Alaska Rep. Young taps campaign fund to pay aide's lawyers
Originally published Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 9:42 a.m.
Updated Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 1:04 p.m.
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!
WASHINGTON -- With an election-year corruption investigation looming, Rep. Don Young has tapped his campaign war chest to pay not only his own million-dollar legal tab but also to hire lawyers for his campaign manager, who is also under FBI scrutiny.
The Alaska Republican spent more than $35,000 between October 2007 and April on lawyers for longtime campaign manager Steven Dougherty. That's more than Dougherty himself earned during that period and nearly as much as the campaign spent on political polling, according to campaign finance reports.
The payments - which are legal under federal law as long as they are associated with the candidate's official duties - are another indication of how the FBI investigation has become a drag on the congressman. Instead of coasting to a 19th term, Young is shelling out money to pay his bills and Dougherty's even as he faces a well-funded opponent in August's Republican primary, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.
"With respect to people who have served him and been loyal to him and who have served Alaska, he's been loyal back," said Young's campaign spokesman, Mike Anderson.
Dougherty has worked for Young's campaigns since 1996 and became campaign manager in 2000. Employers may pay legal bills for their employees during criminal investigations as long as there aren't competing interests - if Dougherty wanted to cooperate with authorities investigating his boss, for instance.
Young and Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens are under scrutiny for their relationship with VECO Corp. executives, who have admitted bribing Alaska lawmakers to push legislation favorable to their oil field services company. VECO executives were, until recently, Young's largest contributor and hosted an annual pig roast fundraiser for him.
Like Young and Stevens, Dougherty's telephone conversations were taped by the FBI as part of a sting operation involving the VECO executives, according to people close to the corruption case. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
"I am not going to comment on Congressman Young's investigation or anybody else's," Dougherty said. "Congressman Young has made it totally clear we're not going to discuss the investigation."
Neither Young nor Stevens has been charged and both deny wrongdoing in the case that has upended Alaska politics.
Young has spent more than $1 million in campaign contributions on legal fees. He is represented by the Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld. His campaign finance reports also show $35,020 in fees to John W. Wolfe, a prominent Seattle white-collar defense attorney who represents Dougherty as well as Stevens' son, Ben.
The campaign has also paid about $196,000 since October to Tobin, O'Connor and Ewing, a Washington law firm, though it's unclear whom the firm represents.
Legal fees tend to rise and fall with the normal flow of an investigation, so it would be unusual to see that spending pace continue when the next batch of campaign finance reports come out later this month. Anderson would not discuss exactly what those reports will show.
When the last disclosure reports were released in April, Young released a statement on the fees.
"I have learned that the legal process is an expensive process, but I have nothing to hide," he said. "When it comes to my family and my character, the truth is priceless. That is exactly why I hired good legal counsel, and I have worked fully with the Department of Justice by answering their questions and providing them with anything they have requested."
Young, who has served in Congress since 1973, is facing Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in August's primary. Parnell has the backing of the popular Gov. Sarah Palin. Young has also seen Democratic candidate Ethan Berkowitz raise twice as much money as him during the first quarter, though the incumbent retains the financial advantage. Such a challenge would have been unheard of before the FBI investigation.
The FBI is investigating Young's fundraising practices. The campaign tried last year to reimburse former VECO president Bill Allen $37,626 for years of expenses associated the annual pig roast fundraiser. When the check was never cashed, the campaign sent the money to the U.S. Treasury.
Authorities are also investigating an unrelated earmark for a Florida highway interchange sought by a developer who gave Young campaign contributions.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
they are winning. some groups outside of alaska have decided they wanted to target alaska's delegation for change to help shore up power for the democrats in the house and senate. they started a program to do anything and everything that would undermine them back here in alaska. they are playing you people like a fiddle.
I'm confused as to why this is a major headline. Unless the laws have changed since I last researched them, candidates can use their campaign warchest for anything that they see fit. How about a headline "SARAH PALIN USES PORTION OF HER WAGES FOR PERSONAL VACATION." Why must some people try to make everything appear to be underhanded?
Polarmark...judging from the number of Alaskans who for decades have had to endure Young's buffoonery, arrogance, and idiocy and who have commented here often how glad they are to see he is finally getting his due (and I include myself in this group of victims) I would say it is time you opened your eyes to what a detriment Young is to Alaska. He makes us all look like loudmouthed fools just because he is one himself. It's time we get someone in that office who can do the work without sending $10 million to Florida for a project that has nothing to do with Alaska but everything to do with paying back a campaign contributor.
"some groups outside of alaska have decided they wanted to target alaska's delegation for change to help shore up power for the democrats in the house and senate."
Why would the FBI want to shore up power for the Democratics?
