Alaska Politics Blog : House Ethics Committee and Young

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Contributors

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

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Alaska political corruption

When the FBI raided state legislature offices in Aug. 2006, it publicly launched an investigation that ultimately reached the highest levels of Alaska politics, and continues to this day.

House Ethics Committee and Young

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: October 30, 2009 - 9:43 am

From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. --

All of Washington is abuzz today over a report in the Washington Post about a memo accidentally leaked by the House Ethics Committee. The July memo details how the committee's investigators "have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling," according to the Post. (The memo itself was mistakenly posted on a publicly accessible computer network, the Post reports.)

Now, this short article from the Post, concerning Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and the infamous Coconut Road earmark:

"The House ethics committee sought information from Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) regarding a $10 million earmark in his district that connects Coconut Road near Fort Myers to Interstate 75.

A document obtained by The Washington Post shows that the committee requested information from Mack and expected a response by Aug. 28.

The congressman said in a statement released Thursday by his office that the inquiry does not focus on him and that he had no involvement with the project.

"We've been told that we may be a witness to an investigation of others, but we are, of course, not the subject of any investigation," the statement said.