Politics

A New Political Era

For a century, Alaska politics were remarkably simple. The economy ran on cycles of boom and bust. To get elected, politicians promised more boom, less bust. To deliver, they fought the federal government, long seen as the overlord of Alaska's lands, and they got as close to industry as they could. It was impossible to be too pro-development or too anti-government.

But even before Gov. Sarah Palin's meteoric rise to be the Republican vice-presidential running mate to Sen. John McCain, the current decade had seen a tectonic shift in Alaska politics and society. A volcano of corruption exploded from the long, cozy relationship of the state's political establishment and the oil industry. The old game of beating up on Washington while milking the federal treasury for Alaskan goodies backfired in national scandal. And a new generation of leaders began to take over, many of them born in Alaska and valuing slow, steady economic growth as much as dreams of the next big gold-rush-style boom.

The cracks in the old order began to show after Gov. Frank Murkowski was elected in 2002, giving up a seat in the U.S. Senate he had held since 1980. As if passing on a family legacy, he appointed his daughter, Lisa, to fill out his Senate term. Alaska's other U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, also a Republican, had held his office since 1968. His son, Ben, seemed to follow the path of hereditary power as well when he was appointed to complete a term in the State Senate, faced no opponent for reelection, and became Senate president, despite an imperious attitude that bothered voters. Some political observers said the Stevens and Murkowski families were simply too powerful to challenge.

But the habits of power finally wore thin. Scandal and apparent arrogance drove down the popularity of the elder Murkowski. The most serious blow came when a young oil commission member -- former beauty queen, basketball star, and Republican small-town mayor Sarah Palin -- blew the whistle on her co-commissioner, the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, who was using his state office for political purposes. Murkowski hesitated to discipline the party chairman and Palin resigned in protest.

By challenging the Republican establishment, Palin won respect from rank-and-file members of her own party and of Democrats and independent voters. In 2006 she took on Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary for governor and routed him at the polls, next beating a pro-oil Democrat and two-time governor to win the general election.

In the meantime, the corruption scandals widened. The FBI investigated both Stevens senators, father and son, and a series of other powerful Republican legislators. Videos shown at trial depicted Alaska's most politically powerful oil industry executive, Bill Allen, handing cash to legislators and promising them gifts, while the legislators promised to defeat increased oil taxes in return. Murkowski's chief of staff was convicted as well for accepting a free public opinion poll from Allen, who also testified to making improper payments and gifts to Ted and Ben Stevens.

Palin responded by bringing the oil tax back in front of a reconstituted legislature, which passed a large increase over industry objections, as well as passing strong new ethics laws and savings measures to set aside a large portion of the new oil tax money for a rainy day. And the story goes on. As this is written, the last members of the Republican old guard are under siege from federal investigators and from electoral challenges by members of Palin's generation -- both from within her insurgent wing of the Republican Party and from newly invigorated Democrats.

With the headlines still breaking and the presidential election coming after press time, it's too early to describe Palin's future or the outlines of Alaska's new political landscape. But it appears the era of unquestioned support for the oil industry is over just in time for Alaska's 50th birthday.