Diane E. Benson
Encyclopedia
Diane E. Benson is an Alaskan politician, inspirational speaker, video production consultant, published writer and dramatist. In August 2010, she became the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor for the state of Alaska, easily outpacing three other opponents in the Democratic primary on August 24, 2010. Benson's running mate for Governor is Ethan Berkowitz
.
In March 2007, Benson filed in the state of Alaska to make her second bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, but was defeated by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
"Red to Blue" candidate Ethan Berkowitz
in the August 2008 Democratic primary. Benson ran for Alaska governor in 2002 and for U.S. Congress in 2006.
in 1954, while her mother was being treated for tuberculosis
. Of Norwegian ancesry on her father's side and Tlingit ancestry on her mother's side, her tribal identity is T'akdeintaan (Sea Tern crest of the Raven Moiety), and of the Tax’ Hit, (Snail House).
Benson grew up in Southeastern Alaska in foster homes and boarding school as well as logging camps with her father and in Sitka with her grandparents. She began volunteer work with senior citizens at Ketchikan Hospital at the age of 12, and although often homeless, worked a variety of social service oriented jobs with the underprivileged and the elderly until she took a position with the Fairbanks Native Association. At the age of 18 she was the youngest person to ever serve on the FNA Executive Board, and was invited by then U.S. Senator Mike Gravel
to work in Washington D.C. Diane was accepted to study at Harvard University
, but could not attend due to personal and family reasons. Thereafter, she acquired a job as one of the first women tractor-trailer truck drivers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1975.
In 1977 after working on a gill-netter (fishing boat) in Bristol Bay
, and after completion of the pipeline construction, she worked numerous jobs including as a researcher for Alaska Federation of Natives human resources department, layout artist and writer for the Tundra Times, researcher for North Pacific Rim, and other contracts. She paid for two years of college by driving trucks in the early 1980s as Alaska’s first female union concrete-mixer driver. She did volunteer research work for the Berger Commission, and 1986-1988 was a paralegal
for Alaska Legal Services. Through the 1990s Diane ran Northern Stars Talent Agency promoting Alaska’s talent in films and commercials nationally and internationally.
In 2001 Benson made local and national news when she objected to her masters degree advisor’s use of her clan (Snail House) in a controversial sexual abuse poem, Indian Girlshttp://media.www.thenorthernlight.org/media/storage/paper960/news/2001/01/16/News/Professors.Poem.Draws.Fiery.Conflict-2540774.shtml. Benson filed a grievance regarding disparate classroom treatment but the U.S. Department of Education found in favor of the professor. Benson completed her master’s in creative writing in 2002 at another campus and under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize winner, N. Scott Momaday
. She continues graduate studies on a masters in public policy at New England College
.
, has earned Benson acclaim from Native journals and writer’s groups, and was performed in Washington D.C. March 2006 as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s
contribution to Women’s History Month http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/heritage_womens.pdf. She is currently contributing to a made for PBS documentary on Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaska civil rights, and just completed co-producing the video, Healing Child Sexual Abuse.
Benson has appeared in Disney’s White Fang, the award winning Box of Daylight, television’s Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, and the International Animated Film Festival award-winning Sacajawea (1989) and the Alaska film, Kusah Hakwaan, as well as numerous industrials and commercials.
Benson has received recognition for her literary and public service work and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry (2000), the Alpert Award in the Arts (2004), and a USA Fellowship (2005). Benson received a gold medal from the International Committee, the Mayor’s Certificate, and an Alaska State Legislature Citation for outstanding work as the 1996 Arctic Winter Games Cultural Coordinator, received a Goldie Award (2005) for her work on the radio program, Today in Alaska Native History, received an Outstanding Service Award (2006) from the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission and a Trailblazer Award (2007) from Delta Sigma Theta, A Professional Women’s Public Service Sorority.
