Republican Representative Don Young of Alaska Wins 19th Term

[Ron Burgundy]

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Republican Representative DonYoung of Alaska won his bid for a 19th term over Democrat EthanBerkowitz, a former state House minority leader.

Young, who fended off a primary challenge from an ally ofGovernor Sarah Palin, has served 35 years in Congress as Alaska'ssole member of the House of Representatives. Young received 50.8percent of the vote compared with 44.8 percent for Berkowitz,with all precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

The eighth-most senior member of the House, Young served aschairman of the House Transportation and Natural Resourcescommittees before Democrats won control of Congress in 2006. Heis now the top Republican on the latter panel. He argued that hisexperience meant he could best advocate on behalf of Alaska.

Young, 75, is under political pressure this year because hehas been investigated for links to Veco Corp., an oil-servicescompany whose executives made political donations to many Alaskalawmakers.

Berkowitz, a former member of the state legislature, ran ona platform of revamping U.S. energy policies, including expandingfunding for wind and solar power. He also supports drilling inthe Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and argued that he might havea better chance to convince reluctant Democrats to supportopening the refuge to drilling.

Senate Race Still Open

In Alaska's Senate race, the state is still countingabsentee ballots from the Nov. 4 election. Democratic challengerMark Begich is ahead by three votes in his bid to oust incumbentAlaska Senator Ted Stevens, according to the state's electionsdivision.

Anchorage Mayor Begich trailed Stevens by 3,257 votes untilstate officials started counting approximately 90,000 absenteeballots, a process that may stretch in to next week.

Begich now leads Stevens 125,019 votes to 125,016 votes,according to the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

Stevens, 84, was convicted in federal court last month offailing to report $250,000 in gifts from an Alaska oil servicescompany. He is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate.

To contact the reporters on this story:Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net ;Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net

source: Bloomberg - http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20081113/pl_bloomberg/abjtepxzkaam [link]