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See all postsMaurice "Mike" Gravel (1930 – 2021): Alaska’s US Senator, Democrat (1969 – 1981)
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From Catherine Coolidge (Alaska voter & DA Lyon Vice-President)As a born and bred Alaskan, I would like to pay homage to a former Democratic US Senator who represented my home state for 12 years before being defeated by a Republican who is Lisa Murkowski’s father. With the exception of one Senatorial term, Alaska has been a red state since Reagan’s Republican landslide in 1980.
Mike Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to working class French-Canadian parents and spoke only French in his early childhood. He served in the Army’s Counterintelligence Corps and then drove a cab in New York City while studying for his BA in economics at Columbia University.
Like my parents, the lure of adventure and independence drew Mr. Gravel to Alaska. He arrived broke and did whatever jobs he could find, working in real estate and even as a brakeman on the snow-clearing trains of the Alaska Railroad before launching his career in politics.
Alaska became the 49th state in January 1959. Mr. Gravel was twice elected to the State House of Representatives (1963 - 1967) and served as speaker in 1965 and 1966. Buoyed by his telegenic looks, in 1968 he narrowly unseated the incumbent 81-year-old US Senator, Ernest Gruening, who Alaskans referred to as “the Father of Alaska statehood”.
That same year, Theodore “Ted” Stevens, a Republican, was elected as Alaska’s second US Senator. Mr. Stevens went on to serve 40 years in the Senate and his towering legacy has heavily shaped Alaska’s current economic strategy, which is largely dependent on federal subsidies.
Both men hated each other. Their personalities, outlook and tactics were completely opposite. Mr. Stevens was a pragmatist, a plodder, an insider who brought home the bacon, funneled money to the military and who didn’t rock the boat.
Mr. Gravel was an idealist, a gadfly, a maverick and many considered him to be a showboat. He dreamed of stopping wars, building a self-sustaining Alaska economy and fundamentally changing American democracy. On June 29, 1971 he drew enormous national notice by reading The Pentagon Papers aloud for three hours in a one-man filibuster during a subcommittee hearing that he had called, finally breaking down in tears. At that time, all the major newspapers had been under court injunctions to stop publishing these documents.
During his 12-year senatorial term, Mike Gravel worked on issues that are the most important in Alaska’s history—the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. He opposed the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which set the 200-mile limit for fisheries, supporting an international approach instead.
During his 1968 bid for the U.S. Senate, Mr. Gravel changed the way campaigns were run in Alaska forever. Prior to that election, statewide election campaigns focused almost exclusively on Alaska’s cities. Mr. Gravel was the very first to court the state’s rural vote so widely.
He sought to better the lives of Alaska Natives in rural communities by developing rural education. At that time there were no schools in the villages of rural Alaska. Native children were often sent to public schools in major cities such as Anchorage or Fairbanks, thus totally isolating them from their supportive communities. Thanks to a government bond that Mr. Gravel helped bring about, regional schools were finally built in the outlying villages.
Many remember Mr. Gravel as a highly creative person, constantly throwing out new ideas and policies. People mocked him in the 1970s for saying that Alaska should not rely on oil for its permanent economy but rather use the wealth to invest in infrastructure for a year-round tourism industry. The local media made fun of his Denali Tent City proposal around Mount Denali, inspired by Olympic Games Village tents. His proposal for Alaskans to own part of the oil pipeline was laughed at.
Today, people are viewing his proposals much more favorably in hindsight.
Mike Gravel has had a lasting impact on Alaska and unceasingly contributed to projecting the state into the future. He deserves credit for coming up with ideas and pursuing them regardless of the consequences.
His explanation of this policy, in later life, was:
“You turn around and throw a rock in the water, and that is the process of doing something with my life, and after I’ve done it, it causes ripples that are never-ending.”
As a teenager growing up in Alaska in the 1970s, these ripples touched my life forever.
Meet the Lyon 2021 Leadership Candidates
read moreThe nominations period for the Lyon Chapter Leadership Elections has now closed. The candidates for Lyon Chapter Leadership are listed below.
All members of Democrats Abroad France Lyon Chapter may vote in the Lyon Chapter Leadership elections. Due to restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, all voting will take place on line. Members will be sent a link to their ballots by an email coming soon.You can meet the candidates, hear them speak and ask them questions, at the DA Lyon Chapter Annual General Meeting on Thursday, March 4th at 7 p.m. to be held via Zoom. Voting will close on March 4, 2021.