Why is it that whenever a Republican is called to the carpet for misdeeds, conservatives rush to discredit the messengers? Don Young is a career politician who has disgraced our state for decades, and seeing him be held accountable for even a fraction of his unethical behavior gives me a teeny bit of hope that the rest of the criminals in our government may be held accountable as well.
Representatives are supposed to be our servants, sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, but Young has repeatedly crapped on the Constitution, and defended his criminal party members instead.
Einstein said, "We cannot solve the significant problems we face with the same level of thinking we had when we created them." He also said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results." It's time for progressive change in our government. Conservatism is just about to kill America on many, many levels, and Young has been instrumental in helping us get here. We need to progress as a state, as a nation, and as a species, beyond the "big-money-rules" mentality and move to a healthier paradigm for the planet.
If Young is found to have broken the law, I hope he's prosecuted and not just fined and allowed to continue pursuing the dangerous domestic and foreign policies his party has been able to pull off in the name of "security."
doris
(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
This is major news and we're not talking about him spending $$ on a vacation. It's always news if a politician is spending big dollars on lawyers to protect himself from federal charges. Like him or not it's newsworthy how he spends campaign dollars. If he wants to stay out of the news and public eye he should go to work in the private sector.
If any one of us normal people went out and advertised that we wanted donations for one purpose, then we diverted the collected funds to personal use instead, it would be called fraud and prosecuted.
(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
If he can spent, spend, spend the relection funds on everything EXCEPT his campaign he's got WAY to much money.
This is the U.S. of A. where everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty . . . or maybe not anymore. This federal investigation has dragged on for about two years now without any inditements.
I'd bet that any one of the rest of us (Republican, Democrat or otherwise) would hire a lawyer too if all of a sudden we knew we were the subject of some kind of a federal investigation. Remember Senator Burns (R-Montana) who was "under federal investigation" a couple years ago? The screaming headlines cast a shadow of assumed guilt that cost him re-election to the U.S. Senate. After the election was over, the Justice Department announced that he had not done anything wrong. A little late but nice to have on the record.
Very few Alaskans have ever been to D.C. to see the system work. But one thing is certain . . . if you can't beat someone based on the merits of their work on behalf of their constituents, accuse them of an ethical or legal breach then drag it out through the next election cycle. It is a common strategy - so much so that it became a "point of emphasis" by a particular (unnamed) political party a few years back. As long as it keeps working, they'll keep using it.
Well said doris.
"if you can't beat someone based on the merits of their work on behalf of their constituents, accuse them of an ethical or legal breach then drag it out through the next election cycle."
It's the FBI, not the Democratic party, that is investigating Young. There's no point trying to make this a partisan issue because Young will not even face a Democrat this time around. He's going to lose to Parnell in the primary.
I agree - I think he has worn out his welcome. It seems he doesn't have any time to work for us these days.
"The payments - which are legal under federal law as long as they are associated with the candidate's official duties"
Then I guess corruption is part of the job description.
Yesterday I advocated Bozo the Clown as a better choice than Don Young (or Diane Benson) for the job of Alaska's representative to congress. Sadly, today comes news that Larry Harmon, who played Bozo for more than fifty years, has passed away at the age of 83.
The impending loss of Don Young as our representative come August will be far less of a loss to Alaskans than the death of this great actor who portrayed a character of far greater intelligence, wit, compassion, literacy, decency, and humaneness than Don Young has ever possessed.
Dr. C. (In Mourning)
Don Young has given years of faithful service to Alaska and deserves our support. As a state that only gets one congressman nobody could have been as effective as Don. Not sending him back to DC in this time of federal financial crisis would be a mistake that will take years and years to recover from. A new or "freshman" congressman gets assigned to the lowest and least important commitees where the real work is done. Mr. Young has risen steadily through the Halls of Congress and is highly respected among his piers in Congress. He becomes a leader on the committees and keeps the needed federal funds flowing into our state. Of course any little thing from another state will come back to the committee chair, how can we hold that against him.
The recent example of Senator Reid taking money marked for the Indian Roads program and giving it to a Lake Tahoe Transportation organization is much more an issue that has diverted money away from Alaska's native community.
SEND DON YOUNG back to DC
Don stands up for Alaskans !!
I'm surprised that nobody has pointed to the obvious: this is a payment of hush money, just like the "legal fund" set up for the Watergate conspirators in the 70s.
skeptical_one....It does not matter how much pork he ripped off from ALL taxpayers. And like all politicians his main reason for doing it was to keep himself in office by pleasing loyal enablers, like you it seems. Doing that certainly does not get him off the hook for being a CROOK. Your logic seems to be that we should all look the other way because he has a lot of power in D.C. Sorry, I guess some of us have much higher standards than you.
Remember folks, all the postings supporting Don Young on this forum are put up by Don himself, using various user names. No living, breathing human being actually supports the man.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.