‘Frozen Chosen’ Ethan Berkowitz considers run to replace Sarah Palin

July 10, 12:48 AMJewish Community ExaminerSheila Solomon

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Following former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s bombshell pre-Fourth of July weekend announcement that she is stepping down as governor of Alaska with another year remaining in her term, speculation about why she resigned has dominated the news. Now, questions about who might succeed Palin in the 2010 election are surfacing.

Alaska’s Republican Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell, who will be taking over for Palin on July 26, said that he will seek election to the governor's office next year, according to KTUU.com.

Meanwhile, Ethan Berkowitz, a possible Democratic opponent, is "seriously considering a run" for the governorship, according to Jewish Telegraphic Agency journalist Eric Fingehut in the recent article “The Jewish angle on the Palin resignation.”

Berkowitz, who is Jewish, served ten years in the Alaska state legislature and lost a 2008 race for Alaska’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to 17-term Republican incumbent Don Young.

In 2006, Berkowitz was the Democratic nominee for Alaska’s lieutenant governor.  In his Op/Ed piece, “Few Jewish Republicans Are Running For Office, The ‘Chosen’ Representatives,” Jonathan E. Kaplan observes that if Berkowitz had won the 2006 election, he would have “become the first Jew elected to statewide office in Alaska.”

Kaplan also notes that in 2006 Berkowitz was one of only five Jewish politicians in the Alaska state legislature. Four were Democrats and one was a Republican. Kaplan goes on to quote Berkowitz, who joked, “We’re the frozen chosen...the Yarmulke caucus.”

Commenting on Berkowitz’s Jewishness, Brett Lieberman reports in his article “In heavily GOP Alaska, 'Frozen Chosen' Jewish Democrat may take state's lone seat in House” that Berkowitz “is not affiliated with any of the state's handful of synagogues and doesn't consider himself very religious. Yet he’s….clearly been influenced by Jewish traditions: he had a bar mitzvah, was married under a chuppah, and held a brit milah for his son, Noah.” Also, Berkowitz told Lieberman that his Jewish heritage is “very much who I am....The heritage is important in terms of the quest for social justice and equal opportunity for all."

In the photo above, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hugs Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell after she announced she would be stepping down as governor on Friday July 3, 2009. (AP Photo/The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, Robert DeBerry)

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