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An Alaska icon comes under fire
As controversy swirls around Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens's financial conduct, state politics may enter a new era.
By Yereth Rosen | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the August 21, 2007 edition
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Anchorage, Alaska - Jet into Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, take a break in the Stevens Family Youth Center, or flush a toilet in a remote Native village on the tundra, and you benefit from the clout of Alaska's iconic senator. During nearly four decades in the US Congress, Senator Stevens has been so instrumental in Alaska's development that he's been lionized as "Uncle Ted," "Senator for Life," and "Alaskan of the Century."
So when federal agents converged July 30 on his house in the woodsy ski town of Girdwood, Alaska, to collect evidence against him, it was a humiliating rebuke to business as usual.
The raid on Stevens's home – apparently a search for evidence of improper freebies in a remodeling job overseen by an oil-services executive – was the latest glimpse into a vast corruption investigation. It's focusing on the ties between those who extract Alaska's rich natural resources and the politicians who control the purse strings.
The scandal touches all bases of Alaskan politics and economics: oil, fisheries, and the federal money that has always subsidized the development of this sprawling state. While misdeeds on the frontier are nothing new, the scope of the current mess is unprecedented, says one historian. "I don't think we've seen anything like this, certainly, since statehood," said Steve Haycox, a University of Alaska Anchorage history professor.
Revelations began a year ago, when federal agents swarmed legislative offices in Anchorage, Juneau, and elsewhere. Three former state lawmakers have been indicted for soliciting and taking bribes in exchange for industry-friendly votes on a controversial oil-tax overhaul. A fourth has been convicted of bribery and corruption.
The founder and chief executive of the state's largest oil-field-services firm, long a financial backer of Stevens and other Republicans, along with a fellow company executive, have admitted that they bribed lawmakers and laundered illegal campaign contributions. VECO Corporation Chief Executive Bill Allen – a business partner of Stevens who oversaw his remodel seven years ago – and a company vice president acknowledged paying state lawmakers more than $400,000 through bogus contracts, cash handouts, and illegal donations. Mr. Allen's company has benefited from tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.
More charges are expected, with many eyes on former state Senate President Ben Stevens, son of Ted. VECO paid him $243,250 in what he and the company claimed were consulting fees, but convicted executives now describe as bribes. Suspicion also surrounds U.S. Rep. Don Young, Alaska's sole House member since 1973.
The scandals extend from the Bering Sea's fisheries to the Gulf Coast of Florida. There, a wealthy developer is suspected of being rewarded with a transportation earmark after collecting campaign donations for Mr. Young, a past chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
To former U.S. Attorney Wev Shea, a Republican critical of what he sees as the establishment's ethical lapses, the comeuppance is long overdue: "They are a group of people in Alaska that felt they were ... untouchable.... And that's over."
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