It’s campaign season for political hopefuls seeking office in Alaska. One of the seats up for election on the ballots this year is Alaska’s representation in Congress, a seat currently held by incumbent Don Young. One of those candidates intending to unseat Congressman Young is Nick Begich, who spent the day on the Kenai Peninsula. During the day, he was the featured speaker at the joint Kenai and Soldotna Chamber of Commerce luncheon and Wednesday evening, he held a fundraiser in Sterling.
The Republican candidate appeared on KSRM’s ‘Sound Off’ with host Duane Bannock. One of the many issues he talked about was signing a bill to see what was in it:
“Awful. Awful. I mean, so many of these bills and we see them most often on the Democrat side of the house, they are put together in secret with smaller subcommittees, many of them never make their way through the committee review process and then they are presented on the floor up or down. You might have a couple of hours to read the bill. That’s wrong. That’s a bad process. It makes for bad legislation, and it makes for a lot of pork, quite frankly, that gets into these bills. When Don Young came into congress in 1973, the national debt was less than $500 billion. Today it’s near $30 trillion, 60 times bigger. 60 times bigger! How does that happen? I’ll tell you where it happens, it happens because people aren’t reading the stuff that they’re passing. You’ve got to have time to read this material. That’s what you’re there for.”
He also spoke on being a conservative:
“Being a conservative is really about personal liberty, freedom for your own self, a reduction in the size and scope of government. Unfortunately, we’ve seen government continue to grow, particularly in the last year, year and a half. I think it’s about making your own decisions, living with your own consequences, and keeping government small so that the free market can do what it does best.”
According to the Alaska Division of Elections, five candidates have announced intentions to run for Alaska’s sole congressional seat, however Begich has not yet filed the required documents and isn’t among the current candidates. The final day to file as a candidate for the Primary Election in Alaska is on or before 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, 2022.
Click here to listen to his entire KSRM interview.