IT'S TIME TO . . .Look ahead

THERE ARE SOME who say that there is an abundance of potential Democratic candidates waiting in the wings for statewide office, but that the Republican ranks look pretty thin.

Well, not exactly.

Certainly the Democrats are on the outside looking in when it comes to top elective offices here. From the governor's office in Juneau to the state's three congressional seats in Washington, Republicans rule the day.

As a result, Democratic hopefuls - without having to gun for one of their own - are free to line up and do all the preliminary dances required of someone who aspires to bigger things. And so their number flourishes, particularly among those who happen to be in the minority in the Legislature - ready to sprout like the dandelions in the springtime.

Republican legislators, former legislators, and holders of local or statewide appointive offices have to exhibit more restraint. They're not going to challenge Sen. Ted Stevens - no one is, as a matter of fact - and they're not going to be hankering after Congressman Don Young's seat in the U.S. House, either.

And no one among them, at the moment at least, is making early noises about challenging Sen. Lisa Murkowski in next year's Republican primary. It's a wait-and-see situation there, depending on her ability to capitalize on her first year in the Senate.

The Democrats face no such restraint when it comes to trying to depose the new senator, seen by some as vulnerable because she went to Washington on an appointment made by her father, former senator and now governor, Frank Murkowski.

Former Gov. Tony Knowles, hardly back at home in Anchorage since giving up the governor's chair in Juneau last December, already has announced as a candidate for the Democratic senatorial nomination - and probably will have no serious challenge in the primary. In fact, he already has hit the fund-raising circuit back East, seeking big dollars because national Democratic and environmental forces see the coming race as perhaps an inexpensive way to buy a Senate seat.

Millions of dollars are likely to be poured into the race in support of Knowles, in hopes of not only gaining a Democratic seat in the Senate but perhaps making it possible for the Democrats to regain control in the Senate itself.

But Knowles will be no shoo-in. Lisa Murkowski has a lot of potential. She's a bright, tireless worker, one with considerable political savvy who appears to have made a good impression on her fellow senators.