ALASKA IS
FLAGGING
might well provide Alaska’s jilted
electorate the measure of stability it has sorely lacked.
With his upbeat but somewhat bland personality, and his
standard-issue Trent Lott haircut
brushed sideways into a neatly
contained mass, Begich appears
fresh off the senatorial assembly
line. And whereas the often surly
Young and Stevens cut their teeth
in remote and rough frontiers, like
Fairbanks and Fort Yukon, Begich
was raised in Anchorage’s relative
comfort and urbanity.
“He’s just a regular guy,” said
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), one
of Begich’s closest friends in the
Senate. “He’s easy to talk to.”
That amiability aided Begich in
his earliest professional pursuits.
By the time he graduated high
school, he was already a thriving
businessman. At 18, he had obtained a business license to sell
jewelry and was helping his mother manage a number of real estate
properties. So abundant were his
opportunities in Anchorage that
he opted to skip college. Today
Begich is the only member of the
Senate — and his family — without a college degree.
“It was a pretty optimistic time
in Alaska,” said Bill Popp. “The
HUFFINGTON
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pipeline had just wrapped up and
the money was starting to flow.
There were a lot of opportunities,
especially for kids.”
Begich’s most impressive
adolescent undertaking was an
18-and-under club called The
Motherlode. Many other teenagers, finding themselves young, free
and owning a profitable nightclub
Today Begich is the only
member of the Senate —
and his family — without
a college degree.
in the disco era, might have descended into a hedonistic spiral,
like some kind of subarctic Steve
Rubell. But Begich was methodical, going to great lengths to keep
alcohol and drugs off the premises
and, characteristically, spending far more time with the club’s
books than on its dance floor.
“He ran The Motherlode with
very high standards,” said Popp,
who also DJed at the club. “They
had high-quality bouncers at
the front door. It was the talk
of the town.”
Politics was the last thing on
Begich’s mind, thanks in no small
part to his late father, Nick Begich, who had served as Alaska’s
at-large representative to Con-