40] The Journal said a VECO executive held fundraisers called "the Pig Roast" for Young every August for ten years. Between 1996 and 2006, Young received $157,000 from VECO employees and its political action committee. In the first half of 2007, Young spent more than $250,000 of his campaign contributions for legal fees.^[22]

A confession signed by Bill Allen, the former chief of VECO, was released in October 2009. Allen agreed that from 1993 to August 2006, both he and his deputy at VECO, Rick Smith, "provided things of value to United States Representative A," a reference to Young. For example, in June 2006, Smith obtained a set of golf clubs, costing approximately $1,000, that Smith gave to Young. Although Young was obligated in 2006 to report gifts with a value of more than $335, he didn't report receiving any gifts on the personal financial disclosure form he filed with the House of Representatives for that year.^[41]

Congressional Hearing Argument[link]

On November 18, 2011, Young got into an argument during a Congressional hearing with Douglas Brinkley, a historian who teaches at Rice University in Texas, over the idea of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Reports say that during Brinkley’s testimony Young was not present in the room, ^[42] yet still continued to respond to the speech Brinkley had made. Young himself commented that his absence during Brinkley's testimony was attributable to a pre-scheduled vote on the House floor. Young not only referred to Brinkley’s argument as “garbage”, but also mistakenly addressed Brinkley as “Dr. Rice.” ^[43] In return, Brinkley made disparaging remarks about Young's education, stating, "I know you went to Yuba College and couldn't graduate." For continually interrupting Young and the committee chairman, Brinkley was threatened with removal from the hearing. Young responded to the Rice University history professor to demand “I’ll say anything I want to say! You just be quiet!”.^[44][45]

Interest Group Ratings[link]

(As of 2009 to 2010 data, based on Young's positions and House of Representative Scores)^[46]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
  • Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife
  • Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Caucus memberships[link]

• Arthritis Caucus
• Congressional Caucus on Unmanned Systems
• House Biomedical Research Caucus
• House Diabetes Caucus
• International Conservation Caucus
• Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus
• Sportsmen's Caucus

Electoral history[link]

Personal life[link]

Young was married to the former Lula Fredson, an indigenous Gwich'in. She volunteered her time serving as the manager of her husband's Washington, D.C. Congressional office. They had two daughters and were members of the Episcopal Church. Lula died on August 1, 2009 at the age of 67.^[48]

References[link]

Further reading[link]