Campaign Funds for Alaskan; Road Aid to Florida

[Blue_In_AK]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 6 — It is no secret that campaign contributions sometimes lead to lucrative official favors. Rarely, though, are the tradeoffs quite as obvious as in the twisted case of Coconut Road.

The $10 million earmark would help extend Coconut Road.
The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska.

<snip>

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county.

<snip>

Mr. Young’s role, first reported by The Naples Daily News, has escalated objections to the project. Environmentalists say the interchange would threaten wetlands. And a Republican commissioner of Lee County, Ray Judah, is campaigning against the interchange, calling it an example of Congressional corruption that is “a cancer on the federal government.”

<snip>



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/washington/07earmark.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

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And the allegations of corruption keep piling up against Dear Don. I hope they nail that bastard.

[maddezmom]

1. K&R

posted this earlier in E&O. How do they continue to get away with this crap? :banghead:

[maddezmom]

2. kicking for one more rec

This is an important story :D

[maddezmom]

6. looks like we got it Blue_in_AK

:cheers:

[Greyskye]

3. K & R

:kick:

[seafan]

4. This is just the latest political crony payback by the GOP criminal enterprise.

Campaign Funds for Alaskan; Road Aid to Florida

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
June 7, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 6 — It is no secret that campaign contributions sometimes lead to lucrative official favors. Rarely, though, are the tradeoffs quite as obvious as in the twisted case of Coconut Road.
The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska.

Mr. Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so-called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island, Alaska, has no constituents in Florida.

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county.

The Coconut Road money is a boon, however, to Daniel J. Aronoff, a real estate developer who helped raise $40,000 for Mr. Young at the nearby Hyatt Coconut Point hotel days before he introduced the measure.
Mr. Aronoff owns as much as 4,000 acres along Coconut Road. The $10 million in federal money would pay for the first steps to connect the road to Interstate 75, multiplying the value of Mr. Aronoff’s land.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment.

.....

Join us at the hog trough, boys!


And Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is involved in the same kind of shenanigans, working with his GOP cronies, in a deal to secretly inflate the value of land he owns near Orlando, FL, by building *a new road* that just happens to near his property.


And let's don't forget Denny Hastert, doing the same thing, when he was House Speaker, as he pushed for federal funding for *building new roads* that were conveniently very close to his land, thereby hugely inflating its value.



People, it's time to fire up the racketeering charges. Our democracy and our rule of law are on life support.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. What I find interesting about this

is that the people of Florida don't want this road, just like most of the people in Alaska don't want the stupid bridges. It pisses me off personally that Don Young and Ted Stevens pushed so hard for that bridge money, thus leaving people in the other states thinking that we're all a bunch of greedy bastards up here. The bridge money was meant purely to enrich cronies.

I guess it's what these guys do best.

Things are looking up here, though. Our new governor, although Republican, ran as a reformer and so far she's kicking ass. The VECO revelations and the downfall of Bill Allen and the indicted legislators seem to have made it more safe to take on the big guys, Ted and Don. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of this.

[pacalo]

5. Open & shut case -- wow.

Even Young knows it; when a reporter approached him near the House floor, he gave an "obscene gesture".

Are these corruption investigations getting much airplay on the news in Alaska, Blue?

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Oh, yes...

The corruption (and stupidity) allegations against Don Young are legendary here, they just keep accumulating. There is a long-running feud between Young and the Anchorage Daily News (which he oh-so-cleverly refers to as the "Anchorage Daily Worker") and they never miss an opportunity to pile on. My guess is they're really loving this. This article was front and center this morning.