By Sara Lubbes and Lauren Phillips, CQ Staff

Two Republicans, Sen. Ted Stevens and at-large Rep. Don Young , have dominated Alaska politics for nearly four decades. The idea that either would face electoral difficulties in 2008 seemed inconceivable — until the two congressional titans were swept up in the swirl of controversy surrounding a federal investigation into allegations of widespread political corruption in their home state.

With Monday’s FBI raid of Stevens’ Alaska home producing the loudest headlines yet, Republicans are being forced to contemplate whether these “safe” seats might become vulnerable. Meanwhile, Alaska’s usually beleaguered Democratic minority is adjusting to the new realities and sizing up how much an opportunity these ethics flaps may afford them.

It appears increasingly likely that the Democrats will make more serious runs than usual at both Young, who has held Alaska’s only House seat since 1973, and Stevens, who was appointed to the Senate in 1968 and won his seven subsequent elections by overwhelming margins.

The difficulties faced by Stevens and Young stem from their ties to executives with Veco Corporation, an Alaska-based oil industry services company that is at the center of the wide-ranging state corruption scandal. Bill Allen, the company’s founder, pleaded guilty in May to bribing state legislators. Former state Sen. Ben Stevens, the senator’s son, is among the lawmakers whose offices were searched in the investigation, though he has not been indicted.

“It’s never been considered a real thing to beat Ted Stevens ,” said Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Coumbe. “Now, it’s a real chance we’ll take both the House and the Senate seat.”

With the August 2008 primary still more than a year away, the Democratic field for the nomination to challenge Young has a more definite shape.

Back for a rematch bid is Diane Benson, a writer and mother of a wounded Iraq war veteran. Benson lost the 2006 House race by 56.6 percent to 40 percent — a better-than-expected showing, given that Young usually has won by more overwhelming margins and outspent Benson by nearly $2 million to about $200,000.

But also in the running is Jake Metcalfe, who officially entered the House race Monday after resigning as chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party on Saturday.

Metcalfe, an attorney for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said the current controversy surrounding Young was a factor prompting him to enter the race right now. But Metcalfe — who said his 59-year-old brother is a National Guardsman serving in Kuwait in a support role for the U.S. military engagement in Iraq — said he also plans to make the public’s distaste for the Iraq war a big part of his campaign.

“It’s going to be an expensive race,” said Metcalfe. “But it wasn’t hard for me to make up my mind.”

By contrast, the only Democrat who has launched a campaign to take on Stevens is Rocky Caldero, a councilman in Unalaska, a town of about 4,300 people in the Aleutian Islands (and, symbolic of Alaska’s vast land area, located about 800 miles from Anchorage).

The best-known potential Democratic contenders, for either the Senate or the House race, remain on the sidelines, though, at least for now. The national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees are actively courting for popular Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and Ethan Berkowitz, a former state House minority leader who was the lieutenant governor nominee on the Democrats’ unsuccessful 2006 ticket. Neither has committed to run for either office.

Begich said Tuesday he gets calls about the two races every day. Members of Congress have called him personally to gauge his interest. “There’s a lot of people who would like to see a decision either way today,” Begich said. “But these are difficult decisions.”

Begich could benefit from bearing a familiar name in Alaska politics. His father, Nick Begich, won Alaska’s sole House seat in 1970, but was killed along with then-House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana in 1972 when the campaign plane in which they were flying disappeared without a trace. Begich, though missing and presumed dead, was re-elected over Young that November, but Young claimed the seat for the Republicans in a special election held the next year.

The Republican Party so far believes it’s unlikely Young and Stevens will be forced out of their offices. The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement Tuesday that it is “confident of Sen. Stevens’ re-election next November and we look forward to working with him.”

A few Republicans have been mentioned as possible candidates should either Young or Stevens not run in 2008.

John Binkley, a former state lawmaker who ran for governor in 2006, has been mentioned as a candidate for Young’s seat. Binkley lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to Sarah Palin , a former mayor of Wasilla, who went on to defeat Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in the general election.

Also mentioned is real estate developer Dave Cuddy, a former state legislator who is one of the few candidates of either party to stage a serious campaign against Stevens: He ran in the 1996 Republican primary and got 27 percent of the vote to Stevens’ 59 percent. Cuddy has indicated some interest in 2008 by calling for change in Alaska, but is not a sure candidate yet, said Carl Shepro, a professor of political science at University of Alaska Anchorage.

John Harris, Alaska’s Republican state House Speaker, also has been mentioned as a possible candidate.

Out of respect for Stevens, though, it’s unlikely Republican candidates will start entering the race against him, Shepro said.

“I don’t think anyone will step forward now, unless it’s someone like Cuddy who has faced him before,” Shepro said. “This is not a question of waiting for him to resign. Basically, no one will oppose him until one way or another it’s clear he will not run.”

Because of Stevens’ powerful place in Alaska politics — and his legendary and sometimes controversial efforts on the Appropriations Committee, which he chaired not long ago, to deliver federal funds for Alaska projects — even the possibility of an indictment might not make a difference, said Amy Lauren Lovecraft, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“He’s ‘Uncle Ted,’ as we call him,” she said. “People say, ‘Look how good it is that we have longterm experience in the House and Senate.’”

“Alaska’s particularly different,” Lovecraft said. “No one a month ago would have said anything but that Stevens would die in office.”