Young will never regain his seniority

Editor's note: Andrew Halcro is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Young in the 2010 Republican primary.

Two weeks ago, state House Rep. Harry Crawford filed to challenge Alaska's lone Congressman Don Young in the 2010 election.

The 57-year-old Crawford was in Washington, D.C., earlier this summer visiting with the Democratic National Committee investigating the possibility of campaign financing help from national Dems.

During his press availability at the Division of Elections, Crawford pushed the fact that since Congressman Young has lost his seniority, it was time for a change.

"Now he's no longer in the majority, no longer in a position of power. The Democrats are in power now and I believe that I have a record of working well with both parties," Crawford was quoted as saying in the Anchorage Daily News.

However, Young doesn't buy the argument that his lack of seniority poses a problem. During a lunch speech at the World Affairs Council last week, Young brushed off talk about him being out of power, saying he was effective in the minority for more than 20 years.

According to press accounts, Young told the crowd, "God willing, with your support, I'll be going back in the majority."

But here's the problem for Alaska: Don Young will never have seniority again, even if the Republicans take back control of the House in the near future.

Young, who was elected in 1973, spent 20 years in the minority until Republicans took back the House in 1994. You'll remember the "Contract with America," the promise to Americans that Republicans were going to end the deficit spending ways of the Democratic Party.

So after 40 years of Republicans being banished to the minority, they swept into power in 1994 amongst a wave of public concern about Clinton's health care reform and the GOP's promise of fiscal responsibility.

Young, who after 20 years had built tremendous GOP seniority, benefited from the Republicans surge to power as it put him in a prime position to assume the role of the powerful House Transportation Committee Chair.

Unfortunately, the Contract with America became the Contract on America as the GOP Congress increased deficit spending to record levels and looked the other way as the national debt doubled under former President George Bush.

While Young was well known for "stuffing" his transportation legislation full of goodies for a whole host of causes, Bush became the only American president since John Quincy Adams to fail vetoing a spending bill.

Not surprisingly, the GOP was tossed out of power after just 12 years in the majority.

So while it took the GOP four decades to become the majority party, they lost it in just one.

After his 2008 election win last November over Ethan Berkowitz, and after campaigning heavily on the theme that "seniority does matter," Young was promptly stripped of his committee leadership position and his seniority by the new GOP House leadership.

Due to Young's ongoing legal issues and after his fellow Republicans getting thoroughly trounced in the November election by the Dems, the new leadership of the GOP pushed Young out in an effort to distance themselves from the politics of old that landed them in the minority to begin with.

In an article in Politico in December, Young told a reporter that while he understood losing his seniority, he didn't think he'd ever get it back. "I understand that. I'm not complaining. And we'll come back and fight. Now whether I get it back," he said, "that's another story," Young said.

Here is the problem I see: Don Young has basically become an 18-term freshmen, with no hope of returning to the lofty days of Republican leadership.

Here is why this is a problem: Since 1946, with the exception of 1998 and 2002, the minority party has always picked up seats in the mid-term elections.

In 2010, Republicans are poised to pick up significant gains due to the anger and concern over several of President Obama's legislative proposals.