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, August 04, 2021 at 07:00 PM Paris Time
via Zoom in Paris, FrancePolitical Power Hour
Politics is not a spectator sport! Join us every Wednesday as we join together to take political action to help pass the Biden agenda.
Our current project is making calls with Common Cause to constituents of key US Senators and patching them through to their Senators' voicemail to urge them to publicly commit to ENDING THE FILIBUSTER and PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY by passing the For the People Act now.
The For The People Act (HR1/S1) will only pass if people like you and me are willing to take action. Join us to make calls to activists in key states and help pass this groundbreaking democracy bill, which would
- Expand the right to vote. The For the People Act would abolish outdated voter registration deadlines and enact online voter registration and automatic voter registration to make voting easier and our voter rolls more accurate and secure. The bill would stop some voter suppression tactics like voter purges and interference with voter registration.
- End partisan gerrymandering. Voters should select their politicians and not the other way around. That's why the For the People Act institutes independent redistricting commissions.
- Stop Big Money from calling the shots in our politics. Congresspeople spend some 60% of their time dialing big donors asking for money. By enacting a system of small dollar elections, whereby a $27 contribution would be matched to become $189, politicians can get off the dialer and talk to constituents, and more women, people of color, and new candidates without connections to donors would be empowered to run for office.
- Hold elected officials (including the executive branch and president) to high ethical standards. Stop regulators from profiting from the very industries they regulate. Require tax return disclosure.
We'll give you all the tools and training you need to call voters in our target states -- asking them to contact their lawmakers who will make the difference between success and failure.
Can't make it but still want to be engaged? First, call Congress. You can call Congress for free from France at 07 555 3 6446 ("Bark at Congress: 07 555 DOGGO") — this connects callers automatically to the US Capitol Switchboard, where you follow the prompts to be connected to your House Rep or Senators. Need a script? Check out 5 Calls, where you can find topical scripts with concrete demands for your legislators on any issue you care about.
Second, reach out to Max Dunitz to get connected with activities from past Power Hour actions, or other volunteer activities like postcarding, phonebanking, textbanking, data work, etc.
Have an action to suggest? Contact Max Dunitz [email protected]Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 07:00 PM Paris Time
via Zoom in Paris, FrancePolitical Power Hour
Politics is not a spectator sport! Join us every Wednesday as we join together to take political action to help pass the Biden agenda.
Our current project is making calls with Common Cause to constituents of key US Senators and patching them through to their Senators' voicemail to urge them to publicly commit to ENDING THE FILIBUSTER and PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY by passing the For the People Act now.
The For The People Act (HR1/S1) will only pass if people like you and me are willing to take action. Join us to make calls to activists in key states and help pass this groundbreaking democracy bill, which would
- Expand the right to vote. The For the People Act would abolish outdated voter registration deadlines and enact online voter registration and automatic voter registration to make voting easier and our voter rolls more accurate and secure. The bill would stop some voter suppression tactics like voter purges and interference with voter registration.
- End partisan gerrymandering. Voters should select their politicians and not the other way around. That's why the For the People Act institutes independent redistricting commissions.
- Stop Big Money from calling the shots in our politics. Congresspeople spend some 60% of their time dialing big donors asking for money. By enacting a system of small dollar elections, whereby a $27 contribution would be matched to become $189, politicians can get off the dialer and talk to constituents, and more women, people of color, and new candidates without connections to donors would be empowered to run for office.
- Hold elected officials (including the executive branch and president) to high ethical standards. Stop regulators from profiting from the very industries they regulate. Require tax return disclosure.
We'll give you all the tools and training you need to call voters in our target states -- asking them to contact their lawmakers who will make the difference between success and failure.
Can't make it but still want to be engaged? First, call Congress. You can call Congress for free from France at 07 555 3 6446 ("Bark at Congress: 07 555 DOGGO") — this connects callers automatically to the US Capitol Switchboard, where you follow the prompts to be connected to your House Rep or Senators. Need a script? Check out 5 Calls, where you can find topical scripts with concrete demands for your legislators on any issue you care about.
Second, reach out to Max Dunitz to get connected with activities from past Power Hour actions, or other volunteer activities like postcarding, phonebanking, textbanking, data work, etc.
Have an action to suggest? Contact Max Dunitz [email protected]