State by State

Alaska

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell’s (R) surprise announcement that he will challenge Rep. Don Young (R) in a primary this year has created rumblings in the state GOP and uncertainty about Young’s prospects.

Parnell shocked many in the party Friday by saying he would run against Young.

{mosads}Young is seeking his 19th term in Congress. But he is more vulnerable now as he is facing a federal investigation into his ties to a company at the center of a corruption scandal involving the Alaska legislature.

With Gov. Sarah Palin (R) by his side, Parnell will take up the next fight in an internal GOP battle between the old guard and the new governor.

Young reportedly mock-applauded Parnell’s announcement and later said Parnell should have run against him two years ago if he wanted to serve in Washington, instead of being Palin’s running mate. Young also noted that he beat Parnell’s father in his 1980 reelection campaign.

“I beat your dad, and I’m going to beat you,” Young said, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News.

The state House speaker over the weekend called for Parnell to resign in order to run against Young, but Parnell declined.

Young was already facing a crowded primary field, most notably state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux. LeDoux said she will stay in the race.

— Aaron Blake

California

A Democratic candidate trying to oust Rep. Gary Miller (R) is calling on the California Republican to reimburse taxpayers $1.28 million for an earmark aimed at improving the road in front of a housing and retail development he owns with one of his campaign contributors.

Ron Shepston said Miller used the legislative process to help his personal business interests and therefore should give the money back to the U.S. Treasury.

“I don’t think my tax dollars should be used to personally enrich Gary Miller and his biggest campaign contributor,” said Shepston, an avionics engineer, an Air Force veteran and one of three Democrats trying to win the seat.

Miller previously said that the city of Diamond Bar requested the earmark. His spokesman, Scott Toussaint, responded through e-mail that Miller has already addressed the issue and “does not intend to comment on a campaign stunt.”

Miller inserted the earmark into the 2005 transportation bill. The road is located in front of Diamond Bar Village, a residential and commercial development Miller owns with Lewis Operating, one of his biggest campaign contributors.

House ethics rules bar members from “taking any official actions for the prospect of personal gain for themselves or anyone else.”

— Susan Crabtree

Colorado

In a fundraising letter this month, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R) said she has been told by party leaders to expect “little or no help” from the national party in her reelection campaign this year.

“The National Republican Congressional Committee is falling behind the Democrats every month,” Musgrave said in the letter, dated March 12. “And with the most expensive presidential campaign in history looming, the Republican Party is just too tapped out to spend money on the ‘smaller races’ like ours.”

A spokeswoman for the NRCC said no such spending decisions have been made.

Musgrave, who won reelection with just 46 percent of the vote in 2006, faces Democrat Betsy Markey.

“The decisions about where and to what extent we will be involved in individual races will not be made until later in the cycle, but we will have every resource we need to be competitive and win in the races we decide to be involved in,” NRCC spokeswoman Julie Shutley said.

— A.B.

Illinois

A fundraiser for Rep. Melissa Bean (D) scheduled for the home of Chicago’s Serbian Consul General on Monday was moved after Bean’s opponent, businessman Steve Greenberg (R), attacked the nature of the event and allegedly scared the host.

Greenberg’s campaign accused Bean of selling access to Consul General Desko Nikitovic by holding a fundraiser hosted by his wife, Ryann Whalen Nikitovic, who is the head of the Serbian Bar Association of America.

Bean’s campaign said the consul general was never going to be at the fundraiser and emphasized that his wife is an American citizen who owns the house.

The fundraiser was moved to a restaurant.

Bean spokesman Jonathan Lipman said the consul general had “absolutely no involvement with the event.”

It is illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to campaigns.

“We moved the event because the original hostess, an American mother of two, was frightened by the rhetoric and tactics of the opponent’s campaign,” Lipman said, adding: “These ethnically divisive tactics of his have appalled the Serbian community and driven them to stronger support for Congresswoman Melissa Bean.”

It is not the first time Greenberg has attempted to make an issue of Bean’s ties to the Serbian community. In late February, he drew heat for using her Serbian maiden name, Luburich, in a press release asking her to support the independence of Kosovo.

“We need reform in Washington, not members of Congress like Melissa Bean who raise campaign cash in unethical ways from foreign interests and then lobby for those interests on the floor of Congress,” Greenberg said in a statement.

— A.B.