We couldn’t help but wonder if it was coincidence or strategery that former Republican foes Congressman Don Young and now-Governor Sean Parnell (who ran against Young in the 2008 congressional primary) had competing events happening the first night of the Alaska Federation of Natives conference last Thursday. Congressman Young threw a fundraiser attended by a little over 30 people at the new SubZero Bistro and MicroLounge, including newly declared candidate for lieutenant governor Representative Jay Ramras (R-Fairbanks).

There may have been a few more donors there—we know of at least a couple who skipped Young’s event—if it hadn’t been at the same time as the 2009 Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities. And from the sounds of it, the congressman could have used a little extra dough; the Anchorage Daily News reported a couple weeks ago that Young’s campaign coffers contained just $123,037 at the time, compared to the nearly $1.5 million he had at the same point in his last campaign.

It’s tough to imagine Governor Parnell pulling for either Republican candidate for congress: Young famously gave him the sobriquet “Captain Zero,” while Young’s primary opponent, former legislator Andrew Halcro, was one of the loudest and most persistent critics of the Palin/Parnell administration and its supposed accomplishments like the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. The primary character in Alaska’s corruption scandals, former VECO owner Bill Allen, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison. That’s just not enough for some people. Representative Ramras, who’s the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge John Sedwick prior to Allen and his fellow defendant Rick Smith’s sentencing, and didn’t pull any punches.

An excerpt:

“Like many Alaskans, whom I mean for this letter to represent by proxy—these despicable men have painted one of the darkest pictures in the State of Alaska’s short 50 year history. Judge Sedwick, I encourage you to throw the proverbial ‘book’ at them and sentence them to the maximum prison time.

“Their degenerative behavior cannot be whitewashed by any provision of ‘cooperation with federal prosecutors.’ Myself and most Alaskans wish punishment could be greater than those allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines. Please demonstrate that these truly rogue characters, using the proper definition of the word, are sentenced to the maximum prison term allowed and are mandated into custody immediately.”

Sedwick said Wednesday that Allen could have received up to 41 months in prison, yet he gave him a sentence five months shy of that; Smith received 21 months. Both walked out of the federal courthouse unshackled. The brief thinks that Judge Sedwick should have listened to Ramras (and appreciates Ramras’s clarification of what “rogue” means, in light of an upcoming memoir).

Web extra: See video of Allen exiting the courthouse after his sentencing at http://www.anchoragepress.com/multimedia/, courtesy of Dennis Zaki and AlaskaReport.com

bjk@anchoragepress.com