This is when the corruption in Alaska took hold...and we are now just starting to come out of it...
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/110208/loc_351024006.shtmlNick Begich was running for re-election three weeks before the 1972 general election, and things were going remarkably well. He had won re-election in the Democratic primary handily, and was thought to be leading Republican challenger Don Young, a Fort Yukon school teacher and riverboat captain.
Begich also had landed a major coup for a freshman in Congress: House Majority Leader Hale Boggs had come to Alaska to campaign for him.
Boggs' interest in the faraway state indicated that Begich was seen as an up and comer on the national scene.
The Anchorage Daily News was excited to have the House Majority Leader in Alaska and covered his visit in detail.
"The silver-haired Congressman appeared accustomed to well-tailored dark suits on his well-fed frame; in short, the picture of a long-term, unopposed southern politician: Flowery and forceful," the paper's Allan Frank reported.
Boggs was the kind of principled politician Begich sought out, the paper said.
To the consternation of some of his Louisiana constituents, the Southern Democrat voted for the 1964 civil rights act and in Anchorage stood up to denounce President Richard Nixon, who was on his way to a landslide electoral victory in Alaska and elsewhere.
(Besides denouncing Nixon, Boggs was looking into the JFK assassination)
Interesting that we have been stuck with Don Young ever since this 'accident'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_BegichIn 1970, Begich was elected to Alaska's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Republican banker Frank Murkowski (later a U.S. Senator and eventually Governor of Alaska). In 1972, he faced the Republican state senator Don Young. On October 16, 1972, he was aboard a twin engine Cessna 310 along with Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana when the plane disappeared during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Also on board were Begich's aide, Russell Brown, and the pilot, Don Jonz;<2> the four were heading to a campaign fundraiser for Begich.
In an enormous search effort, Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force planes searched for the party. On November 24, 1972, after thirty-nine days, the search was abandoned. Neither the wreckage of the plane nor the pilot's and passengers' remains were ever found. All were presumed dead on December 29, 1972. The accident prompted Congress to pass a law mandating emergency locator transmitters in all U.S. civil aircraft. Posthumously, Begich won the 1972 election with 56% to Don Young's 44%. However, after Begich's declared death, a special election was called which was won by Young.
Now my question is....Will Mark Begich be safe?