Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday that U.S. Rep. Don Young owes the public some answers for his campaign spending more than $850,000 on legal fees last year.

Palin's assertion came a day after Young, R-Alaska, defended the mounting legal fees while declining to elaborate on why he's retained the lawyers.

Young is the subject of a federal investigation that includes his campaign finance practices and for his ties with Veco Corp. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Still, Palin wants Young to shed more light on his legal expenses.

"I think residents of Alaska, voters who have elected him in the past, they are not only curious, but they are deserving of answers as to where campaign contributions are being spent," Palin said.

Young's campaign spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Now in her second year in office, Palin has never been afraid to take on the Republican Party's old guard. Last summer, the governor called on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens to offer the public more information on the federal probe he faces.

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating the remodeling of his Girdwood home, south of Anchorage. Palin received no satisfaction from Stevens, who has remained mum on the investigation based, he said, on his lawyers' advice.

Meanwhile, Young last month established a separate legal fund. He said Wednesday that he didn't know how much the fund has raised so far.

Young is running for re-election and has one Republican opponent, Alaska Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Kodiak, to face in the primary.

Should he win, Young would face the winner of the Democratic primary that features three candidates. They are: Ethan Berkowitz, former minority leader of the state House; Jake Metcalfe, former head of the state Democratic Party; and Diane Benson, who challenged Young in 2006 and received more than 40 percent of the vote.

While challengers mount their campaigns, Young defends his performance in Congress, where he has worked since 1973.

His work, too, has come into question.

Two months ago, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said he wanted an investigation into a disputed $10 million congressional earmark for an Interstate 75 interchange in southwest Florida.

Coburn is seeking a special committee to investigate the earmark in a 2005 transportation bill that provides money to connect Coconut Road to I-75 in Lee County near Fort Myers. The earmark was inserted into Young's bill, even though local lawmakers didn't ask for it.

Coburn wants a committee to look into how the language of the funding bill was changed after Congress voted on it and before the president signed it.

On more than one occasion Wednesday, Young defended his use of campaign funds.

"I have a right to spend my money as I think I should spend it," Young said, during an often testy exchange with the media about his expenses.

Palin never challenged his right to spend the money. However, she says state's voters should hear more from him.

"Personally, I would like to see more information not less," Palin said. "It's nearly a million dollars in defense, legal bills that are being paid right now."

ADVERTISEMENT