Ramesh Ponnuru has a great question, that occurred to me as well, when I read this. This discussion is in the context of whether or not earmarks are a winning issue for Republicans. Well, they certainly aren't unless they're willing to embrace it. Which apparently they aren't...

Re Ramesh's question: In 1996, Stevens did have a Republican challenger in the primary, Dave Cuddy. My take on what happened during that campaign is probably biased, since I had only lately come to despise Stevens (and was in fact contacted by someone in Cuddy's camp before he announced, in response to a public comment of mine about wanting a primary challenger for Stevens).

As for Young, the only one I remember was Jim Dore, who from what I heard got loud and extensive applause at the state GOP convention the year he ran against Young in the primary -- but he did worse in the vote total than Cuddy had against Stevens.

I've gotten very cynical about Stevens' future with Alaska voters, as my comment on the Surber thread may hint.

My dad, who's lived in Anchorage since 1959, said last summer that even if Stevens was in prison he'd still get re-elected. Such is his lock on the Alaska political scene.