Sen. Mark Begich's First Alaska Press Conference

Friday afternoon, Alaska's junior Senator, Mark Begich, gave his first Alaska press conference since he was sworn into office. He had prepared statements on the expansion of SCHIP, the upcoming Senate debate on President Obama's economic stimulus package, and the unforeseen battle to save benefits for the surviving veterans from the World War II Alaska Territorial Scouts.

Here's KTUU-TV's video coverage:


KTUU's Leyla Santiago wrote a short article about the press conference:

In his first press conference in Alaska since taking office, Sen. Mark Begich says Alaska could get up to $1 billion from the economic recovery act.

Begich said he believes Congress is making progress in Washington, D.C. towards creating an economic stimulus plan.

In the last few weeks, Alaska's newest senator has helped pass a children's healthcare bill which will help give Denali Kid Care a boost.

Begich is also working hard to make sure Alaska has a voice in the economic recovery act.

He says he understands why some Alaskans questioned his ability to bring money home like his predecessor, Sen. Ted Stevens, but Begich believes he's already proving those people wrong.

"The first major piece of legislation that comes out doesn't allow earmarks so we doubled the capacity for Alaska by that piece of legislation that failed twice before in the legislative session," he said. "So in less than 3 and a half weeks we passed a piece of legislation that's going to bring capacity to 1,200 kids in this state to have additional healthcare."

Begich says he wants the economic stimulus bill to make its way to President Barack Obama by mid-February.

I haven't found other Anchorage coverage of the press conference. I blogged it live for firedoglake, but that wasn't intentional. The blog just happened to put a post I had written earlier in the day up on their front page right when Sen. Begich's conference began.

Dennis Zaki filmed the entire press conference for the Alaska Report, and should have it available when he catches up on his backlog of video from his lower Yukon River trip.

The absence of the Anchorage Daily News at the first Alaska press conference by our new U.S. Senator speaks loudly about the pathetic leadership there by publisher, Pat Dougherty. Would they have missed a public statement for the media by Sarah Palin? No, of course not.

While I was writing this and watching the Super Bowl - including James Harrison's immaculate interception - a new press release from the governor came in, about the president's economic stimulus package. The release is strange, using some Palinesque terms, like "shovel-ready" and "hugely increased deficit our nation is growing."

No doubt the Anchorage Daily News will be covering Palin's big weekend all week long, along with her Sunday afternoon press release, which ends with an interesting statement:

The governor has asked the nation’s leaders to look at these issues to ensure fairness in the stimulus package and that the package does not harm the long-term fiscal health of the nation. Contrary to some news reports, she looks forward to continuing to work with Alaska’s congressional delegation to accomplish the state’s goals.