DOUGLAS GRAHAM/CQ ROLL CALL
ALASKA IS
FLAGGING
onto planes and sled dog teams
mushed onto boats.
Begich and his aides had come
bearing supplies. In addition to a
replacement part for the town’s
sanitation truck — a delivery
that would have otherwise taken
several weeks to arrive — the
group had brought fruit and other
perishables, veritable luxuries
in such an isolated and barren
place. The job of Alaskan appropriator, it seemed, never ends.
Galena’s history closely mirrors
Alaska’s economic rise and cur-
HUFFINGTON
01.26.14
rent uncertainty. The town was
once home to a military installation, which helped fuel its development and kept it in the good
graces of Washington lawmakers.
But in the late 2000s, the facility
was slated to be closed, leading to
an exodus of residents and, more
pressingly, budget shortfalls.
In 2009, with its future uncertain and the Recovery Act being
hammered out in Congress, Galena spent $40,000 of its minuscule budget on lobbying. In 2010,
it spent $60,000 — more money
per capita than any other municipal, county or state government
in the United States. (Los Ange-
Begich talks
with reporters
as he makes
his way to
the Senate
luncheons
in the U.S.
Capitol on
Dec. 17,
2013.