Under federal law, Senator-for-life Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, would normally need to make a perfunctory trip before Alaska voters before beginning his seventh term in the U.S. Senate next January.

Alaska's rulers are, however, under challenge this year.

Ted Stevens, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and the elder senator's son Ben - a former president of the Alaska state Senate - are all under federal investigation.

Ben Stevens took more than $242,000 in consulting fees from Veco, the big oilfield services company. Don Young earmarked federal road construction money for projects favored by big donors in Florida and Arkansas. And the FBI raided Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska, has summer in an ongoing investigation of what role - if any - Veco played in its extensive renovation.

And, amazing for the 49th state, a front-rank challenger to "Uncle Ted", long his state's pork barreler and provider, has emerged.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat, has said he will decide within two weeks whether to challenge Stevens for re-election.

He is receiving encouraging signs. The Begich exploratory committee disclosed yesterday that it has taken in $260,000 through March 31st. The money has come from 915 donors, more than 800 of them Alaskans. And Begich held a successful fundraiser in Seattle.

A non-partisan Rasmussen Poll of Alaska voters, released Thursday, showed Stevens with a razor-thin 46-45 lead over Begich. The senator has won his last two re-election "races" with 77 and 78 percent of the vote.

The Rasmussen survey holds alarming news for Uncle Ted. He is viewed favorably by a bare 50 percent of Alaskans. A total of 47 now hold a negative view of their state's senior senator.

By contrast, 56 percent of those surveyed have a favorable view of Begich, while only 35 percent are unfavorable. The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced, on the day Rasmussen's results came out, that it was launching a web site personally attacking Begich.

Begich has twice been elected mayor of Alaska's largest city. He is the son of the late Rep. Nick Begich, whose small plane disappeared in 1972 on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. The flight path passes by the highest coastal mountains and largest non-polar icefields on Earth.