Unless you’ve been vacationing off planet, you know by now that U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, the godfather of federal fisheries law, has come under some scrutiny by federal authorities engaged in a broad public corruption investigation in Alaska.

Whether anything sticks remains to be determined. In the meantime, the senator’s long, long record of involvement not only in fishing but many other industries likely will be analyzed.

Congressional Quarterly yesterday carried a piece questioning whether Stevens is improperly trying to set up Trident Seafoods Corp. with a publicly funded airport for its massive fish-processing plant on remote Akutan Island in the Aleutians. The CQ story is tacked on below.

The Highliner also notes the following commentary today from John Sackton, the Massachusetts editor and publisher of Seafood.com.

From the way things look on the East Coast today, you would think everything that happens in Alaska is the result of corruption. Of course this is nonsense. But the Congressional Quarterly published a long article attacking Sen. Stevens for proposing money to help build an airstrip in Akutan. I doubt anyone in Congress, with the exception of Sen. Stevens, may have ever been to Akutan. The idea that upgrading air service from the eight-passenger aging sea plane that makes water landings to a real airstrip is somehow corrupt is just plain stupid. Nevertheless, Trident is being tarred with this brush, and the article insinuates that since the Bundrants have contributed to Stevens, therefore an airstrip in Akutan must be a “repayment.” There is no recognition anywhere that the fish plant in Akutan is one of the largest in the state, and maybe an airstrip to accommodate up to 1,000 workers could be a proper use of public infrastructure. This attitude is going to seriously hurt Alaska in the legislative arena over the next few months, because people will call into question everything that happens in the state regardless of the merits.

– John Sackton, editor and publisher
Seafood.com

Stevens’ Earmark Funds Airport Project That Benefits One Company

By Kathryn A. Wolfe, CQ Staff

Sen. Ted Stevens, who as a top appropriator has mastered the art of the congressional earmark, tucked $3.5 million into a Senate spending bill this year to help finance an airport to serve a remote Alaskan island.

The airstrip would connect the roughly 100 permanent residents of Akutan to the outside world. The biggest beneficiary, though, would be Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corp., which operates one of the world’s largest seafood processing plants on the volcanic island in the Aleutians.

Trident and Stevens are no strangers. For years, company founder and Chief Executive Charles Bundrant has been a generous contributor to the Alaska Republican’s campaigns. And in December, according to the Seattle Times, a federal grand jury investigating political corruption in Alaska ordered Trident and other seafood companies to produce documents detailing financial ties to the senator’s son, former Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board Chairman Ben Stevens.

The younger Stevens served until last year as chairman of the federally funded board that his father created in a 2003 appropriations bill (PL 108-199) to promote Alaska seafood. The board provided marketing grants to Trident and other seafood companies at the same time Ben Stevens served as a paid consultant to industry trade groups.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the measure containing the airport earmark, the fiscal 2008 Transportation-HUD spending bill (S 1789), on July 12. It is awaiting full Senate action, probably sometime in September.

Logistical Challenges

While the Akutan airport would benefit Trident, Akutan’s mayor said the town, not the company, asked for the funds.

A Stevens spokesman said the earmark was intended to help a rural community overcome daunting infrastructure challenges. At least twice a year, Akutan’s population balloons to more than 1,000, as seasonal workers from as far as California flood in for jobs at Trident’s processing plant. The only air access during those high periods is a twice-daily flight provided by an aging, eight-seat Grumman Goose seaplane. Trident has to charter the seaplane, along with extra boats, to transport employees to the island, according to company employees.

“It holds eight people, so you can imagine trying to bring 1,000 people in for a season – it takes them two weeks to complete that task,” said Joe Bereskin, Akutan’s mayor.

Bereskin said the town has been seeking ways to pay for a new airport for several years, largely because of the deteriorating condition of the Grumman Goose, operated by Peninsula Airways Inc. Once the Goose is retired, the island won’t have regular air access without an airport, he said.

Bereskin said the earmark is the first construction money allotted for the estimated $40 million airport project. He said a mix of federal, state and local money will be needed for the project, although “the bulk of it will have to come from Congress.”

In addition to the earmark, Bereskin said, the town is seeking $3 million from the state and would try to sell bonds to raise an additional $3 million. The extra $6 million, he said, should be enough “at least to get the ball rolling and the rest of it will fall into place.”

Stevens’ earmark for Akutan is not the only airport project in the bill. But because it appears to benefit only one company, that makes it “less of a public good and much more of a private good,” said Steve Ellis, vice president for programs at the anti-earmark group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

He likened it to building a driveway for Trident’s use. “If this is important to Trident, which evidently it is, then that’s important for them to invest in and probably shouldn’t be something that the federal taxpayers are asked to pick up the tab for,” he said.

Aaron Saunders, a spokesman for Stevens, said that criticism “ignores the needs of a community that includes a recognized native Alaskan village.”

He said an airport would allow for emergency services and more regular food and gasoline deliveries that will help drive down prices on consumer items, which sometimes can be four or five times what mainlanders pay.

The Seattle Times reported last year that a federal grand jury subpoenaed documents from Trident as part of an ongoing corruption investigation. For more than a year, the grand jury has been investigating ties between Alaska politicians and the engineering firm Veco Inc. The firm’s founder, Bill Allen, pleaded guilty this spring to bribing several state lawmakers and is cooperating with investigators. Allen supervised a major expansion of the elder Stevens’ home, which federal agents searched July 30.

Last fall, the investigation broadened to include the Alaskan fisheries industry. Ben Stevens disclosed in a letter to the Anchorage Daily News newspaper that records regarding the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board were among documents federal investigators seized during a search last year.

Trident’s Bundrant has been a longtime supporter of the elder Stevens. Bundrant and his family have contributed $17,300 since 1995 to Ted Stevens’ political campaigns and $10,800 to his leadership PAC. Bundrant also gave $55,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Trident General Counsel Joseph T. Plesha declined to comment on the investigation. Neither Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, nor his son, the former Alaska Senate president, has been charged with any wrongdoing.

“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome,” Ted Stevens said after his house was searched this week. “I will continue my policy of not commenting on this investigation until it has been concluded.”