U.S. House democratic nominee hoping to embark on campaign tour

KETCHIKAN (AP) -- Democratic candidate Clifford Mark Greene's war chest is empty and he's received little help from his party, but he plans to go out on the campaign trail.

Greene's ''Wave of Democracy'' tour is supposed to kick off in Juneau next weekend and end in Anchorage at the end of October.

''I'm trying to generate some kind of excitement,'' said Greene, this year's Democratic nominee for the U.S. House. ''I don't want to sit back and do nothing. I want to have a respectable campaign.''

Greene plans to stop in Fairbanks at the end of this month and Nome in the middle of October. There's just one thing that could derail his plan. Money. The campaign tour is contingent upon raising at least $5,000 to $6,000 in campaign contributions, he said.

''The (tour dates) are not very solid because the contributions have not been coming in,'' he said.

Tammy Troyer, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, said the party is not giving out money to any Democratic candidate in Alaska whether it's for a state or federal election.

Greene, along with Alaska Independent candidate Jim Dore, Libertarian candidate Leonard Karpinski and Green Party candidate Anna Young, will take on Republican Don Young in the general election. Young is trying for his 15th term in the House.

Greene, 46, is originally from Detroit, but spent time in Cordova and the Kenai Peninsula in the mid-'70s while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. He has lived in Ketchikan for only a few months.

He received 10,133 votes in August's open primary election. That's almost 50 percent of the total votes cast on the open ballot, which included all the candidates except Young. Young received more than 30,000 votes on the Republican ballot.

Greene said he knows upsetting Young in November's election is not going to be easy, but he's optimistic.

''I'd like to stress that Don Young did not get a majority, he got a plurality, but nobody received a majority of all the votes cast,'' he said, referring to the primary election. ''I think that's a sign that he's not invincible.''