candidate (2002) with Desa Jacobson as the first two Native women to fill a ballot for Governor and Lt. Governor. In 2006, Benson returned to the Democratic Party and defeated former state representative Ray Metcalfe, among others, to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Congress, but lost in the 2006 general election run for Alaska's At-large congressional district
to long-time incumbent
Representative Don Young
, finishing with just over 40 percent of the vote, to Don Young’s 57 percent. Benson ran a mostly volunteer campaign, with little support from the state or national Democratic parties until near the campaign's end. Her campaign spent about $200,000, about one-tenth of what the Don Young campaign spent. Benson focused in her campaign on a call to end the Iraq War and on criticizing Young over his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Northern Mariana Islands business interests that Abramoff represented http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/081407/loc_20070814014.shtml Benson was the third opponent to the incumbent in 33 years to obtain a high percentage of the vote, and the first in 16 years. Benson made history when just before the election she was the first to debate the incumbent in a live televised debate on the local NBC station. Benson also succeeded in breaking a long held policy omitting Congressional challengers at the state’s largest Alaskan conference when she took the stage at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention at the insistence of the convention delegates to speak as a Congressional Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
, a community of Anchorage
, and has one foster daughter and one son. Her son, Latseen Benson, is an army veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq
in November 2005.
Ethan Berkowitz
Ethan A. Berkowitz is an American politician who was the Alaska State Representative for District 26 from 1997 through 2006, serving as Democratic Party Minority Leader from 1999 to 2006.-Early life and education:...
.
In March 2007, Benson filed in the state of Alaska to make her second bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, but was defeated by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. They play a critical role in recruiting candidates, raising funds, and organizing races in districts that are expected to yield...
"Red to Blue" candidate Ethan Berkowitz
Ethan Berkowitz
Ethan A. Berkowitz is an American politician who was the Alaska State Representative for District 26 from 1997 through 2006, serving as Democratic Party Minority Leader from 1999 to 2006.-Early life and education:...
in the August 2008 Democratic primary. Benson ran for Alaska governor in 2002 and for U.S. Congress in 2006.
Life and education
According to Benson’s official biography from her http://www.bensonforcongress.com website, unlike her older brothers, Diane was born outside of Alaska in Yakima, WashingtonYakima, Washington
Yakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
in 1954, while her mother was being treated for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Of Norwegian ancesry on her father's side and Tlingit ancestry on her mother's side, her tribal identity is T'akdeintaan (Sea Tern crest of the Raven Moiety), and of the Tax’ Hit, (Snail House).
Benson grew up in Southeastern Alaska in foster homes and boarding school as well as logging camps with her father and in Sitka with her grandparents. She began volunteer work with senior citizens at Ketchikan Hospital at the age of 12, and although often homeless, worked a variety of social service oriented jobs with the underprivileged and the elderly until she took a position with the Fairbanks Native Association. At the age of 18 she was the youngest person to ever serve on the FNA Executive Board, and was invited by then U.S. Senator Mike Gravel
Mike Gravel
Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....
to work in Washington D.C. Diane was accepted to study at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, but could not attend due to personal and family reasons. Thereafter, she acquired a job as one of the first women tractor-trailer truck drivers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1975.
In 1977 after working on a gill-netter (fishing boat) in Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay is the eastern-most arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km long and 290 km, wide at its mouth...
, and after completion of the pipeline construction, she worked numerous jobs including as a researcher for Alaska Federation of Natives human resources department, layout artist and writer for the Tundra Times, researcher for North Pacific Rim, and other contracts. She paid for two years of college by driving trucks in the early 1980s as Alaska’s first female union concrete-mixer driver. She did volunteer research work for the Berger Commission, and 1986-1988 was a paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
for Alaska Legal Services. Through the 1990s Diane ran Northern Stars Talent Agency promoting Alaska’s talent in films and commercials nationally and internationally.
In 2001 Benson made local and national news when she objected to her masters degree advisor’s use of her clan (Snail House) in a controversial sexual abuse poem, Indian Girlshttp://media.www.thenorthernlight.org/media/storage/paper960/news/2001/01/16/News/Professors.Poem.Draws.Fiery.Conflict-2540774.shtml. Benson filed a grievance regarding disparate classroom treatment but the U.S. Department of Education found in favor of the professor. Benson completed her master’s in creative writing in 2002 at another campus and under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize winner, N. Scott Momaday
N. Scott Momaday
Navarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...
. She continues graduate studies on a masters in public policy at New England College
New England College
New England College is a private four-year college in Henniker, New Hampshire, enrolling a total of approximately 1800 undergraduate and graduate students.-History:The school was created in 1946 for students attending college on the G.I...
