Begich said he was committed to working with the Republican hierarchy in Alaska, including Gov. Sarah Palin, to advance the state's interests above party conflict.
"I've known her for many years. As mayor, we had a good working relationship on issues that were important to us," he said. "I don't care whether she's a Republican or not. . . . Right now, I think her issues are very similar to mine."
Begich said he was confident he would be able to act as a powerful new advocate on Capitol Hill for opening up Alaska's northernmost wildlife refuge to oil drilling. The idea has been blocked for years because of concerns it would threaten caribou, migrating birds, polar bears and other wildlife whose survival depends on the Arctic coastal plain and nearby waters.
"For the last 28 years, there hasn't been a Democrat sitting in the caucus talking about ANWR," he said. "My goal is to educate them about how big ANWR is to this state."
He added that drilling in the refuge could be sold to fellow Democrats if it were cast as part of a comprehensive energy strategy. "I believe it's about renewable energy, it's about new technologies . . . and if you ask the environmental community, that's something they've been waiting for since the early '70s," he said. "With Sen. Stevens, the environmental community didn't even get through the door."
The Alaska Wilderness League criticized similar statements Begich made Wednesday morning about Arctic drilling during an interview with National Public Radio.
"It's surprising that on his first day as senator-elect, Mr. Begich chose to directly contradict his own party platform and the position of President-elect [Barack] Obama," the league's executive director, Cindy Shogan, said in a statement. "It seems that in Alaska, the only party is the oil party."
And Begich's claim that a more mature electorate was looking for a solutions-oriented politician was greeted with skepticism by some Alaska political analysts, who said Stevens' criminal indictment and conviction probably cost him the race.
The fact that veteran Republican Rep. Don Young won reelection despite his own brush with the federal corruption investigation is testament to the GOP's influence over contemporary state politics, said Carl Shepro, political science professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
David Dittman, an Anchorage pollster who worked on the Stevens campaign early in the race, said the trial kept Stevens from personally campaigning until the last week of the race, when he began to seriously reduce Begich's previous gains.
As for Begich's support of drilling in ANWR, Dittman expressed conventional wisdom in Alaska: "No one could ever get elected from Alaska that didn't support it."
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kim.murphy@latimes.com
