Andrew Halcro, a former Alaska state representative and recent independent candidate for governor, announced Thursday that he will challenge longtime Rep. Don Young for the state’s at-large House seat in the 2010 Republican primary.

Halcro made the announcement during an Alaska Support Industry Alliance gathering, according to the Anchorage Daily News and local media outlets.

He reportedly touched on the questions about Young’s political ethics that plagued the incumbent — Alaska’s only House member since 1973 — during his stormy 2008 re-election campaign. Halcro emphasized the fact that controversies surrounding the incumbent’s ties to business interests and his fundraising practices prompted Young to surrender his senior positions on the House National Resources Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.