American Notes ALASKA

Ever since President Richard Nixon fired him as Interior Secretary in 1970, Walter Hickel has coveted the Alaska governorship he gave up to go to Washington. He has tried everything short of a coup d'etat to reclaim it -- Republican primaries, write-in campaigns, even lawsuits. Last week, at 71, Hickel found yet another way to pursue his goal: he became the candidate of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fringe group that wants the state to secede from the U.S. Hickel named as his running mate state senator Jack Coghill, 65, who defected from the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket.

Distancing himself from his new party's secessionist whims, Hickel hopes to ride a wave of discontent with Republican candidate Arliss Sturgulewski, a state senator who supports legalized abortion and opposes capital punishment. G.O.P. officials fear Hickel might win enough votes to hand a November victory to Democratic candidate Tony Knowles. But one Sturgulewski supporter, senate president Tim Kelly of Anchorage, shrugs off the Hickel-Coghill threat. Says Kelly: "You've got two old dogs who want to bay at the moon one last time, but their time has gone."