Seniority looms as overriding issue in Senate race

THE ISSUE Sen. Daniel Akaka and challenger Rep. Ed Case focused on experience and seniority in their televised debate.

SEN. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Ed Case, seeking Akaka's Senate seat, agree that seniority is important. The legitimate issue is whether Akaka's seniority in the Senate should be discarded so Case can begin building seniority while the state's powerful senior senator, Daniel Inouye, approaches the end of his career.

In their televised appearance billed as a debate on Thursday, Case warned of a situation experienced in Oregon a decade ago, when two senators steeped in seniority vacated their seats. Sen. Bob Packwood was forced to resign in 1995 because of allegations of sexual harassment, and Sen. Mark Hatfield retired a year later.

Oregon "went from having 56 years of senatorial experience to having none, from having the chairs of Finance and Appropriations to having none, from number one in Senate seniority among the states to number 50," then-Gov. John Kitzhaber remarked in 2001. "It can happen very fast."

Alaska avoided a similar predicament four years ago when then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, after 22 years in the Senate, was elected governor and, using his new authority, appointed his 45-year-old daughter Lisa Murkowski to his Senate seat.

The father said he chose his daughter because of her legislative experience -- two terms in the Alaska legislature -- their shared views and the need to begin a new generation of Alaskans building seniority in Congress. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, 82, has been in the Senate for 37 years. Lisa Murkowski was elected to retain the Senate seat two years ago; her father finished third this month in the Republican primary for governor.

Akaka said that his age and experience put him among "the deans of the Senate" to whom other senators go for advice. "Age does make a difference and it's something that we need to continue to use the seniority and the wisdom that they have." He said he makes no apologies "for the more deliberate speed of my words, because it's not seen as a handicap but rather a sign of thoughtfulness and care."

Case responded that age is not an important criteria "in and of itself." The issue, he said, is whether it is time to begin building seniority in the Senate for the next generation. "This is not about age," he said. "This is about reality. This is about transition."

If age is a consideration, it should be regarded apart from seniority. Akaka's lumbering performance in the debate did not ease concerns about his age -- he will turn 82 this month, as will a more spry and articulate Inouye -- and he wrongly lumped age with seniority, used for committee assignments. Akaka's 16 years in the Senate put him 19th among the 44 Democrats in seniority; Inouye's 43 years in the Senate rank him third.