Very, very exciting news out of Alaska. Popular Anchorage mayor Mark Begich, son of the last Democrat to represent Alaska in the United States House of Representatives, has officially decided in favor of a challenge to incumbent Republican Senator Ted Stevens.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich formally declared his candidacy today for the U.S. Senate seat held by Ted Stevens since 1968.

Begich, 46, has been mayor of Alaska's largest city since 2003.

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Begich raised more than $267,090 in campaign funds in just over a month through his exploratory committee. Over 80 percent of his donors were from Alaska, he said. But he also received national money, including $10,000 from Reid's leadership fund.

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Stevens has a national fundraising reach. So far he has amassed a $1.3 million campaign account.

Expect this race to be one of the most important, if not the most important second-tier Senate races this cycle (falling outside of the top-tier largely due to the small size of the population, and remoteness and large size of the state). Already, Rasmussen Reports polling pegs the race as a tie, 46 percent for Stevens, whose house was raided by the FBI and IRS last year, and 45 percent for Begich. Non-partisan Research 2000 polling for Daily Kos back in December had Begich up, though within the margin of error, 47 percent to 41 percent.

Also expect to see some exciting things out of the Begich campaign, which will be run by Heather Rauch, who headed his two successful mayoral bids. Also on the campaign team as online communications director is Matt Browner-Hamlin, whose name you will likely remember from the Chris Dodd presidential campaign as well as The Right's Field, which was a great spot for talent that subsequently moved on (like, say, the 1994 Montreal Expos; with Kombiz Lavasany and Matt Ortega over at the DNC, Adam Conner of MyDD Blog Talk Radio, Dave Dayen of Calitics, and of course our own Todd Beeton).

So if you want to help out the Begich campaign, head over to his campaign website or his ActBlue page today. And if you want a reminder why, outside of the FBI/IRS raid, folks are so excited to go after Stevens, the longest serving Republican Senator in U.S. history, harken back to this.