Disclosure forms Young filed this week with the Federal Election Commission show the 19-term congressman spent $54,793 from his campaign account on lawyers during the past three months.
Young's chief of staff, Pamela Day, said the bulk of those expenses went to pay his $46,042 in reported debt to the Washington, D.C., law firm of Tobin, O'Connor, Ewing and Richard. "It's no new action, just old debt that was paid," she said.
Young is left with $123,037 in the bank just over a year before the election. That compares with the almost $1.5 million he had at this point in his last campaign for Congress.
Since early 2007, Young has spent $1.2 million from his campaign fund on legal bills connected to federal investigations of his fundraising and other matters. He also has spent an additional $73,415 on lawyers out of a separate legal expense fund he created last year.
Young has declined to discuss details of the legal issues, other than to say he's done nothing wrong and is frustrated they have dragged on for so long. Day said she's not involved in the legal matters and does not know exactly what the bills are for.
Young brought in a total of $86,725 in contributions the past three months. The period included his big annual fundraiser, featuring former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and held at the home of former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield. He spent $93,264 during the same period, on campaign expenses as well as the legal fees.
Former state legislator Andrew Halcro said he plans to file by the end of the month to challenge Young in next summer's Republican primary. Halcro said Young's numbers do not look good.
"If you raise 86 grand, spend 93, and 55 of that is for legal fees, that tells me you've got some problems," Halcro said.
Harry Crawford, a Democratic state representative running against Young for Congress, said his treasurer is working on his Federal Election Commission disclosure forms and he'll be filing them by tonight's deadline.
"We've just started on the fundraising, and it's going to reflect that," Crawford said. "I don't know how much we raised but it's somewhere in the neighborhood, I think, of $25,000."
He said he's had virtually no campaign expenses to this point. "I haven't had any legal expenses, if that's what you're asking," Crawford said.
Day said it is always tough to raise money in a non-election year and this has been a difficult time for Young, whose wife died in early August.
But she said people have been supportive of Young and that she's pleased with the recent fundraising. "He's committed to the race. He believes he can win it and is running to win. That's the only way he knows how to do it," she said.
Sean Cockerham reported from Anchorage and Erika Bolstad from Washington. Find them on our Alaska Politics blog: adn.com/alaskapolitics.
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