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Alaska was growing, and so was Mike Stepovich's awareness of it. In 1950 he ran for a seat in the territorial legislature. He was elected to three terms. It was in the legislature, under the tutelage of an old friend and longtime Republican bigwig named John Butrovich Jr. ("Butro and Stepo") that Mike sank himself deep into Alaska's problems.
Yahoos & Tears. For years, the statehood theme had whisked like a williwaw across the territory, sweeping up the visionaries, tossing the stubborn into stormy waves of opposition. In Washington, Alaska's longtime (first elected in 1944) delegate to Congress, onetime Gold Miner Bob Bartlett, spent his days and nights trying to carve out a 49th star on an unrelenting congressional conscience. Another missionary was a former newsman and editor of the Nation, Dr. Ernest Gruening (TIME, June 16, 1947), appointed Governor of Alaska by Franklin Roosevelt in 1939. A diehard conservationist, crusty Ernest Gruening soon realized that Alaska's sleeping giant needed prodding, even at the cost of some of his own conservationist ideals. Says Anchorage Times Publisher Bob Atwood: "Gruening taught Alaskans that they could speak up and yell like yahoos for their rights."
In late 1955 a band of 55 Alaskans, elected by the voters, met at the University of Alaska near Fairbanks. Housewives, lawyers, pilots and merchants, they brought with them packets of state papers, copies of constitutions and history books, set to work writing a provisional constitution. For 75 days, the Alaskans labored, phrasing, rephrasing, arguing. At length, on Feb. 5, 1956, emotionally spent, physically exhausted, brimming with pride, they voted to approve a finely hewn document. "These are good, tough men and women, and I wondered if we might not be getting carried away," recalls Alaska University President Ernest N. Patty, "so I looked for [Real Estate Man] Muktuk Marsdon—this big, tough man with a face like granite. And there he was, digging tears from the corners of his eyes and actually throwing them down on the floor—completely disgusted with himself, apparently, but unable, as the rest of us, to hold it back."
Best Friend. Congress was unimpressed. Eisenhower's Interior Secretary Douglas McKay appeared similarly uninterested. It was only after McKay's resignation in 1956 that Alaska's hopes grew again. President Eisenhower appointed Nebraska's Republican ex-Senator Fred Seaton to McKay's job, and Seaton became the best friend Alaska statehood ever had in official Washington.
Fred Seaton flew into Alaska in 1957, looking for a new Governor. "There were 17 candidates and a dozen others being urged by individuals or groups," says he. "I saw this young lawyer in Fairbanks. Just 37 at the time. He never applied for the job. The more I saw him, the more I knew I was going to recommend him." Steering Mike Stepovich from behind were two powerful Republicans: Territorial Senator Butrovich and Fairbanks Publisher (News-Miner) Bill Snedden.