JUNEAU — Some top Republican legislators, including the speaker of the House, say Sean Parnell should resign as lieutenant governor to campaign for Congress, but Parnell says he has no intention of quitting.

Republican Parnell dropped a major surprise Friday at the state GOP convention in Anchorage when he announced he would challenge U.S. Rep. Don Young. Young, also a Republican, has held his congressional seat since 1973.

Anchorage Daily News

As was pointed out to us by newred, Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell, has thrown his hat in the ring to try and take down Congressman Don Young in the Republican Primary. This is good news for conservatives. In my opinion, the Alaskan delegation to Washington is the most disappointing of them all. Alaska is a solid Republican state. Democrats can certainly win under the right circumstances and may very well prevail this year if Parnell does not, but it is solid enough for the GOP that anything less than two Reagan conservatives in the Senate and one in the House is unacceptable. For years we’ve been zero for three on that front.

Young, Stevens, and the Murkowskis have represented everything that is wrong with today’s Republican party. They have no principle to stand on. They are corrupt, engage in political favoritism, and care of nothing more than enriching themselves at the taxpayer’s expense. There have been past challenges against some of them that have not succeeded, but Governor Sarah Palin gave us hope in 2006 when she knocked off former Governor Frank Murkowski in the primary election. Murkowski’s approval ratings were in the toilet and had Palin not mounted a winning campaign the Democrats would have likely taken the governorship from us, similar to Fletcher’s demise in Kentucky this past year.

With Palin’s approval ratings in the 80 percentile, which is just unbelievable, I think Parnell has a better than average chance at beating Young. My only concern is that he is not the only Republican challenger so there is fear of the anti-Young vote being diluted between him and the other challenger, State Senator Gabrielle LeDoux (R-Kodiak). If Young eeks through then this race moves from likely Republican to toss up in November as Young’s disapproval rating is over 50%. Same goes with his porker-in-crime, Ted Stevens, who is also up for reelection in the U.S. Senate and facing an investigation by the FBI.

The problem with career politicians like Young and Stevens is that they don’t know when it’s time to quit. It’s not about the good of the country or the good of the Republican Party; it’s all about them. The Republican establishment cannot be counted on to remedy the situation either. The GOP powers that be seem to prefer shooting themselves in the foot and losing seats than sending ripples through the old boys club, as we saw two weeks ago in Illinois. It’s up to us on the ground to force the changes.

On a related note, a bid to oust the Alaskan Republican Chairman narrowly failed last night by a vote of 167 to 133. The reform movement is definitely present, but last night’s vote shows there are still obstacles in our way.