Stevens facing well-funded primary challenge
Remember the name Vic Vickers, who is taking on an Alaskan political institution, the ethically-challenged, longtime Alaska senator Ted Stevens.
The businessman and economic historian is unlikely to unseat Stevens in the Republican primary on August 26. But his active opposition will provide an early test to exactly how vulnerable Stevens will be against Democrat Mark Begich in the November election.
Vickers announced he is spending $750,000 on television ads featuring him standing in front of Stevens’ home, which was searched by federal agents last year. The ads will be running until the primary election.
"I am Vic Vickers, and I'm running against Ted Stevens to stop corruption," Vickers says in the ad.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a Senate candidate with a more eclectic background than Vickers. He's a businessman, lawyer, economic historian, according to the Anchorage Daily News. He also just moved into the state, which will probably be a huge sticking point for his candidacy. The full lowdown?
Vickers, 59, said he owns the controlling interest of Eller and Company Inc., a Florida maritime company. He said he's also a lawyer, has a Ph.D. in economic history, is a former Florida banking regulator and has written two historical books on banking fraud in Florida and Chicago.
Vickers said he hitchhiked to Alaska as a college student in 1970 and was taken in by Alaska Supreme Court Justice George Boney, whose brother had coached Vickers in high school football. Vickers said Boney was his mentor and "I promised the chief I'd come back and give back to Alaska."
Vickers said he's been coming back to Alaska almost every year for 38 years, before moving to Anchorage for good earlier this year. He said he had been working on a history of the Alaska oil and gas industry that has turned into a book about corruption.