.
Theatre and writing
Benson began performance work in 1980 and has worked with most major Alaskan theatre companies in such productions as Crimes of the Heart, Wonderland, and Keet Shagoon. She taught stage-craft to inmates in Alaska prisons; led at-risk kids in summer theatre and video programs with Out North Contemporary Art House, created the first contemporary Alaska Native theatre in the state of Alaska in 1985; The Alaska Native Dance & Story Theatre; toured nationally with Naa Kahidi Theatre; directed in Canada for the Nakai Theatre Ensemble, was project coordinator for the Silamiut Greenlandic Theatre Project, several time Artist-in-Residence in rural Alaska, and wrote a number of plays including Sister Warrior and When My Spirit Raised Its Hands. Her one-woman show centering on early civil rights leader Elizabeth PeratrovichElizabeth Peratrovich
Elizabeth Peratrovich , Tlingit nation, was an important civil rights activist; she worked on behalf of equality for Alaska Natives...
, has earned Benson acclaim from Native journals and writer’s groups, and was performed in Washington D.C. March 2006 as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
contribution to Women’s History Month http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/heritage_womens.pdf. She is currently contributing to a made for PBS documentary on Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaska civil rights, and just completed co-producing the video, Healing Child Sexual Abuse.
Benson has appeared in Disney’s White Fang, the award winning Box of Daylight, television’s Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, and the International Animated Film Festival award-winning Sacajawea (1989) and the Alaska film, Kusah Hakwaan, as well as numerous industrials and commercials.
Benson has received recognition for her literary and public service work and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry (2000), the Alpert Award in the Arts (2004), and a USA Fellowship (2005). Benson received a gold medal from the International Committee, the Mayor’s Certificate, and an Alaska State Legislature Citation for outstanding work as the 1996 Arctic Winter Games Cultural Coordinator, received a Goldie Award (2005) for her work on the radio program, Today in Alaska Native History, received an Outstanding Service Award (2006) from the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission and a Trailblazer Award (2007) from Delta Sigma Theta, A Professional Women’s Public Service Sorority.
Political career
Benson entered the world of politics a week after completing her Masters degree to run as a Green PartyGreen Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
candidate (2002) with Desa Jacobson as the first two Native women to fill a ballot for Governor and Lt. Governor. In 2006, Benson returned to the Democratic Party and defeated former state representative Ray Metcalfe, among others, to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Congress, but lost in the 2006 general election run for Alaska's At-large congressional district
Alaska's At-large congressional district
Alaska's At-large congressional district comprises the entire state of Alaska. This congressional district has the largest land area and lowest population density of any district in the United States...
to long-time incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
Representative Don Young
Don Young
Donald Edwin "Don" Young is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1973. He is a member of the Republican Party.Young is the 6th most senior U.S. Representative and the 2nd most senior Republican Representative, as well as the 2nd most senior Republican in Congress as a whole...
, finishing with just over 40 percent of the vote, to Don Young’s 57 percent. Benson ran a mostly volunteer campaign, with little support from the state or national Democratic parties until near the campaign's end. Her campaign spent about $200,000, about one-tenth of what the Don Young campaign spent. Benson focused in her campaign on a call to end the Iraq War and on criticizing Young over his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Northern Mariana Islands business interests that Abramoff represented http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/081407/loc_20070814014.shtml Benson was the third opponent to the incumbent in 33 years to obtain a high percentage of the vote, and the first in 16 years. Benson made history when just before the election she was the first to debate the incumbent in a live televised debate on the local NBC station. Benson also succeeded in breaking a long held policy omitting Congressional challengers at the state’s largest Alaskan conference when she took the stage at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention at the insistence of the convention delegates to speak as a Congressional Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Personal life
Benson lives in Chugiak, AlaskaChugiak, Alaska
Chugiak is an unincorporated community in the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, situated approximately 20 miles northeast of downtown Anchorage. It is located between Eagle River to the south, and Eklutna to the north, and between Knik Arm to the west and the Chugach...
, a community of Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, and has one foster daughter and one son. Her son, Latseen Benson, is an army veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in November 2005.