put your phasers on stun and hang on for the ride , because going where no one has gone before can be a bumpy business , and , after four earth years , there 's no telling where hickel -- and alaska -- might end up. ; twenty-five years after becoming alaska 's second governor -- a term that was interrupted in 1969 for an abbreviated stint as president richard m. nixon 's interior secretary -- hickel , 71 , a self-made millionaire and positive thinker with a penchant for megaprojects , is back as the state 's eighth governor . ; after two unsuccessful attempts to return to office , hickel entered last year 's race as an independent candidate less than two months before the election. ;