Anchorage Daily News

HOMER -- Sen. Ted Stevens got a campaign endorsement and a pat on the back from his old friend Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii during a low-key appearance at a wildlife refuge visitor center in Homer on Thursday.

"I'm here to tell the people of Alaska that I support him, that you're fortunate to have him," Inouye said.

Stevens and Inouye, the ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee, are traveling together in Alaska through the weekend. Inouye, a frequent visitor to Alaska, was honored by the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage Wednesday.

The two senators said they are headed to Kodiak today and Fairbanks on Saturday. With Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, they cut a ribbon at a new Alaska Railroad whistle stop in the Chugach Mountains south of Portage Thursday before flying to the southern Kenai Peninsula.

In Homer, the reception was friendly, as it has been elsewhere on Stevens' recess trip.

Stevens and Inouye defended the practice of earmarking funds for specific projects in the federal budget, saying it had long been necessary to allow their remote home states to catch up with the rest of the country.

In Hawaii, Inouye said, a town the size of Homer, with an area population of about 10,000, would never have such a grand facility as the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center. The senators spoke in the $18 million facility for an hour with about 100 people.

Thanked by Homer Mayor Jim Hornaday for the many buildings constructed with federal funds, Stevens said, "Every one of these came from an earmark. None of them was requested by the president."

While the national criticism of earmarks could hurt Alaska, Stevens said, the corruption investigation has not limited his effectiveness. In answer to a local reporter, Stevens said only one member of Congress had objected, while many others had come up to him and offered support.

"It's not a problem," he said.

Inouye deemed national press coverage of the Stevens investigation "overkill," citing repeated mentions of the recent FBI search of his friend's Girdwood home.

"It should be reported. It's news. But good God," Inouye said.

ADVERTISEMENT