{"id":13415,"date":"2016-08-13T21:31:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T04:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/don-young-faces-three-republican-challengers-on-tuesday\/"},"modified":"2016-08-13T21:31:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T04:31:01","slug":"don-young-faces-three-republican-challengers-on-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/don-young-faces-three-republican-challengers-on-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Young faces three Republican challengers on Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Alaska\u2019s state primary elections are on Tuesday, and except for the incumbents, most of the names on the ballot probably aren\u2019t familiar to most Alaskans.<\/em><\/p>\n

In these last days before the primary, the Empire will be introducing you to the men and women appearing on the Aug. 16 ballot. This is the fifth of six stories devoted to the topic. Look online at juneauempire.com to find the stories that have already run.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The Republican candidates for U.S. House include an incumbent who is one of the longest-serving Representatives in American history and three challengers who say Rep. Don Young has grown out of touch and ineffective. <\/p>\n

The winner of Tuesday\u2019s race among Gerald Heikes, Jesse \u201cMessy\u201d Tingley, Stephen Wright and Young will advance to an election in November against independent candidate Bernie Souphanavong and the winners of the Democratic and Libertarian primaries.<\/p>\n

\n

Minister for office<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerald \u201cTap\u201d Heikes did not return a phone call seeking an interview, but at an early-August candidate forum on the Kenai Peninsula, he described himself a \u201cConstitutional Christian conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heikes has been a perennial candidate for office, running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2006, 2010 and 2014. He also ran for U.S. Senate in 2008 but has never been selected as the party\u2019s nominee.<\/p>\n

At the Kenai forum, he said he\u2019s running for office \u201cbecause we need a change in Washington D.C. from the top to the bottom,\u201d the Kenai Peninsula Clarion reported. \u201cEven the Republicans that are in there right now, the majority of them are in the pocket of Obama.\u201d <\/p>\n

Heikes has repeatedly spoken out against President Obama. During his 2014 run for governor, he said \u201cthe first thing I would do (as governor) is phone (Rep.) Don Young, tell him to get ahold of John \u2018Happy Hour\u2019 Boehner and say the governor of Alaska is going to start proceeding on the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama,\u201d Heikes said in a story published by the Alaska Dispatch News. \u201cI\u2019m just another guy that\u2019s fed up with the system and the way it\u2019s going and people not having any backbone to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Messy\u2019 vows to clean up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesse James Tingley of Wasilla goes by the nickname \u201cMessy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom kind of started it,\u201d he said by phone. \u201cI was a messy child, and it rhymes with Jesse.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good at cleaning up,\u201d he added, referring to the national political situation as well as his personal nickname. \u201cMy slogan is, \u2018It\u2019s time to clean the House, because it\u2019s become way too dirty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tingley said his primary goal is \u201cto raise the voice of the silent majority that is fed up with the feds getting in our way every chance they get and wasting our future generations\u2019 tax dollars before they\u2019re even born.\u201d<\/p>\n

His biggest issue is federal spending, which he says should be reduced. He believes the space program \u201cis another giant waste of money\u201d and supports ocean exploration instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be no shortages (of water) in the world because God gave us a planet that\u2019s two-thirds water,\u201d he said, explaining that he supports desalinization as is employed by aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the federal penitentiaries, I think we waste billions of dollars keeping some of these hardcore criminals alive for the rest of their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we need to thin the herd there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tingley supports drug-testing welfare recipients, \u201cand I believe there\u2019s a lot of fraud and waste going on there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tingley said he was offended by a recent federal Fish and Wildlife decision to block Alaska\u2019s predator control program on most federal land. That program, which includes the aerial hunting of wolves (a measure to encourage the growth of prey populations), is opposed by conservation groups.<\/p>\n

Tingley believes in taking powers from the federal government and giving them to the states. He supports stronger limits on donations to election campaigns and candidates, adding that he hasn\u2019t taken any money himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy soul is not for sale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He believes in a 48-hour waiting period before abortions, and that \u201cpeople should have to speak with a counselor and be shown a picture of the fetus.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes in expanding firearms rights by permitting felons to have their gun rights restored if they were convicted of a felony that wasn\u2019t a gun crime or murder.<\/p>\n

On foreign policy, he suggests the United States embark on one final punitive campaign against ISIS, then pull out of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we bring home 70 percent of our troops (from all overseas bases), we can protect our own air, land and sea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a Constitutional scholar, and I\u2019m not an expert on all of these issues, but what I do know for a fact is if you surround yourself with a great team, that\u2019s when the real winning is done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Iraq veteran seeks office<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Wright of Wasilla served 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, including a tour at an airbase outside Tikrit, Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like we\u2019re not getting a whole lot done right now as far as Congress is concerned,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that I would be part of that change that\u2019s needed at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright said he\u2019s concerned that incumbent Rep. Don Young \u201cis getting really old, and he\u2019s mis-voting and not even voting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s son attended Wasilla High School, and Wright said he was stunned when Young \u201cberated the students there\u201d during an infamous 2014 assembly. That assembly is at least part of the reason Wright is running against Young this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just fed up with all the stuff that he\u2019s done and gets away with,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

Wright lived in Hyder for several years as a teacher, and he said he would work to see better ferry service. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know the ferry system\u2019s important for most people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He personally would like to see the ferry system serve Hyder again and would \u201cbring back logging as much as possible\u201d in Southeast.<\/p>\n

Wright said he\u2019s concerned with reforms to the Veterans Administration system and wants to see it operate with the same efficiency that the Montgomery GI Bill system does. He\u2019s taken advantage of that program to study at several universities, often taking online courses.<\/p>\n

With regard to foreign policy, Wright said he saw in Iraq that the issues aren\u2019t simple. \u201cI think we need to be involved,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have fully pulled out (of Iraq).\u201d<\/p>\n

When American forces pulled out of Iraq, it led to instability that spread to Syria, then back to Iraq. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe instability in that part of the world is going to affect us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wright is anti-abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the mother\u2019s life is in danger, you want to have many opinions before a procedure that is going to take out a life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While he has never served in elected office, Wright said his tour in Iraq put him under the authority of two different generals, and he\u2019s able to work at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m used to dealing with political maneuvering and that kind of stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Incumbent asks for <\/strong><\/p>\n

another term<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Young has served as Alaska\u2019s sole Congressman in the House of Representatives since winning a special election in 1973. With 43 years of experience in the House, he has the 12th-longest uninterrupted House tenure in American history. <\/p>\n

If elected on Tuesday and again in November, Young has said he will run for another term in office. Making that declaration in a Juneau speech earlier this year, Young said the important thing for Alaska in the U.S. House is experience. Because the House has 435 seats, and Alaska has only one of those seats, it must have an experienced Representative to balance its lack of numbers.<\/p>\n

Young supports a broad interpretation of gun rights and has said in campaign statements that \u201cfurther federal investment in mental health services is the answer\u201d to addressing a rash of mass shootings.<\/p>\n

Young served in the U.S. Army and has said he is concerned by \u201cthe major failures by the Department of Veterans Affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, Young has said that the United States needs to spend more on national infrastructure, even if it means increasing the federal gasoline tax.<\/p>\n

Young supports mineral and natural resource development in Alaska, including logging in Southeast Alaska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Alaska\u2019s state primary elections are on Tuesday, and except for the incumbents, most of the names on the ballot probably aren\u2019t familiar to most Alaskans. In these last days before the primary, the Empire will be introducing you to the men and women appearing on the Aug. 16 ballot. This is the fifth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":13416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13415"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}